Tulsa World - The Green Machine

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Tulsa World - The Green Machine

Andrew Rice was a young college student the last time a Democrat garnered more than 40 percent of the vote in an Oklahoma U.S. Senate race.

That's an inconvenient truth for the Democratic first-term state senator from Oklahoma City but apparently not an insurmountable one, claims Rice, 35, who's running for the seat held by Republican veteran U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe, 74.

While Rice is not quixotic he admits that if he gets the Democratic nomination the race will be an uphill battle against a better-known opponent whose middle name is Mountain. If Rice has any hope of winning he's going to need a lean green fighting machine — lean because at this point Inhofe has a campaign war chest filled with Big Oil's largess, and Rice has a piggy bank filled mainly with $25 contributions from individuals. While Rice is proud of the more than $1 million his campaign's amassed, Inhofe has twice that amount.

"You need a certain amount but when you hit that threshold, and if you run an aggressive campaign and have an authentic message you don't have to match dollar for dollar," Rice said by phone last week from a train on the East Coast where he was fact-finding and fund-raising. He points out that in 2006 several incumbent U.S. senators lost to candidates with far less money but with a message that resonated with voters.

Recently, several national publications including the New Republic profiled Rice, and what it is like to run a "green" campaign in a red state. His stands on environmental issues are front and center in his campaign. They contrast starkly with those of Inhofe, who in a jaw-dropper five years ago proclaimed that man-made global warming was "the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people since the separation of church and state."

Rice believes global warming — he uses the term climate change — is real with direct implications. "We trust scientists to take care of our children, to cure them when they're sick. Why doesn't Inhofe trust scientists" to tell it like it is on climate control? "Instead, he says they lie to get grant money."

State farmers and sportsmen are witnesses, Rice contends, to the impact of global warming on their crops and wildlife habitat. A National Wildlife Federation poll showed that an overwhelming majority of hunters and fishermen agree with the scientific community's consensus that global warming is accelerated by man-made carbon emissions, and that it already is eroding the U.S. quality of life, Rice said. After surviving a severe drought one year and flooding the next, an Oklahoma farmer told him: "I don't know what's going on — but something's going on."

Rice sees energy independence as an issue of national security. That security is sacred to him. He lost his older brother to terrorism on 9/11 in New York. Afterward, Rice committed himself to public service. He's also committed to Oklahoma's leadership role in producing alternative energy sources including wind (farms) and biofuels that could bring the state jobs and give people relief at the pump.

"We should have been doing this 10 years ago, but instead our leaders have been protecting the status quo. We are already seeing alternative-energy initiatives in Oklahoma. I will pursue economic incentives that will keep us at the forefront of a rapidly changing energy economy."

All Rice's stands are not green. Health care for all veterans, insurance for cancer victims involved in clinical trials, food security, fuel-efficient state vehicles and schools, are but a few of the issues he's tackled in the state Legislature.

Rice maintains that he's undaunted by Inhofe's political experience.

"He has experience I don't want. He's rigid. I'm not finding a lot of people who like that. I've got policies which, if they come together, would move us forward and reshape the economy. ...He's taken us into the ditch. I think my lack of experience would be of benefit in this situation. People are tired of the bickering and pettiness. I'll walk across the aisle to be bipartisan."

A Harvard University Divinity School graduate who did missionary work in Southeast Asia, Rice is counting on support from a variety of sources including conservative evangelicals with their commitment to "creation care," the belief they have a Biblically-inspired duty to be good stewards of a world God created.

Rice hopes a backlash to Inhofe's policies and pronouncements over the past 14 years will capture voters who don't care about a candidate's party as long as he or she can offer rational solutions to problems.

Did I mention that Rice is an optimist?

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