The Largest Number Of Scientists In Modern U.S. History Are Running For Office In 2018

This comes at a time when there’s only one Ph.D. scientist in Congress.

By Alexander C. Kaufman 02/03/2018 08:00 EST 
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/science-candidates_us_5a74fffde4b06ee97af2ae60

Demonstrators pack the Earth Day March for Science Rally on the National Mall on April 22, 2017.
More than 60 researchers and technologists are running for federal office in 2018 as part of a historic wave of candidates with science backgrounds launching campaigns.

At least 200 candidates with previous careers in science, technology, engineering and math announced bids for some of the nation’s roughly 7,000 state legislature seats as of Jan. 31, according to data that 314 Action, a political action committee, shared exclusively with HuffPost.

The group, which launched in 2014 to help scientists run for office, said it is talking with 500 more people and is pressing about half of them to run. An additional 200 such candidates are running for school boards.

“The sheer number is really astonishing,” 314 Action founder Shaughnessy Naughton told HuffPost. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

This is the largest number of scientists to run for public office in modern history. If any of them win, it could dramatically multiply the number of scientists in Congress beyond Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), the lone Ph.D. scientist, a physicist.

The surge in congressional bids comes as scientists are experiencing a fierce political backlash. A year into his first term, President Donald Trump has yet to name a science adviser and has proposed dramatically slashing research budgets across federal agencies. He openly mocks the widely accepted science behind global warming and has nominated ardent climate deniers to key environmental positions. Under Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, the White House has reversed regulations to reduce greenhouse gases and put new rules in place to give control of the agency’s science advisory boards to researchers paid by industries.

YURI GRIPAS / REUTERS
President Donald Trump has yet to name a science adviser, leading some to declare that Fox News is filling the position.
The so-called war on science is being waged in Congress, too. Under the leadership of Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a virulent climate change denier and fossil fuel ally, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has mounted repeated “witch hunts” to tarnish the credibility of scientists, leading some to call it the “House (anti)science panel.”

“The attacks on science, of course, didn’t start with the Trump administration, but it has been a catalyst to getting scientists out of the lab and into running for federal office,” Naughton said. “That is one bright spot.”

This weekend, 314 Action plans to announce its support for two new candidates running for the House of Representatives, bringing its total endorsements to 16.

The group is backing Brian Forde, a former senior technology adviser in the Obama administration, in his bid to unseat Rep. Mimi Walters. The Orange County Republican, who has served two terms from California’s 45th Congressional District, so routinely votes against climate change legislation that she has a paltry 4 percent lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters’ ranking.

“She’s voting for herself to rise up in leadership, she’s not voting for her constituents,” Forde, who led a climate data initiative under President Barack Obama, told HuffPost by phone Friday.

These are people that are genuinely outraged and concerned by the direction the country is going in, especially in this administration and this Congress.
Shaughnessy Naughton, 314 Action founder
“I grew up in this district. This is where I won the local science fair in fifth grade. This is where I learned how to code and build a computer,” he added. “This is one of the most highly educated districts in the country.”

314 Action is also endorsing Suneel Gupta, a systems architect and former executive at Mozilla and Groupon, who is running for Michigan’s 11th District seat. His campaign bills him as the “first tech candidate in the industrial Midwest.”

He’s running to replace Rep. David Trott, a Republican attorney nicknamed the “foreclosure king” because he used to own one of the state’s largest “foreclosure mill” law firms. Trott, who said he would not run for reelection this year, has a 4 percent lifetime League of Conservation Voters score, and the crop of Republicans running to succeed him don’t seem poised to improve on that. At a Republican debate held last month, all six candidates answered no when asked 59 minutes in if they believed “in manmade climate change.”

“This is what we’re up against,” Gupta told HuffPost, adding that he wants to bring “evidence-based policy solutions into Congress.” “We don’t have enough of that now, and we need it now more than ever.”

314 Action is working with roughly 20 other federal campaigns and plans to endorse up to 10 more candidates before the election cycle is over. The group raised $207,157 and spent $223,159 in 2016, according to data collated by the Center for Responsive Politics. But the group said it raised $2 million in 2017, and is on track to bring in $5 million to $7 million throughout this election cycle. 

“These are not people that envision themselves as politicians and build a résumé around that,” Naughton said. “These are people that are genuinely outraged and concerned by the direction the country is going in, especially in this administration and this Congress.”

“It seems that time has really come,” she added. “I find that really encouraging.”

This story was updated with 314 Action’s latest fundraising numbers. 

特朗普轻视科学惹众怒？美掀起科学家从政潮 2018科研人士竞选创纪录

Emma Chou • 2018-03-07 16:36:48 来源：前瞻网

      作为具有科学背景候选人历史浪潮的一部分，2018年有超过60名科研人员和技术人员参加联邦政府职位竞选。

据数据显示，候选人中至少有200名曾从事科学、技术、工程和数学工作，于1月31日宣布竞选美国全国约7,000个州议会议席。314 行动是一个政治行动委员会，独家分享资料给《赫芬顿邮报》。

314 行动组织于2014年成立，旨在帮助科学家竞选政府职位，并表示正在与另外500多人交谈，并促使其中大约一半的人参加竞选。另外200名这样的候选人正在竞选校董事会。

“这个数字真的很惊人。”314行动创始人肖恩尼·诺顿告诉《赫芬顿邮报》， “我们从未见过这样的事情。”

这是现代历史上科学家竞选公职人数最多的一年。如果他们中的任何人获胜，都将会使国会的科学家人数大大增加，而国会中比尔·福斯特(D-Ill.)是唯一的博士，科学家，物理学家。

随着科学家们经历激烈的政治反弹，国会出价的激增。 在第一个任期的第一年，唐纳德·特朗普总统尚未任命一位科学顾问，并提出大幅削减联邦机构的研究预算。 他公开嘲笑全球变暖背后广为接受的科学知识，并在关键环境职位提名气候变化否定者，还让美国退出了《巴黎气候协定》。在环境保护局局长斯科特·普鲁特的领导下，白宫已经改变了减少温室气体排放的规定，并出台了新的规定，以便将该机构的科学顾问委员会的控制权交给由行业支付的研究人员。

所谓的科学战也是在国会进行的。在众议员拉马尔·史密斯的领导下，科学，太空和科技方面的众议院委员会一再发动“政治迫害”，诋毁科学家的信誉，导致一些人称之为“众议院(反)科学小组”。

“对科学的攻击当然不是从特朗普政府开始的，但是它已经成为让科学家走出实验室并竞选联邦办公室的催化剂。”诺顿说，“这是一个重点。”

本周末，314行动计划宣布支持两名竞选众议员的新候选人，16人为其背书。

314行动正在支持奥巴马政府的前高级技术顾问布莱恩·福德(Brian Forde)，试图将众议员米米·沃尔特斯(Mimi Walters)赶下台。这位奥兰治县共和党人曾在加利福尼亚州第45届国会地区任职两届，经常投票反对气候变化立法，她在环保选民联盟的排名中只获得了4%的可怜分数。

“她在为自己的领导地位投票，她并不是为她的选民投票。”在奥巴马总统领导下开展气候数据倡议的福德周五告诉《赫芬顿邮报》。

“我在这个地区长大。这是我学习如何编写和构建计算机的地方。”他补充道。 “这是美国受教育程度最高的地区之一。”

314行动也支持Suneel Gupta，系统架构师兼Mozilla和Groupon的前执行官，他正在竞选密歇根州第11区的席位。他的竞选让他成为“中西部工业界的第一个技术候选人”。

314行动正在与其他大约20个联邦竞选组织合作，并计划在选举周期结束之前再支持多达10个候选人。根据响应政治中心整理的数据，该组织在2016年筹集了207,157美元，并花费了223,159美元。但该组织表示，它在2017年筹集了200万美元，并有望在整个选举周期内带来500万至700万美元的收入。

诺顿说：“这些人不是将自己想象成政治家，而是围绕这个概念为简历再添一笔。” “这些人真的非常愤怒，并且担心国家的发展方向，特别是在这界政府和国会的管理下。”

“看来时间真的到了。”她补充说，“我感到非常振奋人心。”