One can never be sure of the factors that contribute to election results but a new aggressive approach by a US ngo against five climate change deniers in the House of Representatives suggests that a decent advertising budget, social media, and, perhaps, a fortuitous storm may have contributed to costing four of the five their seats.

The League of Conservation Voters, a very well-established ngo set up by David Brower in 1969,  targeted with a $1.5million campaign in this year’s Congressional election what it called the “Flat Earth Five” climate change deniers. LCV targeted Rep. Dan Benishek (MI-01), Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-24), Rep. Dan Lungren (CA-07), Rep. Francisco Canseco (TX-23), and Rep. Joe Walsh (IL-08). All but Rep. Dan Benishek were defeated yesterday.

The LCV campaign may or may not have been the reason for the defeat of these four members of Congress but it would seem that it almost certainly did not help their re-election. The outcome of this campaign is likely to embolden environmental ngos to target other politicians and business leaders seen as climate change deniers. LCV states that, with its affiliated political committees, it spent nearly $14 million during the 2012 election cycle — more than the last three cycles combined — to defend clean energy and climate champions like President Obama and candidates for the House and Senate nationwide.

LCV is still targeting corporations including Microsoft, Comcast, and Pfizer that fund the Heartland Institute, a leading corporately-funded organization in the climate change denial movement.

Information about the LCV “Flat Earth Five” campaign is at http://www.lcv.org/elections/flat-earth-five/

The campaign to pressure corporations to de-fund the Heartland Institute is at  https://secure3.convio.net/lcv/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=865&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=c84rhheph2.app334b