The St. Petersburg Times reports that U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), recently sent out a mailer listing his efforts to lower gas prices and use environmentally friendly, domestic sources of energy.

Since he didn’t mention that he’s up for re-election this November, he was, according to House ethics rules, able to use taxpayer dollars to send his piece of junk mail to more than 600,000 constituents.

University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus noted, though, that in economic down times, voters tend to cast a jaundiced eye at such uses of public funds: “When people get stressed in their own pocketbooks, they expect government to do so too, and they watch government spending more,” MacManus said.

One problem with Putnam’s piece of junk mail is it’s junk, the second is that it touts his environmental leadership and the third problem is that he”leads” by padding his resume, not by example:

The mailer lists 13 points under headings that declare he’s working to “promote renewable energy” and “encourage energy efficiency.” It states that he supports researching clean energy sources, using environmentally safe energy to reduce carbon-based emissions, and building nuclear power plants.

In reality, however, Putnam’ playing fast and loose with the facts:

The League of Conservation Voters gave him Putnam five out of 100 points on its 2007 environmental scorecard. The low score came from his votes on 20 issues. He got negative marks for everything except his vote against offshore drilling.

Another group, the Republicans for Environmental Protection, analyzed 15 votes and gave Putnam 13 out of 100 on the 2007 congressional scorecard.

In three recent House votes on energy- or environment-related bills, Putnam voted against the environmentalists’ positions 66 percent of the time:

• On the Udall Amendment that would require 15 percent of retail electricity sales to be generated from specific renewable resources, Putnam voted no.
• On an amendment would have removed a nonbinding expression of Congress’ opinion in the bill that supported mandatory policies for reducing greenhouse gases, Putnam voted no.
• The only one he got right was a no against drilling for oil off Florida’s coast at 25 miles or farther, but his reasons were that the bill gave Florida no control or participation in the decision.

Let’s review: Putnam prints and mails a chunk of tree to more than a half-million people that lies about his environmental track record. Sounds like he’s right on track for re-election.