Democrats want voters to see Mike McGavick as a former insurance industry lobbyist in thrall to Big Oil.

McGavick, though, calls himself an environmentalist – just one who is also pro-development, believes the Endangered Species Act is broken and supports drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Christine Todd Whitman, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, lauded McGavick’s green stance at a Thursday speech in Gig Harbor. A clean environment is needed for a strong economy and vice versa, Whitman said.

“But you are not going to have it if you have people who are just going to knee-jerk react to everything and won’t look at the broader picture. … Mike looks at the whole picture,” said Whitman, a Republican who is also the former governor of New Jersey.

McGavick is trying to unseat Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, who is a champion among the state’s environmental groups. So he’s not liable to get the green activist vote. But some environmental credibility is widely considered a prerequisite for winning this state, and McGavick says he has it.

Following his appearance with Whitman at the Gig Harbor Republican Club, the pair went to tour the Hylebos Creek salmon restoration project in Fife and Federal Way.

McGavick, in an interview, said he disagrees with Bush on many environmental issues. McGavick said global warming is real and more needs to be done about it. He suggested pursuing alternative energy sources and higher vehicle fuel economy standards.

But McGavick, in his speech to the Gig Harbor Republicans, criticized Cantwell for her prominent role in the U.S. Senate’s refusal to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

She is entitled to vote against ANWR drilling, he said. But McGavick said Cantwell should not have personally led the fight on an issue so important to Alaska, a state that has long and close ties to Washington.

“That was a mistake, because it turned neighbor against neighbor,” McGavick said.

McGavick said Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was angered by the move and proposed a bill that would lead to more oil tanker traffic in Puget Sound. Cantwell had a press conference and threatened a filibuster, McGavick said, while he went to talk to Stevens face-to-face and persuaded him to drop it.

Democrats charged that was just a political sham rigged up between McGavick and Stevens – who had threatened to get back at Cantwell for ANWR and later hosted an Alaska fundraiser to benefit McGavick’s campaign.

But McGavick said it is just an example of how civility can get things done in the U.S. Senate.

“That was not your incumbent United States senator protecting Puget Sound, that was your next United States senator,” McGavick said, to cheers from the Gig Harbor crowd.

The former Safeco chief executive’s campaign appearance with Whitman underscores his campaign’s bid to solidify his credentials as a moderate.

Whitman, who was Bush’s EPA chief from 2001 to 2003, has been at odds with party right-wingers.

She wrote a bestselling book called “It’s my Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America.” It talks of moving the party back to the political center. She said that both sides of environmental debates too often simply dismiss one another’s arguments out of hand.

“You need to take a look, and Mike is the type of person who understands that,” she said.