Category: Strategy/plans

We’ve been having some very encouraging conversations in our latest round of phone banking. Our new script is very different from what we have used in the past because it is based on deep canvassing. It leads off with asking people about their opinions on the environment and climate solutions, and some people really want to talk about it! While callers still receive many of the usual responses such as wrong number, not home, voicemail and hangups, the conversations that we do have seem to be connecting emotionally with environmentalists who don’t typically vote.

Two of our phone banking volunteers share their recent experiences below:

“I had a few in-depth, heartfelt conversations while phone banking one night last week using our new script. One woman I talked to said she was uncomfortable about what seemed to her like “the weird shifting of the seasons.” She said she was also very frustrated that some people just don’t see it. After asking her to tell me more, she talked about how winters are so much shorter now and we shared our mutual sadness that snow is no longer practically guaranteed for Christmas anymore. One of her family members lives in northern Wisconsin, and they never even got their snowmobiles out last year. The snowmobile trails were not opened even once. She confirmed that family traditions were very important to her. She and I agreed that many things are very different now because of the weird weather caused by climate change. After we had talked, she was absolutely sure she would be voting. She thanked me for talking with her.”  – Jill Mitchler

“Using a deep-canvassing-inspired phone banking script and the polished call list, I had an incredibly fulfilling phone banking session last week with several deep conversations! With one caller, I shared my experience of wildfire smoke clouding my neighborhood, and they talked about how they knew people in California who were affected by other wildfires. We developed a shared understanding of our love for those we care about. The phone call comforted me. It affirmed my belief that there are others like me who want to talk about their deep-rooted feelings about climate change with people who want to understand, not debate. As a bonus, the caller I mentioned committed to go to the polls and even agreed to a text reminder! Thank you to all of the previous phone bankers who worked hard to clean up the call list and make my phone banking session a motivational experience.” – Jun Gesteland

We are phone banking twice a week through the end of October. Give it a try! In addition to having some inspiring discussions by telephone, we’re learning and practicing skills that can be used in our everyday, face-to-face conversations. Every phone banking session includes training.

Tuesday mornings – 10:00 to 11:30 am CT (if you don’t need training you can just come at 10:30 or whenever you want to start) Zoom Link:  https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86403066619? pwd=lrOXb1RSpeKoUj4BGEHaHc9ACh06VH.1 Meeting ID:  864 0306 6619   Passcode:  123

Thursday evenings – 6-7:45 pm CT Link:  https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/87024242304?pwd=OWKcfiUiaARQUE7MNcpr1f2GLPcceZ.1 Meeting ID:  870 2424 2304  Passcode:  123

Please consider joining us; we’d love to have your help. And if it’s out of your comfort zone, remember that’s where the magic happens!

The Wisconsin Climate Voter campaign is moving ahead to turn out thousands of environmental voters for the November 5th general election. We did a fantastic job of educating voters through our postcarding, phone banking and conversations leading up to the August primary, and we also helped defeat the constitutional amendments that would have slowed down our transition to clean energy in Wisconsin.

Here’s the plan for our work this fall as we head into the November election:

1. Postcarding! We will again mail 20,000 handwritten postcards to encourage low frequency voters to be sure to vote in November. Most of those are already distributed to people. the postcards must be put in the mail on October 15th. Email cclwisco@gmail.com if you or someone in your chapter would like to get involved. More info here.
2. Phone banking starts Thursday, September 19, 6-7:45 pm and will continue every Thursday night until the election. We would love to have more help with this. The interactive script will be more climate-focused and, as always, training is provided each week. In addition, we’ll hold a special training on our new script on Thursday September 12th. More info here.
3. Individual action by each of us to reach out to our personal and casual networks remains important.  You have many tools for doing that: email, postcards, social media, and personal conversations. You can get ideas and make a plan using our November Election Personal Worksheet. 
4. Join our new Zoom co-working sessions! Climate work is more fun when you have company, so bring your work to the zoom session and work alongside other people. You can also get ideas or help while you’re there. We’re holding them twice a week in September and October (on Tuesday and Saturday mornings from 9:30-10:30 am). Learn more about it on our website post. 
5. Stay up-to-date on our plans, and get everything you need at our campaign website page:  https://cclwi.org/wisconsin-climate-voter-campaign/ or in the CCLWI calendar.  

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our Climate Voter Campaign. Your work has made a difference! Hundreds of us have taken action both big and small and it adds up on election day.

TAKE ACTION: Spend half an hour learning about what you’ll be voting on in the August 13th primary using the resources below, and then share that with every climate voter you know.

It’s always easy to overlook a primary election, especially since the media seems primarily focused on the presidential race. Many people aren’t even sure what things would be on their ballot for the August 13th election. 

Along with getting yourself up to speed on the primary, you can play an important role by actively working to educate the climate voters around you about the election and serving as a resource to them. I’ve already discovered through my own conversations that even people who are politically active often don’t know as much as they need to about the primary. 

The August election is when we help the political party of our choice determine which national and state legislative candidates will face off against the chosen candidates of other parties in the November 5th general election. We have open primaries in Wisconsin, which means you don’t have to register for a political party to vote, you simply choose which party’s slate of candidates you wish to vote for. You can’t vote for candidates from more than one party.

There are also two amendments on the August 13th ballot that Wisconsin CCL opposes. If a majority of voters vote yes, those amendments will become part of the constitution, and be very hard to undo (details further down). They are the only amendments that will be on the ballot. 

The August 13th primary is called the Partisan Primary to distinguish it from the non-partisan elections Wisconsin holds in February and April where we vote for non-partisan elected positions (city, county, school board, judges) and the executive branch (governor, lieutenant governor). In April we also voted for a presidential candidate from the party of our choice. Wisconsin Constitutional amendments can appear on any state election ballot once they’ve passed through the legislature twice.

The races on the ballot in August are for one of your two US Senators (Tammy Baldwin is the incumbent), your US Representative, your Wisconsin Senator, and your Wisconsin Assembly representative. In more than two-thirds of the races there is only one person running from their party. Why vote in that case? Because if you like that candidate, a strong showing for them in the primary helps build their momentum for the general election. And of course, if you have more than one candidate running from your political party of choice, then this is an important opportunity to support the one that is better on climate change or other issues that matter to you. 

Vote NO on the constitutional amendments. One of the most important reasons to vote in the primary is to help defeat two very problematic constitutional amendments. These two amendments each would hamstring the governor’s office from accepting any federal funds by requiring the legislature to give permission first. Think about the growing number of climate disasters that are taking place. The governor would have to get permission from the legislative branch in order to receive federal disaster relief money. The amendments would apply to all federal programs, including Inflation Reduction Act programs, health care, infrastructure. Wisconsin Citizens’ Climate Lobby opposes these amendments, along with the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Education Association Council, Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments & Boards, Wisconsin Conservation Voters, Wisconsin Public Health Association, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and many state environmental groups.  

Candidate resources for you and your friends: 

• After June 28th you and your friends/family can see what races will be on your ballot by entering your address at myvote.wi.gov.  
• You can also easily see who is running in every Wisconsin Senate and Assembly race on two maps created by the Wisconsin Examiner.
• You can see who is running for US Senate and Congress at ballotpedia.org
• You can research candidates by googling for their campaign webpages or Facebook pages. 

Constitutional amendment resources for you and your friends:

• League of Women Voters Vote NO toolkit
• Ballotpedia.org for a neutral stance description of each amendment. Amendment 1. Amendment 2.
• Coming soon on our cclwi.org website for templates you can use to communicate with your friends about the amendments.

Voting Logistics (e.g. registration, absentee voting, polling places, etc.)

• myvote.wi.gov is the official Wisconsin voting site and you can register or apply for absentee voting right on the site in many cases. It’s the single best resource for making sure you are ready to vote and setting up your preferred way you’ll vote.  
• Additional resources and information (including rides to the polls!) are offered by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

Please take time to pay attention to the August 13th Primary election. If you are going to be on vacation then, make plans for how you will vote early or absentee.

And start asking every climate voter you know about their plans to vote. Here’s how I usually start those conversations: “I’m so concerned about this election that I’ve been spending lots of time on it. I’ve been asking everyone I know if they are voting in the August 13th primary, and it’s been interesting talking with people about it. How about you? Are you planning to vote on August 13th?” If they don’t know about the primary, it gets them asking. And it gets them talking about the election.

Let’s all work to elect candidates who are strong on climate!

Wisconsin’s ability to take advantage of the federal climate funding which CCL worked so hard to pass in 2022 is deeply threatened by two constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot August 13th. 

You may remember our action alert in February, when the state legislature was voting on the proposals. We polled all our groups and determined that Wisconsin CCL opposed the amendments. Unfortunately the language passed and will be on the ballot as two amendments. We originally thought it would not be on the ballot until November, however we now know that it’s on the August 13th primary ballot. 

These amendments would shift control over federal funds received by the state from the Governor to the State Legislature. Currently under state law receiving and spending federal money is delegated to the executive branch. The amendments would require legislative approval, which would hugely slow down or even eliminate our access to federal funds. This could affect all kinds of programs, including emergency assistance, health care, transportation, criminal justice–and the environment. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act provides massive federal funding for clean energy development, green jobs, and climate resilience.  The proposed amendments could severely jeopardize Wisconsin’s timely access to those funds and our transition to a clean energy economy.

You can read the wording of the ballot amendment questions on our website, and find lots of resources there. Please be sure to vote No on both amendments and tell everyone you know to vote NO in the primary on August 13th.

With all the discord surrounding our politics these days we know that there are lots of environmental supporters who need some extra inspiration and support to vote. Through conversation and personal networking, we can reach many people who are otherwise going to be missed by the campaigns. In a state like Wisconsin every vote counts, so our individual outreach can make a big difference to the outcome.

The plan: 3 workshops, followed by ongoing support on Zoom. These meetings are open to everyone who wants to learn this approach to “relational organizing.” We encourage you to find a buddy or two who wants to do this with you, if possible.  And as a bonus, the techniques you’ll learn will be helpful in many parts of your life.

We will learn tested techniques that help us listen with compassionate curiosity and help people activate their own values and reasons for being an environmental voter. Brandyn Keating, CEO of YOUnify, has years of experience with voter engagement and deep canvassing. She will lead us through three workshops on Zoom. They will be recorded and posted on cclwi.org, however you’ll get the most benefit by attending in person if you can.

• Workshop #1, Thursday March 28th, 7 pm: Mapping your Social Networks. Learn how to identify the people in your life that you want to have conversations with about being an environmental voter. There are more of them than you might realize! Then get the basics about how to start those conversations and keep them productive using the BRAVE technique. Begin to make your plan for your courageous voter conversations.

• Workshop #2, Wednesday April 10th, 7 pm: Effective Conversations Using the BRAVE Technique. Learn and practice skills that help you listen well and activate people’s own stories that motivate them to be an environmental voter. Leave with a plan for how you will start having your courageous voter conversations.

• Workshop #3, Thursday April 25th, 7 pm: Extending and Debriefing our First Courageous Voter Conversations. Share your experience of having your first conversations, learn from others, and get your questions answered as you plan your next steps.

On-going support on Zoom: Tentatively planned for every other Thursday at 6 pm:  May 9, May 23, June 6, June 20, July 11, July 25, Aug 8. (If that time doesn’t work well, we might move it.) It’s easy to lose sight of our intentions to have these conversations, or to get stuck when we hit a road bump. Madeleine Para will lead most of these Zoom meetings so that we can stay connected as we try things, and keep ourselves on track to meet our personal goals.

Vote August 13th and Celebrate soon after! All our teams will come together (date TBD) on Zoom to celebrate what we accomplished with our conversations, postcarding and phone banking to turn out environmental voters in the Wisconsin August 13th primary. Then we’ll lay out our plans for the November general election!