November 25, 2018
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to say this just a couple of months ago, but now I can: The elections in California had a wonderful outcome for the environment.
Everyone we endorsed for statewide races won--and at least one was running against an outright climate-change denier. Likewise, most of our endorsed legislative candidates won, and those that didn’t were in admittedly uphill battles against incumbents.
Then there are the races for seats in Congress. I am so happy to report that not a single climate-change-denying, Trump-backing member of the House of Representatives from Orange County will be going back to Washington. Each is replaced by a Sierra Club-backed candidate.
Across the state, Sierra Club members canvassed in campaigns and were an important and valuable part of the grassroots swarm that helped push out the climate-change deniers and keep in or bring in the candidates that are good on environmental issues.
It’s tempting, now, for all of us who spent weekends and evenings on campaigns, to step back and rest. But I know from emails I’ve received and conversations I’ve had that a lot of folks realize getting people elected is just the first step to getting good policy for the environment.
The next step is making sure you stay in touch so they know what Sierra Club members want them to do and what positions we want them to take on legislation and other policy issues.
In January, the California legislature begins a new two-year session. There are going to be lots of opportunities for elected officials to vote the right way on legislation. But we have to help them identify what that right vote is.
One of the most effective ways is to talk to legislators in their home district. That’s where you come in.
In the past, we’ve found that the most valuable thing our volunteers can do is organize into small groups to visit their legislators or their legislators’ staff in their district offices and share how we would like them to vote on key bills.
In some chapters, there are really active political committees that just naturally do regular meetings with local electeds in their district offices. But that isn’t true all across the state.
We want to help make those in-district meetings more common.
If you would like to be one of the volunteers in your community who teams up to meet with legislators in your district, sign up here. After you sign up, you’ll be invited to a conference call in January where we’ll provide training for in-district meetings with legislators. You’ll receive written information about how to do those meetings, too.
People are often telling me they’d like to become more involved in state-level issues. Talking to legislators when they’re in their home district is one way to do that, and we’ll train you so you can do it with confidence and have fun.
So, again, sign up here and our organizers, Daniel and Molly, will be in touch with more information soon.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Phillips
Director
Sierra Club California is the Sacramento-based legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 California chapters of the Sierra Club.
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