Straying from Wisconsin's proud conservationist tradition, Republican policymakers have used their super-gerrymander "minority majority" to cater to powerful interests that pollute Wisconsin's air and water. The GOP's abandonment of good natural resource stewardship—in Wisconsin and nationally—gives Democrats an chance to sway voters who haven't fully reckoned with Republicans' pro-polluter agenda.
In early 2017, I began building a statewide network of Party leaders to make that case, and we were constituted as a caucus within Wisconsin Democratic Party—with me as chair—at the 2018 state convention. At the next year's convention, the Caucus successfully pushed a party platform resolution calling on Democratic candidates at all levels to feature environmental issues prominently in their campaigns. Conscious of the assortment of issues across the state's different regions., we didn't specify particular issues to highlight. But first and foremost, we didn't want to merely impose a mandate on candidates. The Caucus is committed to being engaged with candidates, putting our heads together to help devise winning strategies and messages. See below to learn what our Caucus did during the 2020 election cycle, and what we're gearing up for 2024.
The Caucus' focus for the 2020 election cycle was on State Senate and Assembly races, particularly persuading rural voters in swing districts. During our Summer 2019 listening tour, local party leaders steered us to the issue of pollution from oversized industrial dairy and hog farms. GOP candidates In rural Wisconsin figure on preserving support simply by equating any anti-pollution measures with being “anti-farmer.” In response, the Environmental Caucus highlighted large-scale feeding operations that generate truly unmanageable levels of waste. We stressed the difference between such factory farms versus the traditional family farms that are so relatable for rural voters. As I put it in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal, “The real problem doesn’t come from the vast majority of dairy farms or hog farms. The bad actors hide behind the good ones.”
The discussions with party leaders in rural areas—described more fully in Kathleen Sullivan and my post for the rural affairs site the Daily Yonder—also served as an informal workshop on messaging. We looked for ways to expose mega-farms for what they are: bad corporate neighbors maximizing profits by pushing the burden of pollution onto the local community. A key piece of advice was to draw from the personal testimony of factory farm neighbors affected by polluted well water and unbearable smell. By pure luck videographer Eric Peterson, who helped me with my first city council campaign, had made several videos about the fight against factory farms. Eric's footage included several clips that matched our messaging strategy, and four of Eric’s subjects were willing to appear in a partisan political ad. Lynda Cochart of Lincoln, Wisconsin (pictured right) made the key point: struggling small farmers aren’t the source of the problem. Another lucky break came when the Wausau-based ad agency G. Morty & the Makers offered to edit the clips into two two-minute videos. The ads' tag line summed up our main pitch to voters: “Vote to send representatives to Madison to protect communities, not polluters.”
In July 2020, the caucus held a webinar for 17 Democratic candidates for the Wisconsin Legislature, with many of them affirming that the mega-farm pollution threat could indeed help their outreach to undecided voters. Then in the final months of the 2020 campaign, the Caucus leaders worked with G. Morty & the Makers on a digital advertising buy targeting two key State Senate races.
In 2024 the Caucus sees a new opportunity to help Democrats, including President Biden, win statewide this year. That's because our Party recently enacted a landmark package of climate actions. Given the unprecedented scale of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act's (IRA) climate provisions, It's clear as day that any voter concerned about the climate crisis should vote for Democrats. More to the point, it'll be clear when the Environmental Caucus tells Wisconsin voters about the climate action package. This means doing something Democrats don't always do very well: bragging about the positive difference we've made.
Combined together, the IRA climate actions amount to ten times more than any previous steps by the United States. They'll reduce carbon emissions by 40% below peak 2005 levels and put the US on track to meet our Paris Agreement commitments. The Environmental Caucus worked with WisDems staff to compile these and other IRA climate facts into a piece of lit (see right) to serve talking points. We're making a push to get Party activists across the state to learn them and pass them along. We believe that if enough Wisconsinites get familiar with—as President Biden called another historic achievement—the "big f***ing deal" of climate action, it will help Democrats win our crucial battleground state in November.
Copyright © 2024 David Shorr -- Policy Advocate & Evaluator - All Rights Reserved.
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