Sharing About Your Campaign Season Activities

Brett, have you heard of any CCLers writing candidate questionnaires to ask candidates to fill out so they can be publicly shared? It might be part of a candidate meeting, or without any meeting at all.

I'm wondering how many candidates would fill it out or whether a disparity in the answers could be perceived as CCL favoring one candidate versus another candidate. This came up at a statewide GL meeting and I had never thought of it.

Great question Michael Collins‍! I'm copying Amy Bennett‍ in case there's anything I missed, but in general the Campaign Season Activities training recommends steering away from compiling candidate questionnaires (See more below) for the reasons you mention and leaving that to other organizations in the climate movement.

We are steering away from asking candidates (who are not currently in office) to support H.R.763. If Democrats make H.R.763 a campaign priority, they will be pulled to use it as a wedge against their opponents, which will make it harder after the election to build bipartisan support for the bill. Republicans are unlikely to support it publicly because they don’t yet see enough support in their party to make it something they would want to campaign on, and may perceive that it is safer to publicly oppose it.

So this election season we aren’t suggesting going to candidates, including presidential candidates, to start educating them on the bill. Instead, when you interact with them, you can encourage them toward general support for carbon pricing, and toward working across the aisle so that something can actually get passed. You can tell them why you are concerned, personal stories of how climate change is impacting you, people you love, or your community and how much you want them to commit to real solutions to the problem. Once the election is over, you’ll start or continue educating the winners on the specifics of our bill. 

This same advice applies to asking questions at town halls or forums. We want candidates, especially on the right, to know that the public and members of their party want action on climate. Phrase your question in the language of their party and make sure to appeal to and educate the audience. For example, you might talk about risk management when you are talking to Republican audiences. As above, share a bit of your personal story and ask them to commit to enacting solutions to the problem. 

Hello Brett and Michael,
I agree with what Brett posted.  Candidates like to show how they are different from the others.  So to prevent this from becoming a wedge, we suggest the interaction you have is towards working across the aisle and general support for carbon pricing. 
Amy

Thanks Amy. This is very helpful.

Hi Everyone- Here we are again in campaign season…in 2022! A few of us volunteers in Oregon have a couple of questions related to what to ask candidates, and what to avoid: Our question is:

We understand and are clear that our outreach goal with candidates is to make it clear that we/constituents want climate action (to meet 2030 emissions goals) and inquire about their plans IN GENERAL?  

HOWEVER we are not clear on the following:

Are we also supposed to use the outreach to introduce the concept of carbon pricing and cashback dividends? Some of our members have a hard time letting go of this piece and we want to give them appropriate guidance.

Is the answer different for different contexts? For instance outreach/interaction done by the masses it could make most sense to limit the ask to climate action while outreach done by grasstops teams in face to face meetings with the candidates it could sense to delve into carbon pricing w dividends as an option. 

Help!

Hi @Daniela Brod 

For doing outreach during an event, please have a look at this resource, Town Hall & Candidate Forum Sample Questions. It suggests that you base your questions (and whether to mention CFD) based on the composition of the audience: progressive, conservative or politically mixed. 

Brett quoted a training, “We are steering away from asking candidates (who are not currently in office) to support H.R.763. ”

and Amy replied

Hello Brett and Michael,
I agree with what Brett posted.  Candidates like to show how they are different from the others.  So to prevent this from becoming a wedge, we suggest the interaction you have is towards working across the aisle and general support for carbon pricing. 
Amy

 

@amy amy  it seems that you are saying that “general support for carbon pricing” doesn't carry the  risk of becoming a wedge issue as candidates “show how they are different from the others”  in the same way that support for CF&D or H.R. 2307 would. Am I getting that right?

Hi David, 

The info above is from 2020 so lots has changed!  

Please watch the new CCU next Thursday eve Feb 24 with Jenn and Brett on Campaign Season Activities.  I believe the question to candidates will be far more general aimed at getting “climate action as a top priority” .

Oops--missed the time stamp on Brett's message. That's so last-year 😀

Hello all! If it's helpful, here's one additional follow-up beyond the trainings that Amy and Todd have linked to for your question Daniela for 2022 strategy, it's in the Developing Your Chapter Action Plan training:

How much should you talk about carbon fee and dividend right now? It is more strategic at this point in time to focus on public pressure for Biden to keep his pledge of 50% emissions reductions by 2030 than to tightly focus on carbon fee and dividend. Through our work we have developed carbon pricing champions, especially in the Senate, and in the House we have 95 co-sponsors on the Energy Innovation Act as of mid-February. By focusing on Biden's emissions pledge for the next 6 months you can create new partnerships in your community and more easily engage more people. Since modeling suggests that the only way to achieve that goal is with a carbon price, big broad frequent calls for climate action will generate the pressure that lets the carbon fee champions push for carbon pricing to be part of the package.

@Max Ghenis has done candidate questionnaires