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The Levers of Political Will

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Building Political Will

Politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it.

What does this look like?

Political will is the clear demonstration of support back home- from citizens, business leaders, faith groups, and local officials
To be effective, it needs to be widespread & focused on specific steps Congress can take (i.e. supporting carbon fee & dividend)

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Slide 27

Speaker One:

We organize people by congressional districts, which we’ve found to be the most efficient way to meet with and demonstrate political will to Congress.

And through our decade of organizing, we have learned from many others about what creates political will and what does not.

Here’s why that’s important …

We only ask CCL volunteers to do things that we know will have a very good chance of demonstrating the will of the people.

We don’t ask people to sign online petitions. This is because members of Congress have told us that online petitions are not meaningful to them.

Instead, as you will see generating personalized letters, phone calls, emails, and social media to your member of Congress as well as as generating local and social media, bringing in influencers are all some of the most effective means for building support for climate action.

We take actions that we know will be successful in having members of Congress move in the direction of our legislation. (pause)

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Levers Of Political Will

Lobbying
Media relations
Grassroots outreach
Grasstops outreach
Chapter development

How citizens build political will

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Lobbying Lever

Become a liaison
Meet with Congress
Be a subject matter expert

Examples of what citizens can do:

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Media Lever

Be the point person for a media outlet
Write letters and op-eds
Social Media coverage
Meet with an editorial board
Radio and TV interviews

Example actions:

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Grassroots Outreach Lever

Tabling
Public speaking
Organizing events
Join Our Action Teams

Recruitment & Education Actions:

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Grasstops Outreach Lever

Identify community

leaders & meet with them

Seek endorsements
Educate leaders

Partnerships & Support Actions:

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Chapter Development Lever

Organize subcommittee monthly meetings
Chapter communications
Mentor new volunteers

Growth & Managing actions:

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SLIDE 33 Finally, the last lever for building political will is developing your local chapter.

Developing your chapter at the grassroots level -- in terms of both numbers and skills -- is what allows us to lobby more effectively, to generate more media and to do outreach.

Learning to develop and delegate within your chapter allows us to build more political will across all levers.

Some ways you could help here include:

· Help organize the monthly meetings

· Help with chapters communications (invitations via phone calls, emails, social media events)

· Also, inviting new people to your meetings or mentoring some of the newer members is always a huge contribution

There are so many ways to get involved. At first, we encourage you to do the things you’re most comfortable with, and then, as you gain confidence, we encourage you to push yourself into doing things that are outside of your comfort zone.

Speaker Two:

We haven’t gone through all of the opportunities for each of the levers in this lesson, but as a new volunteer, we encourage you talk with your group leader about where you feel like you’d like to offering your talents and energy and start jumping in.

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Levers In Review

Determine where you can contribute.
Five levers:

(1) Lobbying
(2) Media
(3) Grassroots outreach
(4) Grasstops outreach
(5) Chapter development

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Stuck Lever? Use Another One.

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Our Methodology

Respect and appreciation
Appeal to the BEST in others
Being for something

It’s All About Relationships

SLIDE 48:

Speaker Two: Thank you _____ .

Let’s put this all together. How does--showing respect and appreciation, looking for the best in others, being for something and finding common ground--help us build relationships?

Here’s a final powerful case study example of building a relationship with members of Congress that’s led to political will that’s been profiled in national media including a piece in the New York Times last summer.

Here’s a photo of Jay Butera. Jay has worked to address climate change for more than a decade and has been a volunteer with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby since 2012.

In 2013, he met Representative Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, whose district was experiencing the effects of global warming. Jay mentioned that he had a vision to create a bipartisan caucus in the House that would focus on climate solutions. Deutch liked the idea and agreed to work with him and the citizens’ lobby toward that goal.

Speaker One:

Jay started visiting offices on Capitol Hill in an effort to get Republicans and Democrats to sit together. At the time, it seemed a fool’s errand. “People would laugh and say, “ ‘Good luck with that.’ The word climate was unmentionable.

Jay and Deutch devised a two-by-two approach: The caucus would grow by twos, to keep equality of numbers between Republicans and Democrats. Many Democrats were interested. The question was: How to get Republicans to join?

Jay reasoned that the first movers were likely to come from Florida. “The coastal districts are mainly Republican and the coastline is threatened existentially by climate impacts,” he said.