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"Sparkplugs" Help Ignite Pro-Environment Candidates in Colorado Elections
To impact the Colorado State Legislature, the Election Action Committee (EAC) has focused on one thing-training an army of volunteers to get pro-environment candidates elected in the 2002 elections. "Colorado's elections are critical to the balance of power, both federally and locally," states Kirpal Singh, chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter's EAC.
Since June, a steering committee of seven members, including Chapter Chair Greg Casini and Chapter Director Susan LeFever, have been working together to plan a grassroots political training session. At the August 24 training session, volunteers, dubbed "sparkplugs," learned how to tackle grassroots political tasks, such as: letter-to-the-editor campaigns, phone-banking, and literature drops. In September, they began coordinating other Sierra Club volunteers to get these tasks done.
The EAC steering committee carefully selected candidates in "tight" races, where the committee thought the Sierra Club could give the candidate the extra push needed to get elected. Twelve candidates from the state level were chosen. Once the candidates have been endorsed by the chapter political committee, sparkplugs go to work.
For information about starting an election action committee in your chapter, contact Susan LeFever at (303) 861-8819, or susan.lefever@rmc.sierraclub.org.
Editor's note: See how the 12 targeted candidates in Colorado fared in the next issue of The Planet!
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