This study group will examine the growing impact of environmental groups, issues and
campaigns on politics and policy. It will place special emphasis on the politics of 2008,
when environmental issues – especially global warming and energy policy (e.g., energy
independence and sustainable energy) – are likely to play a bigger role than ever before in
national elections. Participants will learn about the nuts and bolts of how environmental
organizations plan and carry out successful campaigns and longer term strategies to build
power. Participants will also consider the larger implications and future potential of these
activities.

This study group will be valuable for persons who care about protecting the environment
and also for those who care about successful campaigning in a world in which
environmental issues and groups are becoming increasingly more important in elections.
It will also build understanding of how to translate a wider range of issues into successful
strategies for action.

Study group leader David Zwick has been a ground breaking expert in grassroots politics
and organizing and a national environmental leader for more than three decades. He is the
founder and former President of Clean Water Action, a million-member national
organization whose political programs he continues to advise. He wrote Water Wasteland,
a 1972 book that shaped the federal Clean Water Act, and spearheaded the coalition that
pushed for its passage. He also coauthored the best-selling Who Runs Congress?

A primary focus for Zwick’s work has been helping people-based groups – including
environmental, community, and labor organizations – become more effective
campaigners. He is the Treasurer of America Votes, a coalition of national organizations
that coordinates and provides support for its member groups’ work on election
campaigns. He is also the founder of Citizens Campaigns, Inc.(CCI) whose mission is
teaching and assisting citizens organizations to be effective in politics. He has been
involved with grassroots campaign work in more than a hundred election contests each
two year cycle since the early 1980s.

Preview of Study Group Sessions (Some dates, subjects, and/or guest speakers may
change to take advantage of speakers’ schedules, developing current events, and
students’ interest. )

February 12:Introduction and Overview

Zwick will summarize study group goals and preview the
role of sessions. This session will include a quick history of how environmental groups’
electoral strategies and capacities developed since the early 1970s and an introduction to
the main organizational players. It will provide an overview of how these groups operate
in politics and campaigns and how these approaches and capacities compare to those of
candidates, parties, and other groups. The session will discuss how electoral programs,
issue-focused campaigns, and organizing to build groups’ capacity can be integrated and
will identify questions to address later in the study group.

February 19 : National Politics and Issues of 2008

This session will identify key upcoming races for
Congress with high stakes for the environmental movement and will discuss
environmental groups’ priorities and plans for these races. It will spotlight the
Presidential race – how candidates stack up on environmental issues, the role these issues
could play in the contest, and strategies for improving the environmental performance of
future occupants of the White House. The session will discuss the relevance and role of
environmental issues and messages in 2008 (especially energy and climate change issues)
and will look at group strategies – what has been, will be, and could be done.

Guest Speaker: Gene Karpinski, President, League of Conservation Voters, the
national political arm of the environmental movement, which includes state leagues in
many states.

February 26: State Level Strategies for Change

This session will examine how state-level campaigns –
electoral and policy – play a key part in bringing about national change. It will look at
several state examples with a focus on past progress and future plans for state level
solutions to the climate crisis in New England, especially Massachusetts.

Guest Speakers: Rob Garrity, Massachusetts Climate Action Network and Cindy
Luppi, Clean Water Action Alliance of Massachusetts, leading campaign strategists
and coordinators in Massachusetts and New England.

March 4: Voter Registration, Education, and Participation – Non Partisan Approaches and
Groups

Millions of voters will be registered, educated, and turned out in 2008 with
nonpartisan approaches by nonprofit groups. The future potential is much greater. This
session examines nonpartisan voter registration, education, and mobilization activities,
their scope, and leading practitioners;how these approaches and the groups leading them
relate (legally, strategically, etc.) to partisan strategies for expanding voter participation;
and the future potential of these activities and groups for changing politics and policies.

Guest Speakers: Mark Ritchie, Secretary of State of Minnesota. Ritchie, elected in
2006, is a national leader among a new generation of reform-minded secretaries of state.
He earlier formed and headed National Voice and its “November 2" Project, the network
of nonprofit groups that registered and turned more than 5 million voters in 2004. Ritchie
was founder and President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a national
organization focusing on agriculture, trade, and environmental policies. Also invited as a
guest is George Pillsbury of the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network.

March 11: How Environmental Issues Play With Voters

This session will examine the changing
picture of how the electorate, and different parts of the electorate, view environmental
and related issues and how that relates to their voting behavior. It will identify the role of
different research tools in helping to answer these questions.and what opinion research
and actual campaign experience tell us about them. The session will look at how different
issues, messages and messengers play with different groups of voters – different parts of
the electorate; how media-related campaign efforts compare to direct voter contact in
communicating with voters; and how understanding of voters’ perspectives can shape
successful strategies.

Guest Speakers (invited): Stan Greenberg or Al Quinlan of Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner
Research, Mark Mellman of The Mellman Group, leading practitioners of opinion
research and strategy development that informs campaigning by environmental
organizations and candidates.

April 1: Learning from Experience

This session puts the spotlight on case studies – examples of
successful campaign work by environmental groups in an important contest, to enable
study group participants to examine how campaign concepts, strategies, and tools apply in
practice. One example for group focus is the successful 2006 campaign to defeat U.S.
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) from California’s Central Valley – widely known as the
most anti-environmental Member of Congress.

Guest Speakers: Cathy Duvall, National Political Director, Sierra Club, veteran of
more than twenty years of organizing and campaigning, including work as Field Director
for Richard Gephardt’s presidential bid, the Democratic National Campaign Committee
and America Votes. Also invited is U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerny (D-CA), who replaced
Pombo in Congress.

April 8: Building Broader Alliances

This session explores why and how, in recent years,
environmental organizations have helped organize and play a leading role in broader
election coalitions involving a wide range of groups. It will take a close look at America
Votes, a coalition of environmental, community, labor, women’s, and other groups
formed in 2003. The session will discuss players and practices, with special emphasis on
the how-to of planning and managing campaigns, what results they can achieve, plans for
2008, and future potential and implications of broader alliances
.

Guest Speakers (invited): Former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX), President of
America Votes; Greg Speed, Executive Director, America Votes; and/or Carl Pope,
Executive Director of Sierra Club and Chair of America Votes. Also invited may be
representatives of America Votes and partner organizations from New England states
such as New Hampshire.

April 15: Moving Forward

David Zwick will lead a discussion that ties together what has been
learned in the study group. The session will examine campaign planning for 2008 and
beyond, which comes more alive when looking closely at what can be done in a small
number of specific places. It will explore what we have observed about current strengths
and limitations of environmental groups’ election campaign capacities and strategies and
about their future potential for impact on politics and policies. It will identify needs and
opportunities for environmental campaigning and ways that students and others can get
involved – as volunteers, interns, and in short or longer term jobs.