2004 Election Report:
Hints of Silver Shine Through Dark Clouds
Despite the outcome of the presidential election and the loss of two state legislative champions, Sierra Club can point to several major successes as a result of its unprecedented efforts on behalf of endorsed candidates. The strong support we were able to deliver to environmental champions of both parties led to some important victories this year, and provides momentum going forward for future victories.
Here is an overview of the Sierra Club’s participation in election campaigns at various levels.
Presidential Race
Sierra Club volunteers responded in droves to calls to help defeat President Bush in primarily two ways – traveling to Wisconsin and other swing states to participate in the Sierra Club Votes door-to-door program, or by phoning swing state voters from phonebanks or home in Illinois. Hundreds joined in.
U.S. Senate Race
Now that Barack Obama is one of the country’s up and coming stars, it is hard to believe that when Sierra Club endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. Senate he was running fourth in the polls. During the primary we launched an effort to call each of our members across the state to inform them of our endorsement and Obama’s record, at a time when few voters had heard his name or his story. The rest is history, but Sierra Club’s help came at a critical time. As Senator-elect Obama said:
“I want to thank the Sierra Club for its invaluable efforts to stop the Bush Administration’s environmental policies; and I want to thank you for your efforts on my behalf during the primary campaign. Your work made a tremendous difference in our campaign. Thanks to your early and strong endorsement, we were able to get my record and message on the environment to hundreds of thousands of Illinois voters. Your members delivered countless hours of phone banking, precinct walking and other essential grassroots activities. Your financial support helped us build a campaign that could communicate statewide.”
U.S. Congress
The election of Melissa Bean was another piece of good news Illinois gave progressives nationwide on election night. Sierra Club’s efforts to elect Bean go back to the 2002 campaign, and were capped with a strong and coordinated volunteer effort by volunteers with the Northwest Cook Group and the Woods & Wetlands Group. Bean’s campaign featured a strong emphasis on Crane’s abysmal environmental record. All incumbent Congressmen endorsed by the Club won re-election.
Illinois General Assembly
Our Illinois Victory 2004 campaign was an unprecedented, exciting project for the Illinois Chapter, representing a significant step up in the Club’s political position. We raised and spent approximately $22,000 - over four times what we spent in the 2002 general election. Nearly all of these funds were spent on in-kind contributions on behalf of our endorsed candidates in the most competitive races. Our contributions took two forms. For three campaigns, we hired temporary Campaign Organizers to inform voters of our endorsement and the environmental records of our candidates. In six races, we produced attractive, informative mail pieces about the environmental records of the candidates that we sent to targeted groups of swing voters. In these close races, incumbents Beth Coulson (R-Glenview), Kathy Ryg (D-Vernon Hills), and Naomi Jakobsson (D-Champaign) all won re-election. Unfortunately, incumbent environmental champions Ricca Slone (D-Peoria) and Pat Welch (D-Peru) were defeated in close races. Sharyn Elman (D-Gurnee), who challenged incumbent Bob Churchill, came up just short, with 47% of the vote in a strongly Republican district.
We will need our old and new friends more than ever to protect what we can at the federal level and continue to make progress here in Illinois.