Issue Group Watch: NextGen to Press GOPers on Climate Change

Calling whomever is elected President in 2016 the “last best shot to avoid a climate disaster for our children,” top strategists from NextGen Climate Action laid out plans to actively engage early in the presidential primary campaign. On a Monday conference call with reporters they announced the environmental issues they see as crucial to America’s future and pledged to press Republican presidential candidates on many of their views on science.

Specifically, they rolled out their “Hot Seat,” an over-arching campaign to hold Republican candidates accountable for their positions in the primary and engage voters in early voting states. NextGen says they plan to put Republicans “in the Hot Seat for their science denial and press them on their plans to address climate change for the next generation.”

NextGen’s advisers said they have a number of creative events lined up to highlight Republicans’ climate change denials and stances on clean and renewable energy. Tomorrow they plan on setting up a lie detector test to offer Rand Paul to take outside of his presidential campaign announcement in Kentucky. “We find it really hard to understand how someone who is a trained doctor, who has a medical degree, can take these positions that are against 97% of scientists,” Chris Lehane said on the call. He also mentioned they would follow Scott Walker on his upcoming European trip with actions to highlight his stance on climate change.

Lehane, NextGen’s chief strategist, said the overall mission was three-fold: 1. Make climate change a top-tier electoral issue; 2. Turn climate into a wedge issue that candidates must respond to or face fallout; and 3. Win with climate on the ballot now, as Lehane said scientists believe the window is quickly closing on the ability to make meaningful changes before irreversible damage is done to the world. “How do we stop this chain of events?” Lehane asked. “We need to rapidly transition to clean and low-carbon energy, and become energy independent from fossil fuels.”

The biggest impediment, he argued, is “those with a real economic self-interest that use their significant resources to, in effect, rig the political system to their benefit – we’re not taking the political action we need to protect our kids.” NextGen hopes to re-brand the Republican Party as the Koch Party, one paid for by big oil.

When it comes to the early states like Iowa, NextGen is looking to invest heavily in activating students on college campuses, highlight specific climate impacts on states like how extreme weather patterns affect farmers’ crops, engage voters interested in climate change issues, and run a heavy paid media program. NextGen was a major player in the 2014 midterm elections, backing Democratic candidates in a number of key Senate and gubernatorial races around the country. The national environmental group is financed by Tom Steyer, a billionaire former capital management executive who has turned to a focus on philanthropy and political action on climate change. “He will spend what it takes,” Lehane said on the call in response to a question of how much Steyer may invest in the 2016 race, though noted it still may not match what organizations backing the oil business may spend.

by Pat Rynard
Posted 4/6/15