WASHINGTON — One of the country’s biggest unions is teaming up with a bold-faced name in the environmental community to try to drum up votes this year in the battleground states of Colorado, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The Service Employees International Union and , founder of NextGen Climate, announced Friday that the two groups would spend a combined $10 million in the three states for voter registration and other get-out-the-vote efforts ahead of November’s election. They hinted other states could be added later.
No specific candidates would be targeted, but Steyer said the overall campaign is intended to help Democrats defeat Republicans. “What we’re trying to do is an old-fashioned voter engagement effort more than anything else,” he said.
Organizers said part of the operation would focus on turning out minority voters — notably black and Latino communities in the metropolitan Denver area. They did not reveal how the $10 million investment would be divided among Colorado, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“In those states, our investment is going to allow us to reach hundreds of thousands of voters with at least three conversations, two of which will be face-to-face, one-on-one conversations and (they) will be augmented by digital engagements as well,” said SEIU chief in a conference call with reporters.
“We’re going to have paid organizers and paid canvassers but we’re uniting with tens of thousands of member volunteers and activists (in) key states who are fired up to win in November,” she added.
The new effort recalls a similar canvassing campaign that Steyer that was designed to help then-U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., keep his seat against then-U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner; Gardner out of 2 million cast that year — a result Colorado Republicans have not forgotten.
“Tom Steyer is a hypocritical California billionaire who seems yet again intent on wasting millions of outside dollars on losing Democrat campaigns in Colorado,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House in a statement. “His anti-resource development agenda fell flat among Coloradans in 2014, and we have no doubt fair-minded voters will reject his extremist job killing policies again.”