Why CLCV?

We focus on our mission.

At CLCV, we work to elect the best environmental leaders, keep them accountable, and implement strong environmental laws in California. Candidates know that our endorsement is the premier environmental endorsement in the state, because our endorsement process is so rigorous. (We routinely elect over 90% of the candidates that we endorse.) When we advocate for strong environmental laws, legislators and public officials take note of our nearly four decades of success and the more than 30,000 members that back our work.

We are effective and innovative.

CLCV is at the cutting edge of environmental protection. California leads the nation on the environment, and we lead California. We host events of statewide and national import (such as our 2003 and 2007 Presidential Environmental Forums and our Gubernatorial Forums), write letters of support and lobby for national and state legislation, coordinate an annual "Lobby Day" with dozens of other environmental groups (some of whom do not have a permanent presence in Sacramento), hold press conferences with prominent lawmakers from around the country, and fight for environmental justice, among many other things.

Our use of "pass-through" calls is representative of our innovative, effective approach to grassroots political action. When key legislators waver on critical environmental votes, we contact our members in their district during the day. After explaining the issue, we pass their call directly to the legislator's office and generate lightning-fast constituent feedback. Legislators take phone calls from their constituents very seriously; in recent years, we have used this method to help swing the balance on groundbreaking environmental bills (starting with the 2002 Global Warming bill). We have also successfully generated calls and letters in this way to sway Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on important appointments. We can do this because we have a staff of in-house membership representatives who are expertly familiar with our work.

We have a long track record of success.

Our political expertise translates into real results, because we know how to pick our battles and win. We've been instrumental in passing groundbreaking laws and propositions (and stopping bad propositions) such as: