STATEMENT: Environmentalists for Manski
As environmental professionals, activists and authors, we know how important it is to have strong allies in our state legislature. Wisconsin – and particularly Assembly District 77 -- has provided environmental leadership in the past, and we can in the future, if we make the right choices in November's election. We can think of no stronger leader on environmental issues for the Wisconsin Assembly than Ben Manski.
Ben Manski has been dedicated to fighting for the environment his entire life. Manski became active in the environmental movement while growing up on the near west side of Madison. In the early 1990s, Ben fought multinational logging corporations in the Pacific Northwest, supported farm workers in their struggles against pesticide spraying, and organized efforts to reduce wasteful consumption.
Manski returned to Madison a few years later, where he worked for Greenpeace and Wisconsin's Environmental Decade, and campaigned for farm preservation and against rampant road building. In particular, Manski traveled Wisconsin as a leader in the campaign against Exxon’s proposed mine near Crandon. He worked tirelessly to pass a mining moratorium law that has protected Wisconsin’s valuable natural resources ever since.
Last year, Manski organized Future Cities 2009, a conference dedicated to stimulating municipal efforts for clean, renewable energy, energy conservation and greener transportation. On Earth Day, 2010, he launched, with his wife Sarah, PosiPair.com, an award-winning website that brings transparency to the green economy and combats corporate greenwashing.
Ben Manski combines the courage and integrity to take on the big environmental battles with the organizational smarts needed to win, making for a potent combination in a legislative advocate.
In contrast, Manski’s opponent, Brett Hulsey, recently took $192,000 from Alliant Energy to lobby for a coal-burning power plant that would have polluted our air and contributed to climate change -- a project the environmental community worked tirelessly to oppose. Hulsey also was hired to lobby for interest groups that opposed the Clean Energy Jobs Act, working to weaken a bill that would have reduced global warming emissions and promoted renewable energy.
In this election, there is a clear choice between a candidate with a strong track record of fighting for the environment and one that has bowed to special interests. We strongly endorse Ben Manski for the State Assembly.
All organizations for I.D. purposes, only:
Peg Lautenschlager, former Attorney General, State of Wisconsin
John Stauber, co-author, Toxic Sludge is Good for You
Kerry Schumann, Executive Director, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Satya Rhodes-Conway, Center on Wisconsin Strategy
Ryan Schryver, Grassroots Energy Organizer, Clean Wisconsin
Jennifer Giegerich, Capitol Liaison, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Al Matano, Dane County Board of Supervisors
Matt Dannenburg, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary, Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
James Irwin, Wisconsin Energy Efficiency (We2)
Margaret E. Vieira
Denny Caneff, Wisconsin River Alliance
Angela West Blank, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Jill DeWitt, Focus the Nation
John E. Peck, Family Farm Defenders
Amanda White, Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin
Nelson Eisman, Friends of Lake View Woods
Robbie Webber, former Madison Alderperson
Anne Sayers, Program Director, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Karen Bassler, Superior Nonprofits, LLC
Brian Pruka, restoration ecologist
Jack Kloppenburg, REAP Food Group
Hiroshi and Arlene Kanno, Concerned Citizens of Newport
Kabzuag Vaj, Executive Director, Freedom, Inc.
Joseph Syverson, Systems Manager, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters
Maria Powell, Executive Director, Madison Environmental Justice Organization
Diane Farsetta, Executive Director, WI Network for Peace and Justice
Katie Nekola, Energy Program Director, Clean Wisconsin
. . . with more to come . . .
