Glenn Hurowitz, WILD PAC

Glenn Hurowitz is the associate director of WILD PAC, a political action committee that works to elect leaders at all levels of government who will champion protection of America's wilderness and public lands.

With just 10 months left until the presidential primaries, I've been researching and planning ways in which WILD PAC and the conservation community can shine a light on wilderness and public-lands protection during the presidential primaries. No doubt about it, any of the Democratic front-runners would be superior to President Bush. While many of them have led fights to protect wilderness in Congress, Bush has increased the amount of public land open to exploitation from 2.6 million to 4.1 million acres and has pushed to open for exploitation areas next to and in some of our nation's most treasured parks and monuments. That's hardly surprising, given the huge campaign donations from the oil, mining, and timber industries -- more than $80 million in the last two elections.

So how can WILD PAC help raise awareness of public lands and wilderness protection in the presidential election? First, the national media spotlight will be on the first primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa, as well as other early states such as South Carolina and Arizona. Candidates frequent these states to visit with voters at town meetings, diners, and county fairs. So we'll go to where the candidates are, whether it's a fancy dinner or a barbecue, and ask them to take strong positions on key wilderness issues of local and national importance -- both to highlight their positions and to raise their awareness of these issues. We'll knock on doors and call voters to let them know the records of the different candidates. And we'll make sure that the candidates' wilderness records -- and voters' concerns about these issues -- get into the media.

One state we're looking at very closely is Arizona. As the first western state to have a primary, it provides a great opportunity to discuss these issues; with many wild areas and lots of public land, wilderness issues are of great importance in this state. Arizona is also the home of Sen. John McCain (R), who understands what environmental activists can do to raise important issues. In 2000, environmental activists with Ozone Action followed McCain and the other presidential candidates around New Hampshire, asking them about their plans to stop global warming. Finally, McCain admitted that he didn't have a plan, but he promised to make one. When he got back to Washington, he held hearings on global warming and has since vastly improved his environmental voting record -- criticizing Bush for his inaction on global climate deterioration, sponsoring legislation with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to raise fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, and even voting to protect Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the devastating impact of oil drilling.

We hope that similar work on wilderness issues will lead to the selection of a pro-wilderness champion from the primary process to challenge Bush. We also hope that this work early in the presidential season pays off later in the general election -- when voters remember the positions that the candidates took in key states and use that information to decide how to cast their votes.