Climate change group aims to turn out 100,000 Iowa voters

College students and "drop-off voters" who don't often participate in midterm elections will be the prime targets for a get-out-the-vote effort kicking by an environmental political advocacy group.

NextGen Climate aims to identify and turnout more than 100,000 Iowa voters this year to support Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley in a mobilization campaign that begins in earnest today.

"We're focused on persuasion, turnout, and building a strong statewide organization to support pro-climate candidates through the Nov. 4 election and into 2015 and 2016," NextGen Iowa State Director Derek Eadon said in a statement.

The effort is the latest move by a group that has already invested heavily in the state with voter contacts and a series of TV spots and online ads attacking Republican candidate Joni Ernst.

NextGen's stated goal is to elect leaders who will address climate change and move the country toward alternative energy sources and away from reliance on fossil fuels.

The mobilization campaign will target Iowa's eight largest counties as well as college campuses with 12 field organizers and 12 campus-specific organizers working from eight field offices. The focus will be on students who are seen as more receptive to climate change as a political issue and Democratic voters who historically have been less reliable voters in non-presidential election years.

The effort will include door-knocking and phone calls as well as a presence at political events and the establishment of formal organizations on university campuses,group spokesman Dave Miranda said.

Such a mobilization effort will run alongside a major get-out-the-vote push from the Iowa Democratic Party and other independent political groups. The Republican Party of Iowa also is promising "the most robust ground game in Iowa GOP history," according to a spokesman.

NextGen will encourage voters to vote early via absentee ballot, a process that allows organizers to track the status of a ballot and follow-up with a voter until it's actually cast.

While NextGen says it's encouraging support for Braley, its advertising and activism in Iowa so far has focused on opposition to Ernst – accusing her of being too close to oil-and-gas interests and faulting her for philosophically opposing energy mandates like the renewable fuel standard for ethanol, which is seen as critical to Iowa's agriculture economy.

Ernst has said she supports ethanol and the current RFS. Republicans, in turn, have raised questions about NextGen President Tom Steyer's devotion to the corn-based fuel source, noting comments in Fortune Magazine in which he suggested ethanol may not be the most environmentally friendly of alternative fuels.