Betsy Johnson was a single mother with a full-time job. When she joined the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club in 1996, she could only guess at what made a campaign successful and had no idea how to endorse a candidate who would secure environmental health.
Yet before she knew it, Johnson found herself Political Chair of the Maryland Chapter, mastering the political process and playing an integral role in helping environment-friendly candidates get elected to office. In 2014, 82 percent of Maryland Chapter-endorsed candidates won the primary election, and 80 percent of the chapter-endorsed candidates won in the general election.
“Things just escalated quickly for me. It was funny, since I started knowing almost nothing about political coordinating,” Johnson said. “That’s sort of how it works at the Sierra Club. If you have time to give, they’ll let you make the most of that time.”
Johnson now plays a major role in Maryland politics. With every two- and four-year election, Johnson and her team pull together a questionnaire for every candidate from local councils to senators and governors. Using that questionnaire, Johnson’s team, along with the Maryland League of Conservation Voters and Clean Water Action, interviews the candidates for a read on their environmental commitments. From there, the chapter makes its public endorsements.
Johnson said the endorsements can get contentious.
“There are lots of factions and lots of clashing personalities, as with all politics,” Johnson said. “But Maryland candidates really seek our endorsement. It’s very rewarding to see.”
But Johnson has no doubt about the importance of political action in the Sierra Club’s overall mission.
“Political work is absolutely key,” she said. “If we don’t have people in office to support us, then, of course, we won’t get anything solved.”
Johnson sees hard work to come in the future. Fracking, emissions standards, and “scary” trade deals (about which she published an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun) are on her docket of focus issues. Locally, she works to find positive legislators for clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay, which she said “has really gone to the dogs. It requires so much to reverse that kind of damage to a waterway.”
“However, we are getting some good legislation passed, and it’s because we’ve elected good people who will focus on it,” she said.
Besides her environmental work, Johnson enjoys travelling with her daughter, tending her organic vegetable garden, and enhancing her National Wildlife Federation-certified wildlife garden. But throughout her life, Johnson said she has loved working with the Sierra Club, and is very flattered to receive the 2015 Susan Miller chapter service award.
“The Sierra Club is great about giving people responsibility. I always tell people who are worried about retirement not to worry, just volunteer with the Club,” Johnson said. “They make you feel important and impactful, and you can make your work with the Club as exciting as you want.”
The Susan Miller Award is given in honor of outstanding administrative service to the chapters. Miller (1940-2011) was a Sierra Club staff member and volunteer who worked on environmental issues for the State of Hawaii. Past winners have included Arthur Feinstein, a full-time volunteer with the San Francisco Bay chapter, and Bob Cates, historian for the Angeles chapter.