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Steyer: Political Machine Focused on Turnout, Not Persuasion

Tom Steyer / AP

Tom Steyer isn’t bothering to convince Americans that global warming is a problem, he said on Tuesday. Instead, he’s focused on firing up environmentalists who share his radical anti-energy views.

The billionaire hedge fund manager told activists and donors at the American Renewable Energy Day summit this week that his Super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, is working primarily to turn out the base, local Fox affiliate KDVR reported:

"We tried to go into states where there is a big difference between the candidates," said Steyer, who explained that the 2014 strategy is more about turning out pro-environment voters than persuading swing voters to care more about the issue of climate change.

"A lot of people who support pro-environment candidates like Mark Udall are some of the likeliest drop-off voters. So we are focused not so much on TV ads but on the things that will be old-fashioned, 18th- century politics, trying to get local people to talk to local voters and citizens and why it’s important enough for them to get off the couch and go down to the polling place in the second Tuesday in November," Steyer said.

"This is much more about showing up than persuasion."