Inspired Media

Alicia Leinberger

The words – uttered on public radio the fall of 2015 – stopped Alicia Leinberger in her tracks.

They also changed the trajectory of her life.

“A Bernie Sanders supporter was talking about how the campaign was all about creating a political revolution,” recalls Leinberger, founder of Ethos Green Power, a renewable energy business in Viroqua, Wisconsin. “When she said that, I was like, ‘Wait! What?! Someone actually said that out loud?’ Those words set me on fire.”

Leinberger immediately threw herself into the local Sanders campaign, joining a couple dozen other tireless supporters who canvassed door-to-door in Viroqua to educate voters about the Vermont Senator’s platform. Their efforts met with success last April, when Sanders tallied more votes than rival Hillary Clinton both in Viroqua and statewide in the Wisconsin primary.

“It felt great,” says Leinberger, who attended the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July as a Sanders delegate. “But then my thoughts turned to, ‘Now what?’”

She didn’t have to ponder that question very long. Soon members of the local Democratic Party were knocking on her door, asking if she would run for the 96th District Seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Leinberger, a single mom who has never held elected office, carefully considered their pitch, consulting both her parents and her daughters (Maiela, 13, and Zirelia, 11) before announcing her candidacy in May.

If elected this November, she will take her seat in early January, when the assembly convenes for the 2017–18 legislative session. Leinberger sounds poised to hit the ground running in Madison, where her responsibilities would involve working on Wisconsin’s state budget and other legislative matters, serving on standing committees, and, of course, handling constituent matters back home.

“Win or lose, I hope my daughters learn that nothing can stop them but themselves,” she says of her decision to run for office. “I hope they learn that if they have an opportunity they really want to pursue, they should let nothing hold them back.”

Leinberger has lived her life by that credo. A native of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, she moved to El Salvador with the Peace Corps in 1994 to teach sustainable agriculture to coffee farmers after earning a degree in conservation biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Three years later, Leinberger returned to Madison to advance the fair trade movement in the Midwest. She worked first with coffee farmers, then with dairy farmers, before cofounding Seventh Generation Energy Systems – which promoted renewable, clean energy – in 2002.

In 2007 Leinberger moved to Viroqua, lured by the fresh water, clean air, and overall beauty of the Driftless Region, as well as her desire to enroll her daughters in Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School. Three years ago, she opened the doors of Ethos Green Power, a small business that offers opportunities to buy, build, and sell green power. “The two best ways to effect positive change are through business and through politics,” says Leinberger. “I don’t have a problem taking a risk if I believe in something.”

Certainly entering politics at a time when many Americans feel disenfranchised from the political process could be considered a risky proposition. But Leinberger has been inspired by “learning what the people of the 96th District hold most dear” and hopes she gets the opportunity to communicate what she has learned when the assembly convenes in Madison next January.

“I’ve always had a strong belief in the democratic process, in putting the best parts of ourselves – and the best interests of the people – first,” she says. “The only way to make the process work better is to participate.”

How can I change the world?

How many of us have ever pondered that question, only to become paralyzed by the next question that (almost) inevitably follows: Can I really change the world?

Mahatma Gandhi – he of the world-changing peaceful protest – most certainly thought so.

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing,” Gandhi once said, “would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”

There are countless ways to effect positive change, of course – and you don’t have to be Gandhi to do them! Organizing a neighborhood get-together, for example, or donating your time to your favorite non-profit, or, just maybe – running for political office, be it on the local or state level. With the first Tuesday in November just around the corner, the timing seemed right to ask five of the Driftless Region’s own residents why they choose politics as a way to change their communities (for the better!).

Those residents include two former Iowa House members – John Beard, now a Winneshiek County supervisor, and Chuck Gipp, currently Iowa DNR director – and two longtime activists mounting their first political careers, Kurt Friese, an Iowa City restaurateur and writer, and Alicia Leinberger, a Viroqua, Wisconsin, green-energy advocate. We also spoke with Sarah Schroeder, mayor of Spring Grove, Minnesota, who will seek reelection for her seat this November.

While all five took very different paths to the political arena, they share the same can-do philosophy. “If you want to something to change, you can’t be afraid to get out and do it yourself, at whatever level is appropriate,” Friese aptly puts it. “Don’t count on someone else to do it.”

In other words, as Gandhi also once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

It’s a message these four leaders have clearly taken to heart. Read each of their stories below to learn more!

Sarah Schroeder

Alicia Leinberger

Chuck Gipp

John Beard

Bio: Sara Friedl-Putnam wishes to thank all the good people in the Driftless Region whose desire to make their communities better places to live, work, and play has inspired them to run for elected office.

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Inspire(d)’s Aryn Henning Nichols encourages you to vote, friends! Read her note here!

P.S. Inspire(d) doesn’t endorse specific candidates, but we do endorse getting involved like these folks do and have done! XOX -Aryn

 

Sarah Schroeder

The debate was heated, and, as it turned out, not easily forgotten.

“I felt that the admission prices being proposed for the town’s new swim center were outrageously high,” says Sarah Schroeder of her tenacious verbal sparring with the Spring Grove, Minnesota, city administrator during a 2006 city council meeting. “And I didn’t keep my opinion to myself.”

The moment passed, the admission prices were set, and that was that – or so Schroeder thought.

“The city administrator remembered that encounter and later suggested I consider running for elected office,” she says. “I remember first laughing and then thinking, well…maybe I should.”

The seed planted, Schroeder went on to mount a successful campaign for city council that same year, knocking on doors, passing out flyers, and sharing her ideas with all who took time to listen, including patrons of her mother’s local beauty salon. “I didn’t know much about city government, but I cared very deeply about the future of Spring Grove,” she says of her motivation for entering the political arena. “It was an interesting four years serving on the council, and I learned a lot.”

In January 2015, Schroeder took the oath of office once again, this time as mayor of this thriving small (population 1,300) town. Her responsibilities include presiding over council meetings, serving on various council subcommittees, helping guide the town through emergency situations (as she did when the town received a hoax bomb threat in late July 2016), and, of course, casting votes on city matters.

Her overriding philosophy? “I believe it’s city government’s responsibility to facilitate the betterment of the town,” she says, noting that contention over the city’s extensive, multi-million-dollar Main Street renovation project (now complete) was one of the reasons she decided to get back into local politics. “It’s about not obstructing groups that are working to make the town a better place to live, work, and visit.”

A self-described “joiner, doer, get-involved type of person,” Schroeder recalls engaging her parents in political discussions while she was just in grade school. By high school, she had found another outlet for her love of debate, discussion, and the democratic process – serving on the board of Ye Olde Opera House. “I was young, but I really enjoyed the dynamic of people sharing ideas, agreeing, disagreeing, and ultimately deciding things together,” she says. “It was really fun for me.”

The same holds true today – and that’s a good thing. Schroeder, who works in audio-visual media at Gundersen Lutheran in La Crosse, jokes that “when there is a fifth Tuesday in the month” is the only time she has a week without meetings. In addition to (still!) serving on the opera house board, she also sits on the town’s economic development authority, planning and zoning commission, and fireman’s relief association board.

As she looks optimistically toward reelection this fall, Schroeder says she feels energized by the importance of the work that local citizens have entrusted to her and her fellow council members. “Local government impacts everybody’s daily lives – it’s responsible for the water you drink, the streets you drive on, the parks you play in, the sidewalks you don’t trip over because they have been maintained,” she says. “Very few citizens of Spring Grove want to complain – most are just grateful we care enough to take the time to serve.”

Read more about other folks getting involved here!