About the Team
Gabe Elsner, Co-Director
Gabe Elsner is a public interest advocate based in Washington, D.C. For the past five years, he has worked with a variety of non-profit organizations to elevate the voice of ordinary people in policy debates. Gabe understands that citizens need to stand up for true American values to restore democracy and to overcome the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups.
Prior to joining the Checks & Balances Project, Gabe planned and implemented the first statewide campaign for the California Student Sustainability Coalition to defeat Proposition 23, a California proposition on the 2010 ballot funded by big oil companies. The Power Vote California effort mobilized tens of thousands of voters prior to Election Day around the message that energy companies should not be writing California’s public policy.
Gabe also trained and rallied college students on campuses across the country to have a voice on Capitol Hill. His organizing efforts around Power Shift 2007 and 2009 resulted in the largest citizen lobby days in U.S. history
He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley after writing a thesis on the energy security crisis of the early 1970s. In his free time, Gabe tends a “victory garden” in his front yard, providing a seasonal supply of fresh vegetables for the neighborhood.
Contact: gabe@checksandbalancesproject.org
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Matthew Garrington, Co-Director
Matt Garrington joined the Checks & Balances Project as the Deputy Director in March 2011, overseeing our western public lands energy program work. Over the last eleven years, Matt has been in western politics working to keep Colorado and the West a great place to live.
He started working on a grassroots campaign to protect our national forests in 1999, and later went on to be a campus organizer for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group. Matt worked on a successful 2002 campaign finance reform effort in Colorado. Between 2004 through 2005, Matt served as campaign manager, field director, and legislative aide for Colorado State Senate President Brandon Shaffer. Matt also directed the grassroots petition office for Environment Colorado’s Amendment 37 campaign, which was the first-ever citizen-passed renewable electricity standard, requiring 10 percent of Colorado’s energy to come from wind and solar power. Two years later, he would run a statewide field effort on a clean energy platform with labor and agricultural organizations to double Colorado’s use of renewable energy to 20 percent by 2020.
Matt also directed Environment Colorado’s preservation program, where he won successful campaigns to protect over 4 million acres of roadless areas in Colorado’s national forests and to protect our land, water, and communities from oil and gas drilling and uranium pollution.
Garrington grew up in Loveland, Colorado and received his B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Economics and Music Performance at the University of Colorado at Denver. Matt is also board member and past president of the Colorado music nonprofit, Creative Music Works, where he won the “2008 Performing Arts Mastermind Award” from Westword magazine.
Contact: matthew@checksandbalancesproject.org
