Services – Berteau Consulting

With over 15 years in the progressive movement and legislative arena, Berteau Consulting specializes in building winning campaigns and coalitions for elections and legislative efforts. Specifically, we have significant experience in campaign management and consulting, developing grassroots political support, building out and managing diverse policy and political coalitions, local and state lobbying, public policy development and analysis, and regulatory tracking.

Below are some examples of the experience Berteau Consulting brings to your team.

political advocacy

15 years in campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels, including two stints on Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, has allowed Zach to work at every level of Democratic campaigns, from being a field organizer, developing and managing a campaign’s budget and political programs, and advising on dozens of states in conjunction within the wider labor and progressive movement. Berteau Consulting specializes in helping campaigns build out their infrastructure, develop field and grassroots programs, implement political engagement efforts, and budget construction and management.

Political Director for Local 881 UFCW

For five years, Zach led, developed, and implemented a robust political program for a 35,000 member union in conjunction with the growing progressive movement. Engaging and advising on races from village and township trustees, the City Council and Mayor of Chicago, Cook County State’s Attorney, Congressional, and Gubernatorial and US Senate races both in Illinois and Indiana, Zach helped advance the Local’s and union movement’s political priorities in every corner of Illinois with widespread recognition for providing valuable political, campaign structure, and coalition advice and support. He managed annual PAC contributions topping $1 million for federal, state, and local giving, while raising over $200,000 for a state independent PAC on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars for endorsed campaigns. Zach authored and placed on the 2018 Cook Countywide ballot two referendums on paid sick leave and minimum wage laws that both passed with over 75% of the vote while raising and deploying strategic political spending and programming that quickly led to multiple towns and villages opting back into the County’s sick leave and minimum wage laws.

Frerichs for Illinois

Zach managed the third closest statewide race in Illinois history, flipping a GOP held seat in 2014, a historically difficult year for Democrats in Illinois and nationally. In doing so, he successfully managed a $3 million budget, coordinated a full team of campaign consultants and engaged grassroots and grasstop leaders across the state on the way to helping elect a downstate Democrat overperforming the top of the ticket by over 1.5%. Due to the closeness of the race, it took a full two weeks post-election to count all ballots which required over 300 volunteers and attorneys to monitor the vote counting process across 108 election jurisdictions. Zach led that effort and coordinated the press and political engagement in the same period. He later went on to serve as Senior Advisor to the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer.

Campaign Training

Zach has trained hundreds of candidates and staff through his associations with the Illinois Democratic County Chairs Association, The Arena Academy, Men4Choice, and the National Democratic Training Committee. His expertise is campaign budgeting, staff management training, political outreach program development, and coalition expansion particularly around the wider progressive and Labor movements. This is something that he devotes time to every year to ensure that the progressive movement has a diverse and well trained bench of candidates and campaign staff at the local, state, and national level.

public affairs

While serving in the Labor movement, Zach directed legislative, coalition, and political engagement on behalf of 35,000 members in IL and IN at the local, state, and federal levels. That included setting up major city and statewide coalitions that locked in long term policy and organizing gains for membership and the progressive movement.

Cannabis

Forward Illinois

Zach Co-founded and led the first of it’s kind Illinois Cannabis Unions Coalition to advocate for Labor in the cannabis industry after ensuring the state cannabis law provided for labor standing in awarding various cannabis licenses. This coalition brought together over 225,000 union members into the cannabis industry in a nationally precedent setting approach to a new sector for organizing, advocacy, and representation. As a result, this led to a majority of licenses for dispensaries, craft grows, infusion/processing, and transportation signing Labor Peace Agreements leading to increased industry union representation in Illinois and the first successful union elections and contracts in Illinois’ cannabis industry.

Illinois is one of the most Democratic states in the country and is one of the few that doesn’t have a “progressive table” helping coordinate legislative and political priorities across the movement. Together, with unions, non-profits, and advocacy organizations, Zach helped form the Forward Illinois Coalition coming out of the 2018 elections and put forward a bold and intersectional legislative program that saw significant advancement in the 2019 legislative session. Heading into the 2020 elections, Forward Illinois made large coordinated investments in statehouse races that were not being prioritized by the Party and helped re-elect a progressive champion. Going forward, Forward Illinois is one of the few entities in Illinois that brings leading progressive organizations and institutions together on a regular basis to help advance shared goals.

Forward Illinois

legislative & regulatory strategy

For over six years, Zach led complex and wide ranging efforts to shape the legislative process at the local, state, and federal levels. Zach’s experience in public policy includes working for a constitutional statewide officeholder, and on behalf of a 35,000 member union who had policy priorities that both strengthened collective bargaining positions and long term policy priorities. He’s been at the center of reforms and initiatives to improve the well-being of the state and its workers. Here are some of the policy campaigns that Zach has assisted with his legislative advocacy efforts.

Chicago Fair Workweek Coalition

Zach founded and led the Chicago Fair Workweek Coalition to pass the nation’s most progressive scheduling law. Over dozens of negotiation sessions with elected officials, industry associations, Labor, and worker advocates, the policy moved towards passage over 2.5 years. Zach coordinated and led 50+ one-on-one meetings with Aldermen and Mayoral staff, dozens of community group and forum hearings, testified and coordinated hundreds individual public testimonies at City Council committees. Eventually, after raising and spending over $200,000 in targeted digital public advocacy and hundreds of direct mail pieces, Chicago’s City Council unanimously passed a wide ranging secure scheduling law. With Zach’s leadership, the FWW Coalition coordinated with multiple local partners and organizations alongside national funders and foundations that helped provide peer reviewed academic studies, worker grant making for grassroots organizing, and wrote and reviewed multiple versions of a complex City ordinance.

Minimum Wage

In 2019, Zach co-led Organized Labor’s successful efforts to pass $15/hr minimum wage law in Illinois and Chicago leading to raises for millions of workers and some significant advancements around taking on the discriminatory practice of youth minimum wage by eliminating it in Chicago’s wage ordinance.

Paid Sick Days

Since 2016, Zach has led Organized Labor’s efforts to enact paid sick day laws in Illinois. To date, that’s secured paid sick days for 900,000 workers in Chicago and Cook County through first of it’s kind laws in Illinois. Statewide, Zach co-led the Paid Sick Days Coalition’s efforts to enact the same benefits for over 1 million Illinois workers outside of Cook County. This has led to hundreds of lobbying meetings and presentations across Illinois to trade groups, advocacy organizations, and elected officials alongside multiple policy negotiations with legislative sponsors and business trade associations.