Okay, so Tuesday’s installment of the Booman Tribune Electoral Politics Project…which was about generating the names of Our Progressive Elected Officials and then linking those names to issues from our Progressive Platform Planks…generated 33 elected officials. Viera Visionary’s XLS spreadsheet is a thing of beauty:
1 US Senator. 17 US Representatives. 2 Governors. 1 Mayor. and 12 Local elected officials…all linked to two core issues from our Progressive Platform.
To those who responded, I say thank you so much, great work. To those who haven’t yet, perhaps thinking that we’ve already named them all…I have to say, in all seriousness, you’ve got to be kidding me! There’s so many more names!
This weekend I hope we are going to hit at least 100…my goal is 250. If I have to repost on Sunday morning…and again on Sunday evening. So be it…I think we can do it!
Friends, I know that when you count local politics that there are easily 1000 Progressive elected officials here in the USA. And we’ve got one Mayor? Hmmm, I bet there’s one hundred. Dare I say that we can do better?
Now, in the last round I asked for five names apiece, no more than two to be “repeats” from elsewhere. Maybe that requirement intimidated people…maybe folks didn’t want to have to check the previous reponses. Fair enough.
This weekend that rule is OFF. List as many names as you want. Don’t worry about repeating them. (Viera Visionary’s database software will take care of that.) If you can make your list follow this format (name, office held, location, key issue tags), great! If you can add links, as booman did so that our fellow Bootribbers can LEARN about your officials, all the better.
We want State Representatives, local officials, Senators, Governors, anyone that YOU see as standing for a progressive issue. And yes, more than one Mayor would be a nice touch! Local is all to the good…no office is too “small”!
To help with the project, I’m going to list some tools you might use in your research, please feel free to mention more and I will link to them as well:
Progressive Punch. (A great resource for tracking national officials)
Politics 1 (A great State by State resource.).
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (Gold mine. Take a look.)
the Urban League Mayor profiles
People for the American Way Young Elected Officials Network
Progressive Democrats of America
And here’s a rough list of Tags you can use to give us a sense of your officials core issues. To those who had issues with an Tag being excluded, by all means, put your issue in, this is a collaborative project, it’s about what we make it:
Health Care
Education
Retirement
Living Wage
Green/Environment
Globalism
Anti-War
Science
Populism
Privacy
Sunshine Provisions
Election Reform
Corporate Reform
Dealth Penalty
Equal Rights
Gay Rights
Media Reform
Tax Reform
Campaign Reform
Church/State Separation/Secularism
And here are the 33 Progressive Elected Officials already named:
Rush Holt
Bernie Sanders
Russ Feingold
Marcy Kaptur
Pete Gerken
Joe Moore
Miguel De Valle
Jesse Jackson Jr.
John Lewis
Sherrod Brown
Kathleen Sebelius
Luis Gutierrez
Jim McDermott
Barney Frank
John Conyers
Henry Waxman
Maria Chappelle-Nadal
Raul Grijalva
Ed Pastor
Janet Napolitano
Jose Ibarra
Steve Leal
Carolyn McCarthy
Betty McCollum
Chris Coleman
Jim McDonough
Dennis Kucinich
Ellie Kinnaird
Jan Schakowsky
Maria Ruud
Okay, so this weekend’s goal is 100 names minimum…and 250 as the “kid oakland challenge”. I think we can do it, or, at least come close.
And, to those who are doubting me, let me say this, this is the kind of open source group project where we can actually create something of value that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is what netroots is about.
This list DID NOT EXIST before we started this project. When we’re done, we’ll have a list of officials, candidates and organizations that we created…in collaboration with each other and based on our values. That means something.
Coming up with five names, still my suggestion, should be doable with 15-30 minutes of Googling and research. I highly encourage you to participate. The more of us who contribute, the more valid the results.
Thank you in advance for joining in…personally, I think we can make the “kid oakland challenge!”
the Sound of Silence.
I’ll keep adding more…and more…and more…
Please help!
Thanks k/o. I already did my five (okay 6), but I’m really interested in finding out which politicians other progressive believe are doing a great job.
as many as you wish. And, I, too, am interested…and hope folks join in.
Okay. Then I would also add:
Ted Kennedy (anti-war, civil rights, privacy rights)
Barbara Boxer (anti-war, healthcare). Yeah I know she’s supporting LIEberman, but overall she’s someone who stands strong for progressive issues.
“Hello, hello, is anybody out there?”
KO, how could you miss Gavin Newsom???? I must admit that I thought he was a corporate lackey until he opened city hall to gay marriage. He rocks. From gay issues to poverty to health care to violence, Newsom really tries to find solutions. He has got to be one of the best mayors SF has seen in decades.
I don’t know her name, but there was a woman in the Texas legislature that gave a blistering speech in opposition to some anti gay hate bill there. If I recall, it was also mentioned that she fought for other progressive issues. I can’t look that up though, cuz I don’t know who she is :), but maybe someone remembers.
I’ll try and remember others. I know they are there, fighting in the trenches, some of them probably even fighting elements of the more fearful (of standing up for rights) elements of the Democratic Party; it would be nice if they got more acknowledgement and support.
I am not sure I helped much 😉
I have found her: Senfronia Thompson.
And here is the speech she gave.
I’m working on my list…I’ll be back with it shortly!
Andrew Dinniman, PA state senator, who was the first Dem Senator elected in the 19th district in about 80 years.
Louise Slaughter: Populism, health care, reproductive rights.
Rocky Anderson: Salt Lake City Mayor, enviroment, gay rights, living wage, anti-war, he rocks!
Chris Bowers: Just because.
Stephanie Tubbs-Jones: Populism, election reform.
Kathy Castor: County commissioner, running for Congress in FL. Ethics reform, reproductive rights, equal rights, ethics reform, environment.
Cory Booker- the mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Urban issues.
Mark Harris– Winnebago County Executive, Wisconsin.
Governor Ted Kulongoski of Oregon. Because he needs help.
Jill Conrad– School Board, Denver, Colorado. Education.
Mark Pocan– state assembly member in Wisconsin, Election Fraud
I may think of some more, but Bennie Thompson, US Representative from MS is a seven term-er, not perfect, but damn near it on all the issues. He’s not quite as good on the environment as I’d like and a bit heavy on authorizing military spending, but he did vote against authorizing military force in Iraq. He is a seven term Dem and is the Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee. He’s great on healthcare and privacy.
I’m a C-Span dork. I was watching it a few months ago and saw a remarkable colloquy between three members of the “30 something working group” — these are progressive democrats under 40 years of old. These three that I saw were great — and really young. They were, I’m pretty sure, talking to each other in an empty room, but from the passion of the speeches it might as well have been a full chamber. So I’m thinking of
Tim Ryan, OH-17 (strong voice on Iraq, economic justice)
Kendrick Meek, FL-17 (Iraq, education)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, FL-20 (Iraq, family health)
I don’t know too much about the specific policy records of these three. But watching them talk to each other on the floor was a really memorable and inspiring “c-span experience”: they are on fire and no doubt the progressive movement will be hearing more from some or all of these three. It was fascinating, also, to watch these young folks “take up” the often bland procedures of parliamentary discourse (“my friend from Florida” etc) and inject more life into them.
Gavin Newsom, mayor, SF CA, Gay rights, health care
Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District, Oregon. Green/Anti-war/Campaign reform
Peter DeFazio, 4th District, Oregon. Anti-war/Corporate reform
Tom Potter, Mayor of Portland, OR. Populism/Education
Ted Kulongoski, Governor of Oregon. Environment/Healthcare
Peter Buckley, Oregon state House District 5 (state legislature). Campaign reform/living wage.
There are lots more here in Oregon, particularly in the state legislature.
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, Sunshine provisions, Election Reform, Campaign Reform, Environment, Equal Rights
David Paterson, Senate Minority Leader, Sunshine provisions, Election Reform, Campaign Reform, Health Care, Equal Rights
David Soares, Albany County District Attorney, Drug Law Reform
Neil Breslin, State Senator, Sunshine provisions, Elections Reform, Campaign Reform, Equal Rights
Liz Krueger, State Senator, Election Reform
Bob Reilly, Assemblyman, Education, Legislative Reform
Bob Jacon, Rensselaer County Judge, The Consitution, the Rules and Procedures of Law, Citizens Rights
I cheated a little in that I Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson are elected officials but I included some of the issues they are campaigning on for their next jobs as Governor and Lt. Governor of New York.
You’ll also have to take my word for it about Bob Jacon as there is not much on-line about him. Suffice it to say that I was already in his corner and backed his candidacy (as I knew him from the Dean campaign) when I heard his acceptance speech of the party nomination. He hit all the right cords with me when he talked about the Bill of Rights and the proper way to run a court room. It was clear my gut instincts had been right.
There are several fine progressive New York elected officials but these are a few that will do for a start.
Jackie Speier, CA State senator (about to be term limited out), privacy
Debra Bowen, CA State senator, candidate for CA Sec of State, election reform
OK, some of my 6 have already been named. However, I’ll add a these three now, and maybe more later.
I have to name Lloyd Doggett. Thanks to the recent SCOTUS decision, he’s just been targeted by the Repub AG of Texas to have his U.S. Congressional District 25 in Texas removed from Travis County (Austin, for those of you who don’t know Texas counties)! They’ve been trying to get rid of Doggett for years. He’s one of the most ethical public servants I’ve seen. Issues include campaign reform, anti-war, green/environment, equal rights, fiscal responsibility, health, immigration.
My list would not be complete without Louise Slaughter, Congressional Representative for New York’s 28th District. Any list of issues for her would include equal rights, women’s rights, health – including Medicare, fair wages/labor, environment, fair taxation, consumer protection, energy, communications.
Locally, Hansen Clarke is a wonderful State Senator for Michigan’s District 1. Issues include equal rights, education, labor, women’s rights, consumer advocacy, gun safety, poverty, health, green/environment, immigration.
On another note, KO, is the excel file available somewhere? I couldn’t find a link. I’d like to see the list with associated issues and be able to sort, etc. for my own “nefarious” purposes.
but I’m assuming that if someone can host the files when they are ready…we can make them available for download at will.
Get back to you shortly.
I have to get out to work shortly but I do have a list. Just can’t post it till later on this evening.
I know this is a democratic blog but I have a list of Greens as well as Democrats in case anyone might be interested in them on their own. Had to include some Greens since I am one ;o)
Aldon Hynes has a video of Rep. Maxine Waters; accepting her Backbone Award @DemocracyFest (as well as her ‘steelies’ to back Lamont in CT).
(Thanks, Aldon)!
Furthermore, Jean Hay Bright for U.S. Senate (D-ME) is not an elected official (as yet); but we’re working on it…pls. vote for Jean re: Boxer’s PAC for Change poll (she’s in So. ME today on the stump–in No. ME yesterday–unable to blog/access a ‘puter or WiFi).
Snowe has GOT to go (understatement).
Let’s hear it for strong progressive Dem. women candidates this weekend…somebody’s gotta speak up!
Thanks~
This won’t help you make your goal today, but I do have calls in to a former Mo. legislator and a Ks. activist to talk this over with them. I’ll post their lists as soon as I get them.