There's a Big Happening this Sunday in the Big Apple, and the conference organizers are looking for a blogger to report out to the Intertubes. If you're interested in attending the event for free in exchange for Blogging The Independents, please contact Nancy Hanks. Here's her email address:
nancy underscore hanks at hotmail dot com
EVENT:
National Conference of Independents
The Post-Election Independent Movement: Principles Intact, Paradigms in Transition, Obama in The White House.
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
New York, NY
As you may know, I'm a straight-ticket Democratic voter who left the Democratic Party last year to become "unaffiliated." Fed up Corporatists in the party, I'm working to build a core of progressive Independent voters who can work from the outside to pull the party to the left. That's the direction Independents like me are heading ... and whether you agree with my approach or not, any progressive should be interested in a left-leaning Independent movement.
The conference organizers want to push their content out to the world, but the person they were counting on (me) can't be there.
Any takers?
VENUE
The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College is often used by Lincoln Center for overflow events. (899 Tenth Avenue, NY, NY 10019)
HIGHLIGHTS OF CONFERENCE
Morning Session (10 am – 12:30 pm)
Keynote Address : Jacqueline Salit ran Mike Bloomberg’s campaigns on the Independence Party line in 2001 and 2005. She is editor of The Neo Independent magazine and President of IndependentVoting.org. Salit gives a multi-media presentation of her post-election analysis: How the Independent Movement Went Left by Going Right
Featured Guest: Doug Schoen is one of the country’s most influential political consultants. This year he authored Declaring Independence: The Beginning of the End of the Two-Party System. Schoen’s remarks will address the growing influence of independent voters and will be followed by an on-stage interview with independent organizers.
Afternoon Session (2:00 pm – 5:00)
Independents and Public Policy: A panel discussion with three independent leaders working at the intersection of education, healthcare and philanthropy. Panelists will include:
Dr. Lenora Fulani - The country’s leading African American independent is best known for her independent runs for the presidency. She is also a distinguished educator and youth development specialist. Fulani earned her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from the City University of New York and was a co-founder of the All Stars Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization that creates and funds performance-based programs for youth and adults. Over the years she has worked closely with dozens of corporate volunteers, CEOs and partners in Fortune 500 companies to produce her educational programs.
Jim Mangia - President and CEO of the St. John’s Well Child Center in Los Angeles, CA. a network of nonprofit federally qualified health centers and school based clinics that provide free medical, dental and mental health services to tens of thousands of children and adults each year. Mangia has been an independent political and social activist for over 20 years and served as the secretary for the national Reform Party.
Gabrielle Kurlander - President and CEO of the All Stars Project, Inc. ("ASP") since 1990. During Ms. Kurlander's tenure, the ASP's annual budget has grown from $200,000 to $7 million, entirely from private funding sources. Today, the ASP serves as a new national model for inner-city youth development, operating in New York City, Newark, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area and inspiring programs in several other US cities and throughout the world. A key to the ASP’s success has been the fusion of creativity, community organizing, and business.
Independents Building from the Bottom Up
Independent leaders who played a catalytic role in the Obama movement will speak about their involvement in organizing change from the bottom up. They’ll be joined by activists working on the issues of political reform which remain cutting edge issues in the independent movement.
Open Primary Town Hall
Leading figures in the efforts to protect and expand open primaries discuss the status of their initiatives and pending legal controversies. Panelists include: Harry Kresky, one of the country’s leading experts in election law; Phil Keisling, former Oregon Secretary of State and Cathy Stewart, Chair of the New York County Independence Party.
************************************
BACKGROUND
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States marks a historic turning point in American politics. It was a turning point, as well, for the independent movement.
Fifty-two percent of independents voted for Obama in the general election, an 8 point lead over the independent vote for John McCain. In real numbers, Obama received 19.3 million independent votes, roughly equivalent to the vote that Perot received in 1992. But, unlike the days of the Perot era, today’s independent movement has a very different shape. It has become substantially more multiracial, it is more center-left than center-right, and it is much more influential in the mainstream of American politics. Independents were Obama’s margin of victory in the Democratic primary and were a driving force in his winning coalition in November.
Even so, the independent movement remains largely invisible. The Democratic Party takes the victory to be theirs and theirs alone. In the high stakes world of presidential politics, reality is equivalent to what the Democrats and Republicans do. But there are now different "facts on the ground" that have positioned independents for a new phase of growth and development.
At the national conference, independent leaders and activists will come together with special guests to consider such questions as: How do we bring the agenda of independents into new political settings, including into the Obama White House? How do we ensure that open primaries are maintained and expanded in as many circumstances as possible? What new coalitions can be created in the changed political environment? How do we bring third parties together with independent voters as a force for positive change?
Five days after Barack Obama is sworn in as president, we’ll be meeting to shape the future of the independent movement. The Democratic Party may have seized the moment to create the opportunity for change. But it’s not at all clear that the Democrats, and the Republicans, can deliver the necessary change. That is the job of independents and the challenge that will be addressed.