query: organizer-politicians

Sat Sep 13 13:29:26 CDT 2008

[ed: thanks to Dave for these.]

from: Dave Beckwith <dbeckwith at needmorfund.org>

Eddie Garcia – Hartford mayor, was a community organizer in the Hartford 
neighborhoods – CHANE was the group, I think

Peter Ujvagi, formerly Toledo City council President, now OH state 
Senator, was a founder of the East Toledo Commiuunity Organization and 
worked for Msgr. Geno Baroni, and was on the CHD Boardd – and the Carter 
National Commiussion on Neighborhoods

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
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>  
> [ed:  Peter has already sent out his article (see post just above the 
> quoted text), but it is still quite an impressive list people gathered 
> so far.]
>
> From: "Donaldson, Linda P." <DONALDSON at cua.edu>
>
>
> Don't forget the late Sen. Paul Wellstone from Minnesota!
>
> Linda
>
> Linda Plitt Donaldson, PhD
> Catholic University of America
> National Catholic School of Social Service
>
> ********************************
>
> From: "PrattWorks" <prattworks at earthlink.net>
>
>
> Majority Leader Chris Donovan, CT.
>
> **************************************
>
> From: benshepard at mindspring.com
>
>
> Thanks for the
> earlier piece.
> It was really great.
>
> You can also mention Tom Hayden of the SDS and LA state assembly.
> Tom Duayne - NY Assembly - former member of ACT UP
>  etc....
>
> ****************************************
>
> From: maanav <maanav at gmail.com>
>
>
> Paul Wellstone
>
> *************************************
>
> [ed:  this message is forwarded by Frances]
>
> From: "Frances Kunreuther" <fkunreuther at demos.org>
>
> GOP pols' latest slur proves just how out of touch they are
>
> Sunday, September 7th 2008, 4:00 AM
>
> The ugly spectacle last week of hearing GOP leaders direct scorn at 
> community organizers - all community organizers - displayed a level of 
> contempt for grass-roots democracy that was downright un-American.
>
> Not to mention self-defeating in a close national campaign in which the 
> campaign of John McCain - which has far less to spend than that of 
> Democrat Barack Obama - is going to need every door-knocking volunteer 
> neighborhood activist it can find.
>
> You'd never know it from the mockery the Republicans have scripted into 
> campaign events, belittling the inner-city work Obama did after 
> graduating from Columbia University.
>
> "What in God's name is a community organizer?" asked ex-Gov. George 
> Pataki at a Republican Convention breakfast. "I don't even know if 
> that's a job."
>
> Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani echoed the party line from the convention podium 
> while introducing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential 
> nominee. "[Obama] worked as a community organizer," said Giuliani in a 
> voice dripping with contempt. "Okay, okay, maybe this is the first 
> problem on the résumé," he added, to roars of laughter from the crowd.
>
> Palin got yuks of her own with this nasty zinger: "I guess a small-town 
> mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual 
> responsibilities."
>
> Their ignorance is breathtaking. Virtually every significant political 
> movement in American history, including the insurrection that gave birth 
> to our nation, has depended on community organizers. They do the tough, 
> thankless work of scheduling meetings, knocking on doors and showing 
> people how to vote, protest and unionize as a group instead of as 
> isolated individuals.
>
> Why do you think the First Amendment of the Constitution protects the 
> people's right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances"?
>
> The students who ventured into the segregated South - suffering threats 
> and even death while persuading black citizens to register - were 
> community organizers. So were the union activists who fought to win 
> basic protections like the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week.
>
> Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps the best-known community organizer of 
> the last 50 years, shares the spotlight with lesser-known heroes like 
> Jessie de la Cruz, an ex-field hand who helped fight the low pay and 
> disease-filled working conditions of agricultural laborers.
>
> Paul Revere and Thomas Paine? Community organizers. Ditto for Frederick 
> Douglass and Susan B. Anthony.
>
> And ditto for conservatives like Howard Jarvis, leader of the modern 
> anti-tax movement, and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who organized faith 
> communities into the Moral Majority.
>
> Organizers aren't taking the mockery lying down. A blog called 
> "Organizers Fight Back" has popped up to bring some facts to the table.
>
> Here in New York, Maria Mottola, director of the New York Foundation and 
> herself an ex-organizer, has begun sharing a list of well-known 
> activists whose positive role in improving city life is undisputed. The 
> roster includes Majora Carter, winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius 
> award," who has worked tirelessly to clean up polluted sites in the 
> South Bronx, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who organized 
> against anti-gay violence before entering electoral politics.
>
> Yours truly even got an honorable mention for the years I spent working 
> with community credit unions to provide small loans to low-income New 
> Yorkers - some of the most fulfilling times of my life.
>
> The group is circulating a line that skewers Palin, a vocal evangelical: 
> "Jesus was a community organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a governor."
>
> Expect many more organizers to keep turning up the heat on Giuliani and 
> the other GOP nitwits between now and Election Day - including 
> conservative activists who will be struggling to turn out the vote for a 
> candidate and party that doesn't seem to appreciate them.
>
> elouis at nydailynews.com
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Maria Mottola
>
> Executive Director
>
> New York Foundation
>
> (212) 594-8009
>
>  
>
> Please note: 
>
> The New York Foundation has moved. 
>
> Our new address is:
>
>  
>
> New York Foundation
>
> 10 East 34th Street, 10th Floor
>
> New York, NY 10016
>
>  
>
> Phone: (212) 594-8009*
>
>  
>
> * Our phone number remains the same.
>
> ******************************************
>
> From:
> "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
> Date:
> Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:53:01 -0700
> To:
> "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>
> Friends and Colleagues:
>
> Despite what Sarah Palin and other GOP luminaries said last week, it's 
> not that big a leap from the difficult work done by community organizers 
> and the pragmatic work of coalition-building done by elected officials. 
> In my article in today's Nation magazine 
> (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/dreier), I list some prominent 
> public officials who once worked as organizers, and examine in some 
> detail the transition of Karen Bass from one of Los Angeles' most 
> effective community organizers to her current role as the second most 
> powerful elected official in California, Speaker of the Assembly. This 
> article follows up my article last week (with John Atlas) that examined 
> the history of grassroots organizing as part of American's tradition of 
> self-help. (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/dreier_atlas)
>
> Peter Dreier
>
> ***************************************
>
> Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
>   
>> --------
>> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
>> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
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>>  
>> [ed:  please feel welcomed to copy COMM-ORG with replies to Peter's query.]
>>
>> From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>>
>>
>> Friends,
>>  
>> I want to write another piece, to follow up my Nation piece, on former 
>> organizers who became elected officials -- in order to point out, 
>> contrary to Sarah Palin, that the skills and experiences of being an 
>> organizer are useful when in public office.  I could use some help in 
>> identify some of those folks - the higher profile, the 
>> better....particularly mayors, governors, Congressmembers...
>>
>>  
>>
>> Off the top of my head, I can think of the following:
>>
>>  
>>
>> Cong. John Lewis
>>
>> Senator Barbara Milkulski of Maryland
>>
>> Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois
>>
>> Karen Bass, California assembly speaker
>>
>> LA Mayor Antonio Villaragoisa (former union organizer)
>>
>> Former LA City Councilmember and Congressman Ed Roybal
>>
>> Former Atlanta Mayor and UN Ambassador Andrew Young
>>
>> Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy
>>
>> Cong. Bobby Rush
>>
>> CA Senator Gil Cedillo
>>
>> Jay Westbrook. Cleveland City Council
>> Miles Rapoport - former Conn. Sec of State
>> Tom Hucker, Maryland general assembly
>> Tom Gallagher, former Mass. legislator
>> John McDonough, former Mass. legislator
>> Donna Edwards, Maryland
>> Mark Ritchi - Minn . Sec of State?
>> Chrystal Peeples -  New York legislator
>> Jesus (Chuy) Garcia - former Illinois state Senator
>> Bev Stein - executive of Multnomah County, Oregon
>> Beth Low, Missouri state legislator
>>  
>> Any other ideas?
>>
>>  
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>  
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>>
>> Peter Dreier
>>
>> E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
>>
>> Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
>>
>> Occidental College
>>
>> 1600 Campus Road
>>
>> Los Angeles, CA 90041
>>
>> Phone: (323) 259-2913
>>
>> Email: dreier at oxy.edu
>>
>> Webpage: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
>>
>>  
>>
>> "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great 
>> moral crises maintain their neutrality" -- Dante
>>
>>  
>>
>>  
>>
>>
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