Today, the need for campaign money affects who runs for public office and who wins our elections. Furthermore, once elected, our leaders must spend more and more time raising campaign funds, which means less time doing the public's business- The New School
Americans for Campaign Reform, whose honorary chairs are former Senators Bill Bradley, Bob Kerrey, Warren Rudman, and Alan Simpson, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School hosts a panel discussion moderated by Bob Kerrey, President of The New School, and featuring former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire Warren Rudman; Joan Claybrook, lawyer who has served as president of Public Citizen since 1982 and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter Administration; John Rauh, founder of Americans for Campaign Reform; Dr. Costas Panagopoulos, assistant professor of Political Science and director of the graduate program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University and Michael Waldman, director of the Brennan Center for Justice.
The panelists delve into the impact of money on our political system and weigh different approaches to the problem, including ethics reform, regulation of lobbying activity, and public funding of elections.
Bio
Joan Claybrook
Joan Claybrook is an American lawyer who has served as President of Public Citizen since 1982. Previously, she was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981.
Prior to her time with NHTSA, Claybrook ran Public Citizen's Congress Watch, worked for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the National Traffic Safety Bureau, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
She earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1973 and currently serves on its Board of Visitors. She also holds positions on the boards of Consumers Union, Citizens for Tax Justice, Trial lawyers for Public Justice, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Goucher College Board of Trustees, and the California Wellness Foundation Advisory Board.
Sondra Farganis
Sondra Farganis received a PhD from Australian National University and is a recipient of Fulbright and NEH awards. She is the director of the Wolfson Center for National Affairs and her publications include Social Reconstruction of the Feminine Character, Situating Feminism, and articles on contemporary social and political thought. Dr. Farganis has taught at CUNY, Vassar, and Hamilton.
Bob Kerrey
Bob Kerrey is president of The New School in New York City.
For twelve years prior to becoming president of The New School, Bob Kerrey represented the State of Nebraska in the United States Senate. Before that, he served as Nebraska's governor for four years.
Bob Kerrey is the author of When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir, published by Harcourt Books (May 2002). He served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, currently leads a five year writing challenge sponsored by The National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, and is co-chair with Newt Gingrich of The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care.
Dr. Costas Panagopoulos
Dr. Costas Panagopoulos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Master's Program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University, an initiative designed to train graduate students in practical electioneering.
Dr. Panagopoulos previously founded and directed the Master's Program in Political Campaign Management in the Department of Politics at New York University. A former candidate for the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1992, Dr. Panagopoulos offers courses in the program that focus on campaign strategy and message development, political advertising and media strategy. His academic research focuses on American Politics, with an emphasis on campaigns and elections, voting behavior and public opinion.
Dr. Panagopoulos was selected by the American Political Science Association as a Congressional Fellow during 2004-2005, and he served in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). He was also appointed Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for Politics, the Internet and Democracy at the Graduate School for Political Management at George Washington University and as a Research Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, both in Washington, DC.
Panagopoulos is President/CEO of XVOTES, a New York-based political strategy firm. He was elected President of the American Association of Political Consultants’ Mid-Atlantic chapter in 2003. He has also developed expertise in international political consulting and has worked as a consultant in the Electoral Assistance Division at the United Nations. He earned his doctoral degree in Politics from New York University.
John Rauh
John was the founder of Americans for Campaign Reform. He served as President of Cincinnati, Ohio's independent political party, the Charter Committee, from 1969 to 1975. In 1992, John was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from New Hampshire. He was a board member of Common Cause from 1998 to 2002.
John joined Clopay Corporation in 1961, serving as its Chief Executive Officer from 1975 to 1985. He has been active on the boards of numerous civic and educational organizations, chairing the board of the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2002.
John received his AB and MBA degrees from Harvard University. He was a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government in 1989 and 1990.
John lives in New Hampshire with his wife Mary, a former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives and a former member of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Warren Bruce Rudman
Warren Bruce Rudman was born in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, May 18, 1930. He attended the public schools of Nashua, N.H.; graduated, Valley Forge Military School, Wayne, Pa., 1948; graduated, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., 1952; graduated, Boston College Law School, Boston, Mass., 1960. Rudman served in the United States Army Infantry (1952-1954). He was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 1960 and commenced practice in Nashua. Rudman served as legal counsel to the Governor in 1970 and attorney general of New Hampshire from 1970 until 1976. He practiced law in Manchester, N.H. from 1976 until 1980.
Rudman was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, November 4, 1980, for the six-year term commencing January 3, 1981. He was subsequently appointed by the Governor, December 29, 1980, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John A. Durkin for the term ending January 3, 1981. He was reelected in 1986 and served from December 29, 1980, to January 3, 1993. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1992. After retiring from the Senate, he resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C. and was a co-founder of the Concord Coalition.
Michael Waldman
Executive Director, Brennan Center for Justice
Mr. Waldman is a nationally prominent public interest lawyer, government official, teacher and writer. He became director of the Brennan Center in October 2005.
Mr. Waldman was Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995-1999, serving as Assistant to the President. He was responsible for writing or editing nearly 2,000 speeches, including four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. Previously, he was Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination (1993-1995). Mr. Waldman was the top administration policy aide working on campaign finance reform, one of the Center's signature issues, and drafted the administration's public financing proposal.
He is the author of several books, including My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of American Presidents (Sourcebooks, 2003); POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words that Defined the Clinton Presidency (Simon & Schuster, 2000); and Who Robbed America? A Citizens' Guide to the Savings and Loan Scandal (Random House, 1990).
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