Welcome back to FDL Darcy! And congratulations on the new job. It sounds like something that could change the hole ball-game for grassroots activists, at least in terms of working more directly with members of Congress. Who do you report to?

Yes, congratulations on your new job, Darcy, best wishes!

@1 Thank you, Howie! I’m delighted to be here. I report to the board of the Foundation, which consists of a number of progressive leaders both inside and outside of Congress – and yes, I think this could be game-changing.

@2 – Thank you, Elliott! (I’m happy to say that this morning I finally got most of my stuff moved into my DC condo; I’ve been sleeping in my sister’s guest room for the past several weeks…)

Is the membership list of the board public?

It is – though we’ve just added a couple of people to the Board, and are likely to add one or two more in the next month or so. But to make it easy, the website at http://www.progressivecongress.org contains most of the current Board.

Even though the Progressive Caucus is much bigger and has more powerful individuals in it, for some reason the perception in the media is that it is next to meaningless compared to the Blue Dogs. Why is that and how can it be addressed?

Thanks for stopping by Darcy !
I would think that linking the different progressive organizations together will increase the strength of the progressive movement .
Like any thing else there is strength in numbers

Darcy, good luck to you and thank you. Please let us know now and in future what we can do to be heard. I stopped making my late night voicemail messages to Congresspersons but am going to re-start with the present “accountability coma” re torture, etc.

Yes, the Progressive Caucus has more members than any of the other ideological caucuses – 77 in all, including 11 of the 21 committee chairs. But they have not had the resources to compete with the Blue Dogs for things like press attention. Part of the problem is structural: the Blue Dogs get corporate resources, and the Progressive Caucus doesn’t have such an obvious source of funding to help.

That said, my job is to help bring together the progressive movement and the Progressive Caucus – the movement is our huge competitive advantage.

Yes, there is strength in numbers – and there are more of us than there are of them!

Thanks for stopping by Darcy and for taking this job. The Progressive Caucus has been extremely unorganized in it’s history and I think has contributed to the lack of progressive power in Washington.

What are your thoughts about helping the progressive caucus pick issues and develop unified policy positions and communications strategies so people can organize around specific goals. For example, getting the Progressive Caucus to say they’ll only back a healthcare bill with a public plan (as they have) then making sure more then a few bloggers know about it and actually influencing bills like the New Democrats and Blue Dogs do so often.

Why have the progressives failed to do this so far. What can they do better?

How can grassroots activists and bloggers be more effective in participating in governance through the foundation?

Darcy, how many in Congress would you say consistently hold progressive positions? In the House? In the Senate? Is there enough unity in that coalition to actually form a bloc to counter the Blue Dogs on some issues? What’s the strategy there? Or do you, as a group, feel bound to support the Caucus?

[Ooops, already asked! You guys are fast!]

I certainly will be working to help you be heard in the halls of Congress.

As an example, one of the things I spent the last week talking with Congresspersons and staff about was having an hour a week where the members of the Progressive Caucus stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and answer questions from folks like us. I think it will be helpful to them to hear what we’re concerned about – and it will be helpful in reframing some of the public dialogue to have members of Congress on the record about many of these issues.

What does the corporate money go for with the Blue Dogs? Self-promoting advertising for their re-election? What else to strengthen them over the Progressive Caucus?

How does the PC solicit grassroots funding?

Thanks for coming Darcy.
What consideration is the caucus giving to facilitating a better connection between the millions of people in the progressive grassroots (and elsewhere) and the people they send to Congress by increasing Congressional time available for constituents through public campaign financing (which would reduce or eliminate the need of anyone in Congress or running for Congress (once a minimal threshold is met) to spend time raising money)?

A consistent time each week. That sounds like a wonderful idea. CSpan or blogsite accessible, too?

Hello, Darcy, how exciting this next chapter sounds for you, for us, and for progressives!

Has the President met yet with the Progressive House Caucus? Is there a way we can help make that happen?

Is the Progressive Caucus focused entirely on national scope? One of my pet guilts is being more and more apprised of national political shenanigans and being obtuse about stuff in my own backyard pretty much, except headline stuff. My progressive internet websites are great for national level inside stuff. But not local stuff and I am slowly getting that is where serious power can lie. Any advice on this level learning and big-toe-in-the-water participation for a local progressive newbie?

Hi Populista! Long time no talk to. :-)

I will start by saying that I’m really impressed with the progress that has been made by the leadership of the Progressive Caucus already, which lays the groundwork that I will be building on.

The healthcare letter you mention is a great example: the Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Congressional leadership saying that the Progressive Caucus would not support healthcare reform that didn’t include the option of a public plan. They have enough votes to block the legislation, and made it clear they’d follow through on the threat. And Steny Hoyer, who is on point for the task force working on the legislation now, has shifted his position and been saying that there will be a public plan as part of healthcare reform. That is huge – both in substance for healthcare reform, and for the Progressive Caucus.

But you’re dead right that we haven’t been communicating enough about it. I’ve been talking with staff members on Capitol Hill about what things they can and should do in terms of outreach, and what I can do to be helpful. (As a 501c(3) non-profit, I have boundaries on which things I can do and which things I can’t.)

We’re very early in this process still, but I’m actively working on putting together a model for how to do this better – and I expect we’ll all work on iterating until we get it just right.

Just fantastic and good luck. We need you and will be cheering for you.

Teddy, while the RNC debates whether or not to bump Sarah Palin out of the slot reserved for a Republican woman and replace her with Carrie Prejean, Obama has finally decided to get together with the Progressive Caucus Tuesday afternoon. I bet Rahm will be there to poison the atmosphere and bad vibe everyone.

Maybe you can help dispel the media created myth that this is a center-right country

Well, I’ll be doing some specific things to help bring together the movement and the Caucus while building capacity. For instance, I’m looking for volunteers to help with a project to call into each Progressive Caucus member office to figure out which members are working on which issues and who their staff contacts are, and then make that list available to help coordinate efforts around key issues. It’s the sort of thing that a group of us could whip off in a day or two, while familiarizing people with how to get information out of offices and building our long-term capacity and infrastructure.

Maybe they can put Rahm in a stasis chamber of some sort where he can be seen by everyone but he can’t be heard (and the rest of the attendees can’t hear him).

Seems that the PC could then spend quite a bit of time laughing at Rahm and drive him nucking futz while they do so.

There are absolutely enough progressive members in the House to form a strong coalition that can impact things. As I said in an earlier comment, there are 77 members of the Progressive Caucus – including 11 of the 21 committee chairs. And in addition to those folks there are a number of progressive Congressmembers who are not currently members of the Progressive Caucus but who vote very progressively, such as Earl Blumenauer and Jay Inslee.

Frankly, a coherent block of about 30 members would be enough to impact things – we’ve got plenty in the House.

The Senate is different, though if we end up adding another progressive from Minnesota at some point soon that will help…

Hi Darcy, you’ve been one of my political sheroes ever since I first heard of you.

Just wanted to touch the hem of your bandwidth :)

This initiative is great news. GIVE EM HELL!

And the demonization of liberals or at the very least patronizing labeling of them as that “hard” left, a pesky MINORITY of IDEALOGUES clamoring for justice, like that is an impractical not essential thing. Hard left = really liberals who are doing their homework and have left the afterglow of denial post the Obama win (or never basked in a lazy hope glow).

For the caucuses to be effective, they need both inside and outside infrastructure. The Blue Dogs have a coherent caucus that votes as a block inside Congress, with whips and communication folks and people working on helping the day-to-day operations of the members work better. But they also have help from outside organizations in formulating policy, doing additional communications work, etc.

We need a similar inside-outside dynamic for the Progressive Caucus, and what I’m working on is one of the key pieces of that.

And yes, we’ll need grassroots funding to help the Foundation. I’ll have a way to donate online up in the next week or so at http://www.progressivecongress.org, and be asking people to help. On the plus side, these donations are actually tax-deductible!

Do you foresee Suzan DelBene joining the Progressive Caucus if she beats Reichert back in your district? Also, is there any outreach from the Progressive Caucus towards candidates? I notice the Blue Dogs back– including with big bucks– really terrible reactionaries around the country who are running as Democrats even before they are elected.

Certainly public campaign financing is a priority for some of the key members of the Progressive Caucus, for the reasons you outline. And while the Foundation is severely restricted in the amount of lobbying we can do (because of our tax status), building the infrastructure to help connect the members of the Progressive Caucus with the grassroots will make it a lot easier to get the momentum around that issue (and other key issues) to advance progressive policies.

How is your new organization funded? How will you link up with the new progressive DeeCee establishment and the progressive blogosphere? Do you have a website yet? Will ‘outsiders’ be able to participate, or do you see the group more as an ‘inside’ operator? How will you meet the goal of enabling communication between outsiders and insiders? Are Hill staffers part of your network?

This sounds like fun, with lots of questions and ideas.

Thanks, Darcy. Feel it coalescing more strongly as you speak. What are your personal progressive priorities, or are you focusing on the logistical organization of contacts and networking right now?

Yes, both CSpan and blogsite accessible. The proceedings will be broadcast on CSpan, and the Foundation will be recording them and putting the clips up on YouTube.

I can’t stay for long, and don’t have anything profound to ask at the moment anyway, but I wanted to thank you for running, Darcy. You had a tough row to hoe, particularly with the Times willing to write nonsense about you.

Thanks! I’m quite excited to be a part of this.

And I believe the President will be meeting with the Progressive Caucus next week. :-)

This is ALL very encouraging, well thought-out, and creative! Go Darcy!!

Damn good photo! Makes her look very effective. As we expect her to be.

The Foundation’s focus is on national issues, but that’s not because the local issues aren’t important. My personal favorite two ways to keep up-to-date on local issues are to :

1. Read local blogs (the Pacific Northwest has some really wonderful ones, including my favorite horsesass.org); and

2. Go to Drinking Liberally meetings (which I’m allowed to do again now that I’m not a candidate :-) )

Many thanks! I promised I would not stop fighting for progressive ideals, and I never will.

Agreed! I think that the last election cycle should have put that myth to rest, but we obviously still have a lot of work to do. One of the key things we need to do is work on the talking heads in the media, as Media Matters is doing.

Sweet!

When do we start working on dumping Harry Reid?

Thank you! I’ll do my best to live up to that. :-)

I bet Rahm will be there to poison the atmosphere and bad vibe everyone.

How serious a thorn is Rahm to the Progressive Caucus? His hyper pro-Israel stance is scarey. Is he in bed with the Blue Dogs? He certainly has power-brokering position.

I will be anxious to hear how the meeting with Obama goes and the Caucus. I assume Caucus website can recieve emails with issues and opinions from citizens.

I’m unwilling to presume I know which caucuses Suzan DelBene would join in Congress. I can say that, having talked to her, she’s socially pretty progressive, and has so far seemed to me to be very sensible in her approach to fiscal issues – reality-based, with a desire to make the structural changes that would make this a fairer country.

I am quite certain, as a constituent in Washington’s 8th Congressional District, that I’d rather have her representing me than the incumbent or any other Democrat who’s talked about running so far.

I am assuming that you will be checking in here to help keep us informed + actions we can take, etc Is that about right?

Yowza, Darcy:
Fahnestock here, was real sorry to see Reichert waddle his way back in. You done with that biz? If so, got any potential successors? Obviously, I ended up not running in WA05, simply no way I could do the fundraising required & it was a cinch the party wasn’t exceptionally interested in a DFH.

Are you actually moving to DC full-time? Hate to lose your karma here in the NW. That said, knock ‘em dead.

That’s a lot of questions in a small space!

Right now the seed funding for the organization has come from existing foundations which have an interest in seeing this happen. In addition to that, I’m going to have to raise enough money from foundations and individuals to pay the rent and keep the lights on.

In terms of building the links, I think of this as having three distinct pieces I need to reach out to: the progressive members and staff in Congress, the progressive organizations and think-tanks, and the progressive grassroots. Everything we do, I’ll be trying to figure out how to link all three. It helps that this was kick-started by the leadership in the first two with their full commitment, and that I’m so passionate about the third. But now – and for the forseeable future – I’m open to innovating new and better ways to build those links.

I have a very very basic website up now at progressivecongress.org (I spent last Saturday morning hand-coding it); we are working to develop a much more robust set of technologies so that the site can itself be a tool to build connection.

This is all about connecting the “outsiders” with the “insiders” to the benefit of both and the progressive ideals that join us.

Yes, Hill staffers are absolutely part of my network.

And yes, this is a lot of fun!

, I’m looking for volunteers to help with a project to call into each Progressive Caucus member office to figure out which members are working on which issues and who their staff contacts are, and then make that list available to help coordinate efforts around key issues

I think that this is a GREAT idea. What do I have to do to become an official volunteer? One aspect that I wish I knew more about was what kind of pressure and argument various lobbying groups use with the Blue Dogs.
“If you vote for this you will get blank, if you don’t vote for this this will happen.” Understanding the arguments and the power of the lobbyists might help when you are putting together the issues. It is important to know the competition and what tools they are using both above board and below.

What would induce or discourage a senator or Congressperson to officially join up with the Progressive Caucus?

What do you see as the biggest impediments to accomplishing these goals?

Right now I’m definitely focused on building basic infrastructure!

That said, it’s pretty clear that the Progressive Caucus will have priorities around national security (including where we go from here in Afghanistan and Iraq), healthcare reform, and economic reform (including reform of the financial sector). Their priorities in those areas open up opportunities for Congress and the progressive movement to work together to make good things happen – and the infrastructure I’m building will therefore have a focus on the things they’re prioritizing.

Really, our Congress is so broken .. Abramoff-ism is still the rule .. any stick in the eye of the whole corrupt mess is a breath of fresh hope to me ..

Sheez, I’m in bad mixed-metaphorland today

Anyway, I look forward to donating $, (positive) anger, etc ..

Thank you.

In the end, this is much bigger than me – and certainly bigger than my ego! So while the Seattle Times lying about me on the front page was frustrating (especially knowing that their actions changed the outcome of the election), it doesn’t change my commitment to what we’re fighting for.

Very early in my process of leaving behind my tech-focused life for the political one I’m in now, I read Taylor Branch’s books on the Civil Rights movement. It was incredibly important for me to understand that the successes of that movement only came after a long string of ridicule and apparent failure. Dr. King was told by the press over and over again that he was a failure, that he’d cost lives and accomplished nothing, that what he was doing was counterproductive. And every day he got up again and fought on, because the justice he was fighting for was more important to him than his ego or even his life. That is a model for how we change things.

Thanks for your detailed reply!

What has been the biggest surprise for you, moving to DeeCee?

Ha! I looked at that photo and rolled my eyes at Howie’s choice. :-)

Yes yes yes, definitely. :-)

Love the photo! You look like you are “walking the walk” with determination and optimism!

Thanks! Good to see you (virtually). :-)

I’m in DC most of my time, but will be maintaining my residence in the State of Washington, so I’m not entirely gone. (In fact, Mike and Henry are still in Bellevue, finishing out the school year and guiding the reconstruction on the house at Ames Lake.)

I love it too, One serious and accomplished woman..Great choice.

Agreed. Over the next several weeks I’m going to dive into what the lobbying firms to in order to figure out how to translate those tools into ones we can use.

And ****CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS**** anyone who wants to volunteer to help should send me mail at darcy (at) progressivecongress.org. I’m going to need all the help I can get!

And ****CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS**** anyone who wants to volunteer to help should send me mail at darcy (at) progressivecongress.org. I’m going to need all the help I can get!

What kind of help might this involve?

Darcy: One to the things that I wish I could do is to help the progressive member of congress communicate better, both in responding to right wing nonsense and putting the right on the defensive. I think of all the time they set the terms of the debate because of their noise machine infrastructure.

I think that there aren’t enough examples of the left putting the right wing in a box on issues. I think that we can drive some stories in the media this way with a simple coordination of a progressive issue, an expert, a progressive politician. The media is used to the right creating hissy fit stories and they put us on the defensive. I would like to see some progressive righteous stories that will make the right look as sick and craven as possible.

The more effective the Progressive Caucus is, the greater the incentives to join. There are two keys that are immediately obvious:
(1) the ability of the block to affect the content of legislation, and
(2) the degree to which it opens up opportunities for recognition.

As to the first, right now, the leadership has been giving the rank-and-file members of Congress very little opportunity to participate in the legislative process. Instead, leadership and key committee chairs draft the legislation and then present it to the Congress complete, with little to no opportunity for debate, amendments, or modification – just a straight up-or-down vote. So if you’re a normal member, the only chance you have to change what’s in the legislation is to band together with a critical mass of other like-minded members in order to swing on key issues. The Progressive Caucus is a potential vehicle for doing that.

As to the second, this is where they need the grassroots most. When the caucus or one of its members does something good, providing positive feedback and recognition is a surprisingly effective way of motivating them. I’ll be looking for places where I can showcase them doing progressive things; the grassroots can then provide them with appropriate attaboys and attagirls.

I think the real test of the Progressive Caucus, and a place where your new organization can best make an early mark, is in preserving a public option in health care reform. We simply must have a Medicare-for-All opportunity for people who are unhappy or uncovered. Without it, the whole scheme is just a big insurance company giveaway.

What do you think, Darcy?

Thank you, Darcy. So well explained. As for:

As to the first, right now, the leadership has been giving the rank-and-file members of Congress very little opportunity to participate in the legislative process. Instead, leadership and key committee chairs draft the legislation and then present it to the Congress complete, with little to no opportunity for debate, amendments, or modification – just a straight up-or-down vote.

… what a squandering of Congressional talent. No wonder so much gridlock in Congress. Status quo, stale, seniority-trickle down power. Lack of transparency and back-room power-brokering. The critical mass idea is great. And those atta-boys and -girls have a real potency. We need to remember that. Often people reach out to complain, more than re-inforce!

To be perfectly blunt, there are three key potential impediments.

One is a simple resource issue: I’m doing this on a shoestring, and every incremental increase in available resources will have a huge impact on what I can accomplish. (For instance, at the moment, the Foundation’s bank account will sustain us for about another two months. There are a few things in the pipeline, but I need to raise at least another $400k this year to have even minimal resources to get this done.)

The second is a caucus leadership issue: the strides they have been making towards coherence and caucus effectiveness need to succeed. I’m really optimistic about that, but at the end of the day, they need to do it.

And the third is the embrace of this by the grassroots. We have for so long been focused on (a) elections and (b) being oppositional. Are we ready to make the shift into governing? Again, I’m optimistic, but it’s hardly a given.

Welcome back, “Better Democrat!” I am so glad you are getting active and staying focused on your core political orientation. You are awesome!

Darcy: I’m going to send you and email with some specific thoughts, but the people here are super smart on what might be the right shiny soccer ball to kick up that the press loves and can be used to drive the right into defensive mode. One thing I’ve noticed that we love it when when a congress person stands on principle on an issue. Sometimes they just have to be asked. I’m think Dodd with FISA.

Since Torture is the hot button of the moment and the media loves to have contrast, who is the former member of the military in the progressive Caucus who will come out against “enhanced interrogations”? That person would call out the fear mongers on talk radio saying that “we must torture or we’ll all die!” I say it will need to be former military because then they will have credibility. Last week every gasbag on the right on TV was talking about the need for torture, we need someone from congress and someone from the current military and an expert to all say, “No. That’s wrong, thats bs and here’s why.” Marcy can be our expert by the way, Mark Danner is also very good.

There are two key things I need volunteer help with ASAP:

(1) Helping me build technical infrastructure; and
(2) Helping me gather information.

The second is mostly about a crew of us saying, okay, we’re going to go hunt down this set of information, and then making the phone calls or doing the online research to get it done, and entering the information into some online data-capturing system (perhaps Google docs…)

Like: okay, we need to know what the top 2-3 issues are for each member of the Progressive Caucus. Let’s call each office and ask. The staff in each office will know, it’s just going to require about 100 phone calls to gather it all.

Or: okay, we need contact information for every organization working on progressive healthcare policy. Again, phone calls and online research will uncover it, it’ll just take some brute force effort.

Or: okay, we’re looking for an intial index of every progressive position paper we can find from the think-tanks, bloggers, etc. on TARP reform, in order to index them for Congressional staffers.

There’s a huge amount of value we can create by as a group brute-forcing solutions to problems that are otherwise insurmountable…

Agreed 100%. We don’t do enough public framing of issues; it’s certainly time we did.

I’m happy to report that the leadership of the Progressive Caucus has already drawn this line in the sand around a public plan as part of healthcare reform. They made it clear to leadership that they would only support legislation that included the public plan option – and they have the votes to block it if it doesn’t. This is one I think we’ll win in the House; the danger will be in reconciliation…

Thank you! To the dismay of the Republicans, I *never* give up…!

The person who comes immediately to my mind is a progressive who is not currently a member of the Progressive Caucus, which is Eric Massa…

I like the idea of using Google doc or some other online collaboration tool.
I used an online spreadsheet of advertisers that people with permissions could update and people who just needed data could access.

That way I could keep the information current, (e.g. Bank of America has pulled their ads from KSFO but PG&E had not. The contact person at Kaiser who is in charge of ads is no longer Mr. X it’s Miss Y.)

Thank you for the breakdown. You might want to organize volunteers in terms of divvying up to particular Congresspeople or geographical locations. Also, issues that are a mutual priority, either emotionally and/or expertise-wise, to them as well as you. Sounds like worthy volunteer work and doable. Will definitely consider and be in touch with your website.

Sometimes it looks like Democrats are reticent about “admitting” they are progressive or liberal, which is what joining the Progressive Caucus would amount to. But there’s no such reticence among freshmen reactionaries like Bobby Bright, Walt Minnick, Parker Griffith, Glenn Nye, and Frank Kratovil to go running to the Blue Dogs. I think by raising a big fuss when Bill Foster identified himself as a Blue Dog, the netroots made him back away from joining. But more important, how do we make it “safe” for progressives to be proud of their already progressive positions and explain to their constituents why it’s a good thing to join up? I was really happy to see Alan Grayson– from a tough district– join this year.

Eric Massa looks like an excellent person who might get behind this issue, if we make him look good would we then say, “Hey the Progressive Caucus helped you, join us.”?

Can we have a list of the Progressive Caucus and do some atta-boy, atta-girl reinforcement for their being on the list? Even encouraging a list of “potentials” to join up?

Who are the specific Congressional leaders of the Caucus itself?

Well, when the benefits of joining the Progressive Caucus outweigh the downsides (even in tough districts), I think we’ll see more enthusiasm. The more the Caucus does, the more it will be able to do – and the more motivation there will be for members to join and participate.

And yes, Alan Grayson joining showed his genuine courage. He’s pretty amazing.

The current chairs of the caucus are Raul Grijalva and Lynn Woolsey. The full list of caucus leadership and membership is at cpc.grijalva.house.gov.

Alan Grayson is a great example. He did say that he got targeted with nasty ads from the right because of his positions. What we can offer people like Alan are the promotion that leads to greater recognition. I think of all the people that saw Alan nail the financial folks with his simple questions.

And, since Dacy has a technical background, I’ll note that one thing that we can remember to pay attention to is search optimization and now, shutter, twitter. The right and the right wing media LOVE their twitter, so we can’t ignore it, but search is still one way that media and regular folks find out about leaders on issues.

The wikipedia site looks pretty up to date in terms of members

Darcy, that went by so fast! Thanks for coming and spending two hours with us today. If the FDL community members need to take one thing away from this discussion in terms of how we can be helpful, what would it be?

One thing that I learned when I helped the organizers of the Indo-American Council with their first conference is that there are some big money progressives in that community. They might be a group that are willing to help with tech infrastructure and money. They have a few issues about immigration H1-b and family reunification that is very much NOT on the side of the right wing. (You might have been exposed to them when you were working with MS).

I want to thank everyone for participating! I have to go now – I promised my 2-year-old nephew we’d go to the park this afternoon. But you can reach me at darcy (at) progressivecongress.org. Please send me questions, comments, suggestions… and I look forward to working together with all of you to get our country on track.

The most important two things I need right now are:
(1) volunteers and
(2) people to contact members of the progressive caucus and thank them for being members and fighting for us.

Thank you, Darcy! Feeling encouraged by your commitment and hope to help! Thanks Howie, everyone. The PC list of names gives me hope. Some of my favorite people there. Will work on your #2 @88 beginning tonight, Darcy! Will mention you in my voicemail. Anybody close to joining we should AIM at?

‘reconciliation’? Do ya mean “in conference”?