The Alliance Party After Dark

The Sister District Project

Rita Bosworth stops by to talk about the Sister District Project. Sister District is dedicated to changing the composition of state legislatures and making them more representative of their constituents. More specifically, Sister District seeks to turn states blue by helping Democrats win state legislative elections. Their approach is to pair up - or “sister” - volunteers from deep blue districts with carefully targeted races in swing districts. Ultimately, they seek to advance progressive policy and eliminate partisan gerrymandering. Their volunteers canvass, phonebank, write postcards, text-bank, and fundraise for candidates.

Since launching in the wake of the 2016 elections, the Sister District Project has grown to over 45,000 volunteers across the country. They have raised over $3 million in small-dollar donations directly to candidates.

Rita Bosworth is the Founder and Executive Director of the Sister District Project. She started Sister District a week after the 2016 presidential election. Prior to Sister District, she was a Federal Public Defender for 12 years. She received her undergraduate degree from U.C. Davis, and she received her law degree from Stanford. After law school Rita clerked for the Honorable Henry Kennedy in Washington, D.C.

Political Science Professor Dr. Jennifer McCoy

How did our current political system become so polarized? What forces pushed us collectively into a situation where we argue - sometimes violently - in the streets? Where will our pursuit of polarization take us as a nation? And what can we do to rescue ourselves from the destructive forces of polarization that threaten our very democracy?

Dr. Jennifer McCoy, a political science professor at Georgia State University, offers some perspective and insight into this situation. As a specialist on democratization and polarization, Dr. McCoy provides unique insight gained over years of studying other democratic societies and their destructive demise, often ushered in on a wave of “Us versus Them” polarization. She identifies the root causes of polarization, and she gives some sage advice on what we can do to fight this destructive trend.

Community Activist and Candidate Jen Perelman

Jen Perelman, who recently ran in the Democratic Primary for the US House of Representatives representing Florida’s 23rd Congressional district, stops in to talk about her campaign and her community work. Though Jen ran against a popular incumbent, she managed to secure nearly 28% of the vote, coming in with 20,721 votes in her favor. The incumbent was Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is one of the more popular and powerful members of the Democratic caucus within the House.

Jen spends a lot of time working for her community in the Miami area. She has worked with the Juvenile Justice Committee, the League of Women Voters in Broward County, the Democratic Women's Club of West Broward, the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida, the Broward County Bar Association, the Sunrise Movement of South Florida, and the Mobile School Pantry. As a lawyer, she has donated many hours of pro bono work to Probation Station, which helps people on probation as they transition out of the system.

Spend an interesting hour listening to a community activist who really puts it on the line and walks the talk.

A Wrap-up of Our First 50 Episodes

This is a special episode; it celebrates the Alliance Party After Dark's first 50 podcasts! We get somewhat personal in this podcast when discussing our motivations for keeping this weekly show alive for the past year. We also review some of the highlights of the past 50 episodes.

Open the Debates!

Eli Beckerman, founder of an organization known as “Open the Debates,” drops by to describe this organization and its attempts to establish fair and open presidential debates. Eli describes how the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is NOT a government-run fair organization. Quite the contrary, it is a privately run group that operates with extreme bias against anyone who is not a part of the political duopoly. Open the Debates is a grassroots, cross-partisan group that advocates for wrestling the debate stage away from the CPD and opening it up to all candidates running presidential campaigns across the nation. Only by having these debates conducted in an open fashion can ordinary citizens effectively participate in our democracy and understand the issues and, more importantly, understand what our presidential candidates really think about the important issues of the day.

Eli Beckerman is a strategic thinker, organizer, and communications professional working to open up the U.S. political system to new ideas, fresh voices, and better choices. After years of organizing to build the Green Party as a viable political alternative, he started working with Libertarians, political independents, and others to create Open the Debates as a cross-partisan vehicle to transform the political discourse and political realities of the United States.

Fairvote Presents “The Future of American Elections”

This is a rebroadcast of a webinar that FairVote presented on Friday, August 28, 2020 entitled, "The Future of American Elections: Making Every Vote Count." This was a panel discussion headed by David Daley, FairVote's senior communications fellow and author. Guest panelists include Neal Simon, Rebecca Chavez-Houck and Joshua A. Douglas.

Neal Simon is a retired business executive and former independent candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. He is the author of Contract to Unite America: Ten Reforms to Reclaim Our Republic, which recounts stories from campaigns around the country including his own, and provides specific, practical solutions for an improved government.

Rebecca Chavez-Houck is a former Utah State Representative who holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Master of Public Administration, both from the University of Utah. She represented Salt Lake City’s District 24 in the Utah House of Representatives from 2008-18, focusing on public policy related to health and human services as well as voter engagement and access.

Joshua A. Douglas is a professor at the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. He teaches and researches election law and voting rights, civil procedure, constitutional law, and judicial decision making. He is the author of Vote for US: How to Take Back our Elections and Change the Future of Voting, a popular press book that provides hope and inspiration for a positive path forward on voting rights.

Stay tuned for a fascinating hour of discussion regarding Ranked Choice Voting and the Fair Representation Act. All three panelists highlight their perspectives on these topics and describe why they believe election reform is on the rise in our country.

The Politics Industry

Katherine Gehl, co-author of the book entitled, The Politics Industry, How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy, drops in to talk about the ideas that she and co-author Michael Porter present in the book.

Believe it or not, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are multi-billion dollar private industries within a public institution. Together, they’ve consolidated virtually absolute control over all political offices throughout our country. They’ve created an unassailable duopoly that efficiently quashes any third-party competition with extreme prejudice. And what do we citizens get from this duopoly? We get a political system that produces an endless supply of mayhem and partisan fights, producing little, if any, significant legislation. Is the system broken? “The system is working,” Katherine says, “it’s working exactly according to its design.” The problem is that it’s not designed to serve its customers; it is designed to work only in its own self-interest.

In this podcast episode, Katherine describes how the “Five Forces” business framework, originally developed to describe and analyze the nature of competition in for-profit industries, can be used to restructure our political system, thus creating an environment where multiple political parties compete to better serve its customers (citizens). Katherine goes on to explain how the practical and fundamental changes proposed in the book can be implemented at every level of our political system.

The Center for Competitive Democracy

Oliver Hall, Founder, Executive Director and General Counsel for the Center for Competitive Democracy (CCD), describes its mission, objectives and successes on the road to helping make a more perfect union. As stated on its website, "The Center for Competitive Democracy was founded in 2005 to strengthen American democracy by increasing electoral competition. CCD works to identify and eliminate barriers to political participation and to secure free, open and competitive elections by fostering active civic engagement in the political process." Oliver founded the Center for Competitive Democracy  in 2005, and has been actively involved ever since. Tune in for an informative hour and learn how this organization is truly helping secure electoral competition in our nation.

The Sunrise Movement with Grace Tedder

The Sunrise Movement consists largely of younger people whose goal is to stop climate change while creating millions of good jobs in the process. In their words, they are building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people. They advocate heavily for the Green New Deal. Grace Tedder, a local coordinator (“Hub Coordinator”) for the local St. Louis chapter of this nation-wide organization, stops by to talk about the Sunrise Movement and describe its goals both locally and nationally. Young people interested in making a positive change in our society should consider joining this organization and taking action!

Jeffrey Alan Jean, candidate for the New York State Assembly

Jeffrey Alan Jean drops by to talk about his candidacy for the New York State Assembly, District 44. Mr. Jean is a well-educated and highly qualified candidate that cares deeply about his New York City community. After graduating college with multiple degrees, he worked on Wall Street for several years within the securities division of several large Wall Street firms. But after a time, he changed his life and dedicated his efforts to directly helping the community through his training as a behavior analyst. He now works with autistic and underprivileged children, and he struggles to find ways to educate children in the age of social distancing. He is acutely aware of how COVID has highlighted underlying social issues within his community. He wants to use all his talents to make a positive difference for his city and his state, as he runs for a State Assembly position.