You don’t have to take my word for it – Khalil Byrd is the CEO:
“Kahlil Byrd, chief executive of Washington-based Americans Elect, told the Harvard audience that the organization has raised $21 million of the $30 million it estimates it would need to nominate a ticket and qualify it for the November 2012 ballot in every state.
The group has secured ballot status in eight states, including Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, and expects to be qualified in 28 by the end of the year, he said. The 22 remaining states, including Massachusetts, do not allow the process to begin until the year of the general election.
Byrd, a Republican who has worked for Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts and a Democrat, described the effort as “reimagining a new way to run elections.’’
The organization, he said, is “a very different and expansive undertaking’’ that has gathered more than 1.9 million signatures for its petitions. One million individuals have visited the organization’s website, americanselect.org.
He is not the only Americans Elect official with a Bay State connection. State Representative Daniel B. Winslow, Republican of Norfolk, is the group’s chief legal counsel. Winslow, who served about two years as counsel to Governor Mitt Romney, supports Romney in the Republican presidential nominating process.
Because he is an outside contractor, Winslow said, he is exempt from corporate bylaws requiring neutrality by officers and directors.
“I want to live in an America where I agonize over great choices on the ballot, not the lesser of two evils,’’ he said of his reason for working for the reform group.
Kahlil Byrd, chief executive of Washington-based Americans Elect, told the Harvard audience that the organization has raised $21 million of the $30 million it estimates it would need to nominate a ticket and qualify it for the November 2012 ballot in every state.
The group has secured ballot status in eight states, including Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, and expects to be qualified in 28 by the end of the year, he said. The 22 remaining states, including Massachusetts, do not allow the process to begin until the year of the general election.
Byrd, a Republican who has worked for Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts and a Democrat, described the effort as “reimagining a new way to run elections.’’
The organization, he said, is “a very different and expansive undertaking’’ that has gathered more than 1.9 million signatures for its petitions. One million individuals have visited the organization’s website, americanselect.org.
He is not the only Americans Elect official with a Bay State connection. State Representative Daniel B. Winslow, Republican of Norfolk, is the group’s chief legal counsel. Winslow, who served about two years as counsel to Governor Mitt Romney, supports Romney in the Republican presidential nominating process.
Because he is an outside contractor, Winslow said, he is exempt from corporate bylaws requiring neutrality by officers and directors.
“I want to live in an America where I agonize over great choices on the ballot, not the lesser of two evils,’’ he said of his reason for working for the reform group.”
The group bills itself as the “first direct primary for a presidential nomination” and as not being affiliated with any party. Publicly, it claims to have $20,000,000.00 in the bank. Definitely, “thinking outside the box” and outside the corridors of established power-brokers.
More choice is good.
I think that the American’s Elect website and questionnaire is very well done – even if it goes back and forth and uses some of what I would call “When did you stop beating your wife” type questions.
Do you think the process will end with, say, Jesse Ventura drafted as the nominee?
The staffing, leadership, mission statement etc. are almost too slick, though, BUT this is the first serious challenge I have seen to the two party corporate money lock down on the nomination and development process for presidential candidates.
Prominent Republican state representative with a penchant for characterizing himself as being above the political fray involves himself with a non-partisan group? Nice meme for Dan Winslow.
In a Boston Globe article, Winslow says he can support Romney and work for the supposedly non-partisan Americans Elect because he’s an “independent contractor” acting as general counsel. Yet, a letter to the Florida Elections Commission lists Winslow as general counsel AND secretary. Americans Elect’s annual report to Rhode Island’s Secretary of State lists him as secretary of the organization. On this form, he’s not listed as general counsel at all. Independent contractor or inside player?
Tom Friedman, of course, praises Americans Elect, but mentions they are backed by “financed with some serious hedge-fund money.” Americans Elect, however, has taken steps to hide its donors, Democracy 21 circumventing campaign finance laws to do so.
IIrregular Times, which looks a little like a Big Labor front, explains why Americans Elect changed its status from a 527 to a 501c.
Irregular Times reports,
And who founded Americans Elect? Peter Ackerman, a noted tax cheat and former top aide to Michael Milliken, who had a lobbyist introduce legislation that would benefit exactly one taxpayer: him. He’s a smart guy, to be sure.
Senior political advisor? Pollster Doug Schoen, Fox New contributor, and anti-Occupy Wall Street guy.
So is this all just a front for Romney? Is it a done deal that their nominee will miraculous be Mitt so that he’s both the Republican’s choice and “America’s choice”?
Mitt. I think it’s more sophisticated than that. It’s more like a stalking horse for the business class.
Here’s what one its principals said:
It’s also questionable whether or not Americans Elect is a political party.
I had not realized that the board of directors can overrule the much-hyped national nominating process. Perhaps Dan would care to comment on how that provision advances the goals of democracy and transparency?
There is a provision for “automatic” qualification if a person has run a large business, held elected office, and so on. It certainly does raise red anti-democratic flags however that they have add qualification barriers. “You can vote for anyone we say” doesn’t exactly have a post-partisan ring to it.
in the sense that it seems to be a move away from what we normally think of political parties in which (at least in some sense) regular folks have a voice, and toward a true oligarchy in which self-selected, unaccountable Grand Pooh-Bahs decide who is worthy and who is not.
This sums up my feelings perfectly:
attorney/client privilege, don’t you know?
Thanks Dan
This project involves a client of mine, so I necessarily must defer to their communications team regarding public comment. But I am deeply worried that the toxic partisanship and political polarization of our national government is hurting America and our ability to come together to solve the very real problems that we face. The debt-ceiling debate was only the most recent example. I was disgusted by the spectacle of partisans willing to risk the financial standing of the US in the name of Party over country. Most of the great federal legislation in our history was enacted with support of both major political parties. Both now seem incapable of bridging the divide. I am tired of a handful of states (states that do not speak for me, btw) choosing the presidential field before I have any chance to vote. If americanselect.org succeeds in empowering all voters to choose a post- partisan presidential ticket, it will be the most important thing I have ever accomplished in my public life. Sign up and let me know what you think.
Rep. Winslow – I appreciate your work in giving voters more choices in the election. It is interesting that you bring up the debt ceiling debate as an example of the extreme partisanship in our country. In fact, you say you were
What I find odd is that you are supporting our former one-term governor Mitt Romney – one of those extreme partisans who came out against the debt deal.
Is it really true that you are supporting one of these extreme partisans that seems incapable of “bridging the divide”?
It said he supports him in the primary.
As do I. I don’t support him in the general, however.
This part is right on.
This part is not right on. You know, don’t you, Dan, that it is the GOP that has been the spoiler here? The “pox on both their houses” idea isn’t right. Why not just encourage people to vote for the party that has not held the country over a barrel until it gets its way?
Let’s see, we can have a presidential nomination process that is carried out by thousands of public officials, working for the public good, with public monitoring, etc.
Or we could outsource it to a “black box” company and let them tell us who we picked. A company who won’t disclose who is funding it.
Sure.
1. Why isn’t there a mechanism for THE PUBLIC/THE VOTERS to add nominees to America Elects? Seems very oligarchic and anti-democratic as is.
2. Where did the $20 million come from? Donor list required for credibility.
3. If “the people” can be over ridden by “the plutocracy” just how is this an improvement over “the plutocracy” buying candidates in the public process of the two parties?
Just for starters – but I still am of the opinion that the America Elects organization is worth continuing, careful, observation.
Whether I consider it “good” or “an improvement” still remains to be seen.
but there’s that attorney-client privilege thing. It extends to the legal counsel of organizations, even when said counsel was listed as a mere secretary for the organization in Rhode Island.
In the context of the change from 501c to 527, it’s a little troubling that Rep. Winslow can speak for, but not answer questions about, Americans Elect.
As Rep. Winslow demonstrated with his entry into the politics of redistricting earlier this year, keeping the donor lists private is good for business.
The “donate” button at his redistricting website gets you to this message:
Every name I’ve heard mentioned in connection with it is a Republican, except Doug Schoen, every Republican’s favorite token Democrat. The guy used to work for Dems but lately he sounds entirely Republican. And not in the way Joe Lieberman sounds Republican. In the way Jim Demint sounds Republican.
This looks to me like it’s going to be a third-party effort to split Democratic votes and pick up a few swing states. I note that all of the 5 states mentioned here where it has qualified already are swing states. Focusing on swing states is the recipe for partisan monkey business, not a legitimate centrist effort to reform the system.
a front group. My guess is they’d like to have some effect on who gets nominated by the Republican Party.
They did a poll to
But they won’t release any of the results. The top national matches are Buddy Roemer, Dennis Ross, and Trey Gowdy. But who knows for sure what the nation wants when Americans Elect, that paragon of transparency, won’t reveal anything at all about their poll.
And contrary to their bylaws, Christine Todd Whitman AE’s director has been championing John Huntsman.
Maybe the house counsel should take a look at the bylaws?
Electronic polling is so much more efficient.
Hey, is this like Ross Perot’s promised electronic town meeting?
who as we know have been disowned their party.
In the article everyone accept Joe Lieberman mentioned as a candidate is a Republican and Lieberman left his party after it disowned him over his vocal support for the Iraq War.
Why would any of these candidates be worthwhile electing? Colin Powell and Condi Rice were both outmaneuvered by Cheney and Rummy into Iraq. I have no clue what their domestic policy views are. Evan Bayh? What a non entity. He was a deficit hawk and yet deficits rose on his watch as he voted for wars and tax cuts that weren’t paid for.
Thing is, instead of starting with the presidency, a group like this should focus on getting some good people in the Senate. That is where we need reform – to reduce the use of the filibuster and cut deals when needed. But then again, if the only thing this group wants it to produce more so-called business class centrists who will cut benefits for working people while preserving tax breaks for the rich, I would rather they just ran moderates in the Republican Party. That is where Rep Winslow and Co should start. Instead, they have ceded their party to a bunch of lunatics, and Mitt is just another caught in the Tea Party wake.
And as others have commented, this pox on both your houses line is a crock. We have a moderate Democratic Party and a right-wing Republican one. What we need is for moderate Republicans to sack up and challenge the Tea Party for who controls them. Then we could have a more honest debate about our future. It is Republican lunacy that has brought us t our current impasse. Americans Elect will be useless against it unless they confront it head on.
their presidential ticket has to be from more than one party. Get it? Democrat and Republican? That adds up to centrism. How’s this for democracy:
It’s just right wing light. It’s a place for Republicans to go are who are too embarrassed to be linked with a party that has Cain, Gingrich and Perry in the top tier. That is how bad it has gotten, that conventional Republicans have had to found this crap because they don’t have a home in their own party, but yet are too afraid to actually admit they are either not Republicans anymore or know that if they said they support what they support, they would have no support in their current Party. That is the state they’re in. Running against their Party to win back their Party. But maybe it would help everyone out – say if this so-called centrist ran and took votes from GOP nominee an then forced the Republicans to realize they have gone too far right and pulled them closer to the conventional Bob Dole Republicanism of recent past. At least we could have a debate between two normal parties that both agree science matters. But, likely this will all led to nothing.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing to me.
THERE are NO candidates in the list at this site that I would or could vote for AND I cannot nominate anyone.
Dan – will this HUGE deficiency be addressed?