Inside “Gamechanger Salon,” The Left’s Action Network

An extensive membership list and a calendar of events offer insight into a leftwing network first revealed by Media Trackers last week. Gamechanger Salon is a members-only Google group run by Billy Wimsatt for forward thinking and top-level political activists on the Left. Members of the group include senior level political hands at NARAL, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO and Planned Parenthood, among dozens of other groups.

Media Trackers first uncovered the network in records obtained through an open records request filed with a University of Wisconsin professor. The membership list released today is far more detailed than the list released last week, and the calendar offers insight into the group’s plans for coordinated action in the future.

Wimsatt, the moderator of Gamechanger Salon according to a member policy manual, currently works as chief ideas officer at Gamechanger Labs, an incubator for leftwing political and social action with the motto, “R&D for the movement.” In 2008, Wimsatt worked for the Obama campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party, according to his LinkedIn profile. A former columnist he is the author of several books and contributed columns to the Huffington Post until 2012.

Other portions of the extensive membership document recommend movies, songs, television shows, recommended websites and blogs, and goals for the online Gamechanger community. Two of the goals listed are “Recruit 200 key community-based organizers, especially women and people of color,” and “Recruit 100 key diverse bloggers, movement journalists, and pundits.” Another goal involves theorizing about a “TED-like conference for folks.”

Dana Balicki
Affiliation: OWS

I’m so new to this list that this is actually my first post. I’m Dana Balicki, currently living in Brooklyn...my formative activisting came when working with the media analysis, Project Censored, for 5 years throughout college as well as rather creative and raucous anti-war organizing on campus. I practically majored in ‘how to beat bureaucracy’ by the end of my school career. From 2004-11 I worked with the fabulous ladies (and fellas) at CODEPINK as Book Midwife (yes, my title), Comms Coordinator and National Campaign Director, and was up in the mix of national/international anti-war organizing all along the way, including 2 yrs on the UFPJ steering committee. For the past two years I’ve done various jobs with non-profits and social-justice oriented projects and campaigns, helping with communications strategies in various capacities (from good ol’ press advisories and poundin’ the phones to all things social media). The last year has had me in all things Occupy, with the majority of my work happening on the OWS PR Team. We are still coordinating daily. I’m also a certified empowerment coach and work with folks in a one-on-one capacity (focus is mindset) and with individuals looking to launch/revamp a project/campaign/business to get clear on their vision/goals and move those goals into action (focus is mindset and skillset). On a personal note (though everything above is personal enough) I’m from the Valley, the porn capital of the world, and I also write short-form personal essays and poetry. I have two cats, twin boys—one that looks likePuss in Boots when he makes that sad doe-eyed face, and one that looks like Templeton from Charlontte’s Web. My partner is a painter. I love sending animated gifs instead of written emails and you know you’re on my sh*t list if you start getting calls from journalism students. That’s all! 12-27-12

Ludovic Blain - Berkeley, CA

ludovicspeaks@gmail.com

Twitter: @ludovicspeaks

Director, Progressive Era Project

anti-racist organizer, formerly in environmental justice, campaign finance, voting rights, student organizing, closing the racial wealth gap, consumer protection, health advoacy. also have had focus on progressive leadership transitions between boomers and Xers and Yers

“ I’m Ludovic Blain, a Bronx-born Berkeley-residing 2nd generation Haitian American Prince and dog lover. Much of my work has been being one of the first POC working to de-monoracialize predominately white parts of various progressive movement strands, ranging from campaign finance, environment, media strategy and other stuff.
I started at NYPIRG (at CCNY in Harlem) in 1989-1999 doing a mix of campaign finance, tobacco control and environmental work. Organized on campus, and in Harlem, ended up lobbying at the city and state levels. Co-founded the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance after attending the First POC Environmental Leadership Summit. Was greatly impacted by the activists from around the world while attending the UN Conference on Environment and Development youth Prepcom. Also did some work in Northern Ireland during this time with oppressed Catholic communities, and get a sense of racialization amongst white folk. Did a little work in Haiti, The Gambia and Denmark as well. Interesting stuff.
Left to start up the NY office of We INTERRUPT This Message, one of the first anti-racist media strategy centers. Our work building the capacity of POC folk to do our own communications strategy work was in reaction to the emerging white liberal strategy of countering racist right wing frames with even more racist frames (a la don’t pass prop 187 because virulent Mexicans will sit next to white kids on a bus and make them sick-that was an actual white left-funded ad!). This work helped to build what became the media justice movement.
Went to Demos for 5 years. Helped start up the national right to vote campaign, focused on supporting state-based voting rights campaigns for folk who’ve been in the criminal justice system. Also did work getting states (including MT) to implement Election Day Registration. At the same time led an initiative with Frances Kunreuther looking at generational attitudes towards progressive non-profit leadership, focusing on POC Xers and Yers.
Left NY (but kept my NY nationalism) and moved to California in ‘05, worked on a variety of things. Previous to my current gig, most proud of the ‘08 website www.stopdogwhistleracism.com, and my work with the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Project.
Now i advise a key set of CA donors on their collaborative c3 and political giving, focused on bring a 2nd progressive era by building power in communities of color with an explicit racial justice lens. Had some victories in ‘12 funding progressive infrastructure that ran the table in San Diego (new GCer Levin Sy led all kinds of successful campaigns for congress, mayor, council, county supervisor, state senate, school board and bond...), and got progressive 2 progressive POC congressfolk, plus some state legislative and county supervisors in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

I have a 3 year old who i hope to one day take to Haiti, where i spent summers growing up, a partner who keeps me grounded, and I’m sad that neither my Giants nor Steelers are in the playoffs now. And given how society is going i sometimes wonder if the cylons or terminators will be right to intervene. At best the jury is still out. 1/10/13”

Kevin Bondelli

kbondelli@gmail.com

Future Majority

Twitter: @kbondelli

“I’ve been really bad about emails recently so sorry to be late to the party in doing this. I started out by joining the Arizona State University Young Democrats and the Gore campaign in Fall of 2000. Throughout my time at Arizona State I held various volunteer positions on campaigns including chair of ASU Students for Kerry in 2003-2004. I was Undergraduate Student Government Vice-President of ASU in 2003-4 as well and started working more on college affordability and LGBT issues. I graduated in 2005, became involved in the national arm of the Young Democrats of America holding various roles ranging from Southwest Region Director to Chief of Staff. In 2006 I was hired as Internet Organizer and the Arizona Democratic Party, took over as Non-Tradition Campaigns Director later that year and ran Internet and Technology programs there until mid 2007. Since then I have worked various campaign gigs from city council to U.S. Senate races and have consulted for political campaigns and non-profits. The main reason I am on this list is that in 2008 Michael Connery invited me to join Future Majority first as a writer, then as an editor.

tl;dr - My background is youth organizing and political technology. 1/2/13”

From another FR thread today:

” - - - Here is the list as it stands today, courtesy of Buckeye Texan, as published on Free Republic (hat tip: Clarice Feldman):

Spencer Ackerman - Wired, FireDogLake, Washington Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
* Name removed by request of journalist.
Ben Adler - Newsweek, POLITICO
Mike Allen - POLITICO
Eric Alterman - The Nation, Media Matters for America
Marc Ambinder - The Atlantic
Greg Anrig - The Century Foundation
Ryan Avent - Economist
Dean Baker - The American Prospect
Nick Baumann - Mother Jones
Josh Bearman - LA Weekly
Steven Benen - The Carpetbagger Report
Ari Berman - The Nation
Jared Bernstein - Economic Policy Institute
Michael Berube - Crooked Timer, Pennsylvania State University
Brian Beutler - The Media Consortium
Lindsay Beyerstein - Freelance journalist
Joel Bleifuss - In These Times
John Blevins - South Texas College of Law
Eric Boehlert - Media Matters
Sam Boyd - The American Prospect
Ben Brandzel - MoveOn.org, John Edwards Campaign
Shannon Brownlee - Author, New America Foundation
Rich Byrne - Playwright
Kevin Carey - Education Sector
Jonathan Chait - The New Republic
Lakshmi Chaudry - In These Times
Isaac Chotiner - The New Republic
Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Michael Cohen - New America Foundation
Jonathan Cohn - The New Republic
Joe Conason - The New York Observer
Lark Corbeil - Public News Service
David Corn - Mother Jones
Daniel Davies - The Guardian
David Dayen - FireDogLake
Brad DeLong - The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkeley
Ryan Donmoyer - Bloomberg News
Adam Doster - In These Times
Kevin Drum - Washington Monthly
Matt Duss - Center for American Progress
Gerald Dworkin - UC Davis
Eve Fairbanks - The New Republic
James Fallows - The Atlantic
Henry Farrell - George Washington University
Tim Fernholz - American Prospect
Dan Froomkin - Huffington Post, Washington Post
Jason Furman - Brookings Institution
James Galbraith - University of Texas at Austin
Kathleen Geier - Talking Points Memo
Todd Gitlin - Columbia University
Ilan Goldenberg - National Security Network
Arthur Goldhammer - Harvard University
Dana Goldstein - The Daily Beast
Andrew Golis - Talking Points Memo
Jaana Goodrich - Blogger
Merrill Goozner - Chicago Tribune
David Greenberg - Slate
Robert Greenwald - Brave New Films
Chris Hayes - The Nation
Don Hazen - Alternet
Jeet Heer - Canadian Journolist
Jeff Hauser - Political Action Committee, Dennis Shulman Campaign
Michael Hirsh - Newsweek
James Johnson - University of Rochester
John Judis - The New Republic, The American Prospect
Foster Kamer - The Village Voice
Michael Kazin - Georgetown University
Ed Kilgore - Democratic Strategist
Richard Kim - The Nation
Charlie Kireker - Air America Media
Mark Kleiman - UCLA The Reality Based Community
Ezra Klein - Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect
Joe Klein - TIME
Robert Kuttner - American Prospect, Economic Policy Institute
Paul Krugman - The New York Times, Princeton University
Lisa Lerer - POLITICO
Daniel Levy - Century Foundation
Ralph Luker - Cliopatria
Annie Lowrey - Washington Independent
Robert Mackey - New York Times
Mike Madden - Salon
Maggie Mahar - The Century Foundation
Amanda Marcotte - Pandagon.net
Dylan Matthews - Harvard University
Alec McGillis - Washington Post
Scott McLemee - Inside Higher Ed
Sara Mead - New America Foundation
Ari Melber - The Nation
David Meyer - University of California at Irvine
Seth Michaels - MyDD.com
Luke Mitchell - Harper’s Magazine
Gautham Nagesh - The Hill, Daily Caller
Suzanne Nossel - Human Rights Watch
Michael O’Hare - University of California at Berkeley
Josh Orton - MyDD.com, Air America Media
Rodger Payne - University of Louisville
Rick Perlstein - Author, Campaign for America’s Future
Nico Pitney - Huffington Post
Harold Pollack - University of Chicago
Katha Pollitt - The Nation
Ari Rabin-Havt - Media Matters
Joy-Ann Reid - South Florida Times
David Roberts - Grist
Lamar Robertson - Partnership for Public Service
Sara Robinson - Campaign For America’s Future
Alyssa Rosenberg - Washingtonian, The Atlantic, Government Executive
Alex Rossmiller - National Security Network
Michael Roston - Newsbroke
Laura Rozen - POLITICO, Mother Jones
Felix Salmon - Reuters
Greg Sargent - Washington Post
Thomas Schaller - Baltimore Sun
Noam Scheiber - The New Republic
Michael Scherer - TIME
Mark Schmitt - American Prospect, The New America Foundation
Rinku Sen - ColorLines Magazine
Julie Bergman Sender - Balcony Films
Adam Serwer - American Prospect
Walter Shapiro - PoliticsDaily.com
Kate Sheppard - Mother Jones
Matthew Shugart - UC San Diego
Nate Silver - FiveThirtyEight.com
Jesse Singal - The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
Ann-Marie Slaughter - Princeton University
Ben Smith - POLITICO
Sarah Spitz - KCRW
Adele Stan - The Media Consortium
Paul Starr - The Atlantic
Kate Steadman - Kaiser Health News
Jonathan Stein - Mother Jones
Sam Stein - Huffington Post
Matt Steinglass - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
James Surowiecki - The New Yorker
Jesse Taylor - Pandagon.net
Steven Teles - Yale University
Mark Thoma - The Economists’ View
Michael Tomasky - The Guardian
Jeffrey Toobin - CNN, The New Yorker
Rebecca Traister - Salon
Karen Tumulty - Washington Post, TIME
Tracy Van Slyke - The Media Consortium
Paul Waldman - Author, American Prospect
Dave Weigel - Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
Moira Whelan - National Security Network
Scott Winship - Pew Economic Mobility Project
J. Harry Wray - DePaul University
D. Brad Wright - University of NC at Chapel Hill
Kai Wright - The Root
Holly Yeager - Columbia Journalism Review
Rich Yeselson - Change to Win
Matthew Yglesias - Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly
Jonathan Zasloff - UCLA
Julian Zelizer - Princeton University
Avi Zenilman - POLITICO - - - .”

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