All the sciences that tell assignment that tell us we can change is real, destroy every job in this country, we can destroy the epacultural industry, the will control 95 of the water in the state. Just like they control the water in california. The agriculture industry in california is in deep trouble. We can destroy all of these jobs in this nation. We can destroy industries. Heres the truth. Destroyed at the altar of ideology. This is about ideology, not science. One of the reasons to be the , what ever ituse is, one of the reasons to be the Global Energy powerhouse is not just because it creates jobs. It is not just because it makes it is also because we need those industries in order to be able to innovate. Innovation, not regulation. [indiscernible] ms. Fiorina the question is about iran, isis, the issues that are critically important. Whether it is sitting with Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu privately, i know this. When the United States of america does not stand with our enemies,d confront our it is a dangerous place. We must care for those [applause] washington, d. C. , talks about fixing a lot of things. Toneed someone who knows how translate a good speech into results. I do. Calls. Make two phone the first one will be to my friend netanyahu. We stand with israel. The second will be to the Supreme Leader of iran. He will get the message. Untile message is this facilityevery military any time for inspections, the United States will make it as difficult as possible for you to in the economic system. The rest of the world has moved on. We have to cut off the money flow. They are a signal loud and clear that theadversary United States of america is back in the leadership business. [applause] i would not call Vladimir Putin. Begin rebuilding the defense program. Conduct aggressive military exercises and he would get the message. [applause] i would hold a camp david summit immediately. The king of jordan is a man i have known for a long time. He is going to china to get that help. Us. Kurds have been asking allies know this is their fight and they are prepared to fight it. They cannot fight it without leadership and resolve from the United States of america. [applause] [indiscernible] ms. Fiorina the question is about alzheimers. I understand the heartbreak. You who have followed my know i believe the government is broken. Huge, powerful, corrupt. Agree the American People with me. We need to be investing in research around these critical diseases just like we need to be investing more in mental health, treatment of addiction. It is amazing to me that every time we say there is something important when he to invest more they say, we need more money. Repair more roads and bridges, we need more money. How can it be that the federal government gets more money every deficitsar, debts and increase every year, and the important things always cost more money. We never look at how we are spending the money. We do not even know anymore how we are spending our money. When you have a bloated consequence for failure to perform, guess what happens. It quits performing. Reform. Tax we need to hold people accountable. We need to know where our money is being spent. [applause] foreral government the Strongest Military on the face of the planet. The government has to invest in those things that are important and quit spending money on those things that are not important or do not work. [applause] [indiscernible] ms. Fiorina the question was about Big Companies have too much influence. Ask yourself a basic question. Complicated is so ,hat you dont understand it what do you suppose the chances are of getting taken advantage up . 100 , you are right, sir. The sizeot just reduce and power of the federal government. We must simplify. Government, we must simplify. A 73,000 page tax code. By the time i left hewlettpackard we had turned it into a 90 billion firm. We lead in every product category and market segment. If i didnt like that tax code, i could hire lobbyists and lawyers to figure out how to take advantage of that. The reason we are destroying for businesses now is because of Small Business cannot handle the weight of the complexity. The only way to level the Playing Field is to dramatically simplify. What happens . A big get eger. If you doubt that, look at dodd frank. They have become even bigger, more powerful wall street banks and thousands of Community Banks have gone out of business. What happened to obamacare . What do you see happening right now . Health Insurance Companies are getting bigger. Drug companies are getting bigger. Powerly way to curb the of the big, powerful, wealthy connected to well is to simplify. If anybody can fill out the form , you dont need to higher mountains of accountants, lawyers, and lobbyist to figure it out. [applause] yes, maam. In the pink and white striped shirt. Is how do i feel about the planned parenthood videos . I am prolife. [cheers and applause] i believe that science is proving us write every day. Every day. You dont have to be prolife to understand the hideous nature of what is going on here. This is about the moral character of our nation. When you can have employees who target poor communities, who are women into later term abortion so that they can more successfully harvest body parts even though late term abortions are demonstrably bad for women, you can only be horrified when you see employees picking over a petri dish for body parts while they say look, its a baby. There is no excuse, planned parenthood must be defunded. [cheers and applause] anyone who buys the democrat argument, with all due respect, that this is about Womens Health, you need to look at all of the other facilities that provide Womens Health services. You need to look at how many mammograms they actually do. You need to look and understand the foundation of planned parenthood which from its inception targeted poor women, African American and hispanic there are more africanamerican lives aborted in new york city than born. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not right. [applause] so, if congress does not have the courage to defund planned parenthood, i tell you what when we go to zerobased budgeting, we will find the money to defund planned parenthood. [applause] have one final question. In the time that i have left, let me just leave you with this thought. This is the most extraordinary country on the face of the planet because our founders knew what my mother taught me, everyone has god given gift. I am a conservative because i know that no one of us is any better than another one of us. Everyone of us is gifted by god with the capacity to live a life of purpose and meaning. Our founders created a country in which you have a right to find and use your godgiven gifts. Thats what they meant when they said life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. , she stands tall and strong, as america must always the. She is clear eyed and resolute. She does not shield her eyes, but she looks out as america always must and holds her torch high. She knows she is a beacon of hope in a troubled world. Lady justice holds a sword at her side because she is a fighter. A warrior. She holds the scale. She says that all of us are equal in the eyes of god and all of us must be equal in the eyes of government. She wears a blindfold. With that blindfold i believe that she says it must the true. Nation, in this ittury, ladies and gentlemen can be true. It doesnt matter who you are or what you look like. It does not matter your circumstances or how you start. Here in this nation every americans life must be filled with the possibility that comes from their godgiven gift of liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] thank you so much. Ive got to go. Thank you. [applause] more of your phone calls from the iowa state fair. Separately the from carly theina. Specifically remarks from Carly Fiorina. She took questions on minimum wage and planned parenthood. Patent reform. Several other issues. Here are the numbers to call. Leslie, we go right to you in silver creek. Republican line. Hello. Caller how is this . Host go ahead. Caller miss fiorina, i think that she is she has a good thing going right now. Aam glad that she is not political insider. Saying andhat she is doing is what the American People need to hear. Host what are you specifically hearing that you like . Basically everything that she says. I think it is time that need a woman in the white house. It seems like the last one we thanint done much better anybody else and it might be a good time to have a little bit of a housecleaning. Hope that maybe if she could also help to push maybe for term limits on representatives and senators. Because i think they are letting. T turn into a career too many career politicians as far as in congress. They have got term limits on president s, why can they not have term limits on senators and representatives . Host lets go on to syracuse, new york. Independent line. Hello, syracuse. Caller hi. Host what is your name, sir . Caller im richard thomas. Host ok, go right ahead. Caller im on the air now . Host yes. Tell us your reflection on the speech. Caller Carly Fiorina, is that what we are talking about . Host yes, sir. Caller i really thought she was great. I just want to say [no audio] host i think that we lost that call. Lets try frank, illinois, republican line. Are you there . Caller i think that she was right on her viewpoints. She did not even hesitate when asked a question. I liked her viewpoints on isis and planned parenthood. Host anything else . Caller thats it. Host what kind of a chance do you think she has moving forward . Caller i dont think she had much of a chance when she started, but with more exposure like this, it might be time for a lady in the white house. This lady, not hillary. Host Lindsey Graham is coming up at 4 00 today. We will have it live here on cspan. We will probably do another round of faux phone calls. Scott walker, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham. Alan is on the line now from washington. Hey, alan. Caller good morning. Hello. I like fiorina except for two things. One, when she was the chairman and ceo of hp, it was not as good as it used to be. It was a Great Company and it isnt anymore. Those computers are third rate. Secondly, i agree with most of , except ford defunding planned parenthood. Even as a republican i wish we would keep religion out of politics. Unfortunately that is how many think about these things and it is not good. There are women who are poor in this country and need medical care and they get it through planned parenthood. If they would stop focusing on abortion i think the issue would go away. I think she has a chance. If we are realistic, trump does not have a chance. At least i hope not. He is an idiot. I think it is best that we go with professional politicians who know something about how the government works. Host do you have a name in mind . Caller i think it is between jeb push and hillary. Outside, maybe mr. Biden. Otherwise i dont think anyone else has a chance. Now to dan and iowa. Missouri valley, iowa. Good afternoon. Caller hello. I think that carlys 100 right on the issues. Froms need to take a page her ideas. I would really like to see her go head to head with hillary. I think she would make a fool out of her. Host hey, dan, what are your reflections on the process overall . The iowa state fair, how its all working. You know, as an iowa state voter. Like that firsthand look at the candidates. I just think that its better than watching them on tv. You get more of an idea of what without thee default type of setting. Host ok. Thats an iowa viewpoint there. Will king writes just one viewer and what he would like to see. A little bit more promotional material for you, letting you know what is coming up here at the iowa state fair. Is senator marco rubio. He will be up at 11 34 the iowa state there. Live again here on cspan, day byd later in the Ohio Governor john kasich, joining the fair to speak to time. At 5 p. M. Eastern our continuing coverage from iowa all week and into this weekend. If you missed any of the speeches that happened in the last several days, go to watch themorg and yourself. Megan is calling from knoxville. Is that tennessee . Caller it is. Host what did you think about Carly Fiorinas beach . Caller i actually speech . Actually like her. She seems against the big banks. Even though im a democrat, i think it is what a lot of democrats are trying to say as well. Bernie sanders was on earlier. To make the connection is odd. Especially when you look at the differences between the party parties. But i do agree that it is killing america. The big banks and things like that. ,er planned parenthood comments you know i have an issue with the republican party. Its not really prolife, its just throw earth. I could take her more seriously even prolifers, no one wants to get an abortion. Of horse its not fun or a great idea. Of course its not fun or a great idea. People, likegious catholic men, say you have to have the scaffolding in place once these children are born if you really have a broader conversation about what the reality of pro life really is. If they want to do that on their so ox is. So. Soap boxes. So. Moving on now to miami, florida. How are you . Caller doing great. Host you watched. What did you hear from Carly Fiorina . Number one, shes not a politician. Number two, i like that she is a businesswoman. Number three, she is a family woman and she has morals and is conservative. That isa president going to look for everyone in america. E are all americans that is one thing she will do. Number two, she will help the business community. Us middleclass people are having a hard time with our differences through all the government regulation. Businesses with all of this government regulation. All of the middle class are suffering. Change that that is a that she will bring to our country that we will all benefit from. Host isabel there. Moreu are looking for context on Carly Fiorina, there is this piece by Amber Phillips called the fix. Fiorinas polling bump is even better than we thought. See her eager to polling numbers. Sure, she spoke at the socalled kiddie table debate. Really a 5 00 forum featuring this the bottom seven candidates, but the media made some notes about how wells open and first and poised she appeared. She was one of the nights in a unequivocal winners of either of the debates. Her slight surge in the polls in the debate after the debate comes after she remains less known to many voters. She is grainy gaining ground. Gaining ground. They have a little chart here, saying that 39 of folks know who knew who she was before the debate. It went up to 53 afterwards. Tom is on the line now from beaverdam, wisconsin. Independent caller. Caller hey, how are you doing . Host good. Caller i listened to Carly Fiorina just a little bit ago. I got the same impression i got the first time i heard Ronald Reagan speak. Host what was it . Caller what an inspiration this country can be if we just get act to the basics, be the leader in this world. Basics,get back to the be the leader in this world. In herhe same feeling little speech in iowa that i got the first time i heard reagan. It was very uplifting. I wish she could have a bigger theater where she could just give one of her speeches to a lot more people that she could reach out to to hear this. Because it was quite uplifting. Quite uplifting. I would be proud to vote for her. Host that was tom, in wisconsin. Moving on to the democratic line. Brooklyn, new york. Patricia. Caller hi, how you doing . Host good. Caller i think that every answer she gave, she was [indiscernible] dr. Carson and i dont care, thats true. Everything that dr. Carson said, that lady realized something. Listen to dr. Carsons speech. Listen to what she was talking about. Thats all, by. Bye. Stewart, from broken arrow, oklahoma, you are going to be the last call here. Caller i think that she looked sharp. If it came down to her and hillary i think that she could win. She was nice. She seemed warm. Kind of like a fun and, but also somebody who is very driven and who has been very sick vessel in her personal life. I like what she said. She smart. Shes smart. In. thank you for calling more political programming this afternoon and this evening. We will let you know that Lindsey Graham will be up at 4 to make his time speech at the iowa state fair. In primetime tonight we will review all the speeches today, beginning with Governor Scott walker, republican from wisconsin. The Carly Fiorina speech that we just saw a live, and then Lindsey Graham one more time. See you in a few hours for more live coverage. Tonight, on the communicators he was into scifi, computers. That pushed him. He heard about Silicon Valley and trained of getting to america from a young age. At 17 he just ran away from home and did it. Businessweek technology reporter, ashlee vance, on elon musk. Ashley he is seen as this steve jobs figure. There is a bit of him that is like that, for sure. And attention to detail. Hard. Hes his workers i tend to lean more towards this at us an idea. He has a lot to prove. What i have really taken away is that he is this guy who has gotten these thousands of engineers, the brightest of the bright, these very hardworking individuals. He is able to get product out of them that can be commercialized and really change the industry. To me he is the guy that has he has combined software and hardware, atoms and bits in a way that no one else has. Tonight, on the communicators, on cspan2. Travel to communities across america. The idea behind the cities tour is to take the programming for American History television and book tv on the road, beyond the beltway, to produce pieces that are more visual. That provide a window into these cities that viewers would not normally go to that have these rich histories and a rich literary scene as well. Already of people have heard the history of the big cities. New york, l. A. , chicago. What about smaller ones . Like albany . What is the history of them . We have been to 75 cities. We will have hit 95 by 2016. Areost of our followings event coverage. These are not that. They are shorter. They take you to some place that is a home, a historic site. We partner with cable affiliates visit the history and of the of debris us various cities. In essence, it is the cable industry bringing us there. We are really looking for great characters. You really want your viewers to be able to identify with these people that we are talking about. It is an experiential type of program where we take people on the road to places where they can touch things, see things. Its not just local history. A lot of that plays into a national story. If someone is watching it should be enticing enough that they can get the idea of a story feel like this is just in our backyard, lets go see it. We want viewers to get a know that place. Just from watching one of our pieces. As we do with our all of our coverage, it leads into what we do on the road. You have got to be able to communicate the message in order to do this job. It has done the one thing that we wanted it to do, build relationships with the city and our Cable Partners and gather some great programming for American History tv and book tv. Watch the cities tour on the cspan networks to see where we are going next. Our schedule is on cspan. Org citiestour. And now i look at the race and gender makeup of our elected officials and whether it reflects the demographics of the american public. This is from the annual net nations Conference Held in phoenix, arizona, in july. It is under one hour and 20 minutes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on this tackling structural barriers to democracy. I am jennifer fernandez, with the womens donor network. A community of 200 individual women philanthropists leveraging their resources and power to create a more fair and just world. What we are going to do, we have 3 four amazing women on this panel this morning. We will have an awesome discussion and we hope to hear from all of you. Before we start or to kick us off, i want to ask each of them to introduce themselves and give a little bit of a flavor about their work and go from there. Can i start with you, christie . Chrissie . Chrissie is this on . Navajoitizen of the nation. My background is in Community Organizing in los angeles, the largest urban Indian Community in the country at the county level. Chairperson of the l. A. City county Indian Commission and an elected member of the California Democratic native caucus. I am currently working on a broad project about how to create a more reflect of that is more inclusive of native American People and leaders. For the funding that went to the new organizing institute, they found that. 3 of elected leaders from the county to federal level are native american, which is just atrocious. Notevidence that we are included in this american political system and democracy. We lose a lot from that. We have a lot of talents to contribute. We are working on a project where we are interviewing native american leaders throughout the country about the structural barriers that preclude us from participating in the american democracy. And what the strategies are for us to be represented in those spaces. I will share more about the project when we get into the question and answer project, but i will hand it to jessica. Jessica good morning, thank you for joining us. Withme is jessica byrd, threepoint strategies, a firm that works with candidates who are running for office. It is currently completely staffed by black women. One of the reasons i am here is i have spent the last decade being positively addicted to campaigns. I have noticed all the ways that candidates of color are kept from the ballot. Mainstream organizations are not really to engage candidates of color in a meaningful way. Calledrking on a project the pathway project. To create aort coalition of people of color working on Civic Engagement in their communities. So that we can build a plan together to grow political power across the country. Will talk more about that as we move into the conversation. Good morning, everyone. My name is katie hobbs. Her might just cut out mic just cut out. Katie Senate Minority leader from arizona, im really ashen it about turning arizona to a more progressive state, which we used to do a long time ago. Im a social worker, thats my background. In addition to serving in the legislature, part of my role is to get more democrats elected. I know that this is a nonpartisan group, but i am a democrat. Emerge is part of a National Organization looking to train Democratic Women to run for office. We have been in arizona for 11 years. I am just really passionate about getting more women elected. As a social worker and a woman, if you look at my legislative record you would see that i focused on issues that we consider womens issues, but i consider them to be womens issues. And as a whole help communities in general. Thats kind of my focus as a legislator and focus. Thank you all for being here. Hianthi hi, my name is shant gonzales. I am really excited that we are talking about this. School Board Members in california are not paid, for the most art. There are real barriers to normal people being able to run for school board. There are a lot of elected offices that are unpaid. It means our communities of color, People Like Us who share our values are often precluded from serving. That is why i am six i am excited that we are talking about this today. I think i will stop there. Jennifer great. For those of you who came late, this conversation is called who leads us. We are focusing on how we can reflectsemocracy that and includes the people it is supposed to serve. To help frame this conversation what i am going to do is share some of the research that we did commission at the womens Donors Network that helps us to understand where we are right now when it comes to the race and gender of our elected leaders. Ok, so, we started this project last year. It comes down to this simple idea. Measure what matters. When you look around the country and the things that we do mender by gender u. S. Census, obviously. College universities track race and gender to make sure everyone is included and has access. More and more Big Companies are starting to release eight on the race and gender of their employees. It has long been known that the more diverse or team, the Better Outcomes you have. When it comes to our elected leaders and the people in the halls of power who are making decisions every day that affect ,illions of us on every issue it is something that we have not actually measured in a meaningful or deep way. Starting with what we know, there are 314 million of us in the United States. 49 are men. 63 are white. 37 are people of color. The country is changing fast. The u. S. Census bureau predicts will have a we majority of people of color. Given these demographic realities, the womens Donors Network asked to this weston who leads us question who leads us . We were shocked to learn that the answer did not in exist. We had to commission a study to find out. There were 22,000 officials across the united dates, from the county level to the federal level. We did this through a grantee, the center for technology and civic life. Thee was data matching with voter file. There were some electronic surveys that we did in at rutgers. As the grantee likes to say, a lot of really awkward phone calls. They had to manually identified. So, this is what we found. If our country were to reflect if our leaders were to reflect the country and the population, this is how it would look. It is fairly balance, as you can see, between the demographic. Groups this is what it actually looks like. When we put the data together we found that go back so that we can see that again. This is what it actually looks like. Women as a group are actually very underrepresented. We have known these numbers with regards to congress, but we have never known it on a deeper level going down to the county and state. Electednly 29 of all offices. People of color, only 10 . Elected officials across the board, 90 white. You can see it very starkly here. White men are 31 of the population and they control 61 of the political power in this country. What we also did was we created a new measurement called the National Representation index. All of this information is publicly available at whol eads. Us. You can see where your state ranks in terms of being reflected. We created this score, the 5. 7. The higher the score, the worse off it is in terms of state leaders reflecting the population. And then the interesting thing also was that it was not just red states. It was all the states. It did not really matter whether it was predominantly republican or a democratic state. Overall the makeup of elected officials is what matters. Why does this matter . It is obvious to a lot of us in this room. Find that states with more Political Representation had Better Outcomes on the issues that we care about, whether it is immigration, fair pay, lg bt right, womens rights, Economic Justice or criminal justice. The womens Donors Network a cut of data last week. And in the criminal justice there is a majority people of color, you can see why these power positions really matter. How do we fix it . That is how we will focus our discussion today. We want to get into the barriers out there and how to overcome them and how to do it with a real structural analysis. Much of our work to bring more of a reflective democracy has individualhurling people over these barriers. We have made some progress, but not enough. What we are really saying is how do we take these barriers down . How do we do that not only with ,unding political candidates but with philanthropic money how can we change the system to open it up so that more women and people of color are able to run for office and when . Reflective democracy campaign, we identified four barriers that we think we can change. We are going to talk about that a little bit more today. I will go through them really quickly. The four barriers that we identified, one was what we called gatekeeper networks. This is the part of politics that is wellknown but hidden. Where people decide who is going to get on the ballot. Where are the resources going to go . There is a way that we need to hold those gatekeepers more accountable and there is a way that we can create our own gatekeeper network to prioritize women and people of color. There is also the sense that in civic institutions and Community Organizations that are building a real leadership on the ground, how do we connect them more to a pipeline to be candidates to represent their community in a different way. Money is also a big barrier that we will talk about a lot. But it takes to run a campaign. How do you run for office if you are not independently wealthy . If you have to hold down a job to feed your family . Finally, voting structures, voting systems. The rules of the game, how people vote, matters in terms of who can win on a ballot. If it is a winner take all or ranked voting system. We will talk more about that. This wasnt to say, also mentioned, the womens Donors Network has been funding to find these solutions that really work. We have nine projects, to a food are on our panel today. Our panelwhom are on today. Looking for projects that can be scaled and replicated. These this in putting out requests earlier this year. We got 120 applications and we narrowed it down to these nine, and we are really excited about their work and about sharing that with the rest, so i will leave it at that and get started with the questions, but this is what i wanted to say. Our nation is founded on this idea of by and for the people, and we know that when the people make up the majority of the electorate, and they have never been equally heard and the halls of power, so our goal is to correct that so we can have a more perfect union. Jenifer so lets get started. What are the challenges you see, the big barriers that you see in your work, when it comes to women and people of Color Running for offices and ultimately being elected . Can i start with you, katie . You talked about the a keeper barrier. Katie we started with the party, and we have our alumni represent every level at the democratic party, district chairs, committee people, county chairs, and statewide officers, and that has been really important in terms of choosing who is in the high running, who is tapped and ordered to run, and that is what we were doing to try to address that, and in terms of other groups, we tend to have certain sort of silos, and i think overcoming those silos is really important, and there are districts that are minority districts, and then you have those racial conflicts within those districts, and that is another whole issue that we could spend days on that. Jennifer jessica . Jessica sure. So this project is an effort, again, to organize people of color, and to be honest, it is the first coordinated effort to get people of color around the table who are doing Civic Engagement work. One of the things that people of color, with a five, they are pooling resources, and most of these organizations are not doing an exceptional job of being inclusive, and then the resources that are getting out, they are not getting them. I honestly feel that i have candidates coming out of my years, especially black women and latinas who say, i am ready to run. I am pissed off. Lets do this. And getting them on the ballot is difficult, because there is a complete ecosystem of people, even in the progressive community, whos a fulltime job is to protect that they think are theirs, especially those candidates with the leading organizations and leading the parties that do not get access, and then i think so many of you are working for organizations that i should be connected with, so i hope we have time to talk, so to get this all in the space where we can share resources, we can talk about the candidates, and also expose some of the barriers that have kept some of the People Holding power, so then we can hold some of the organization accountable for not doing a good job, and then also want to ask about the structural racism, the way our money is that, the way the money is raised, the way people are recruited, it was never meant to truly include people of color. This democracy has always really been meant for white, landowning men, so we have a huge job in front of us to start to reimagine and dream, and i think that is what this is, having a space where we are going to dream together about how we are going to do this work. Chrissie with the lack of sovereign nations, we have dual citizen ship, and as american citizens, and there is a long history of buying our participation in politics, and we were granted the right to vote in 1924. Yet, many states resisted implementation, of that law, so we see areas like arizona and new mexico not until 1948, and there was legislation as early as the 1970s. It was not passed, but it was posed. It would affect our ability to vote in state elections, so all of the barriers we are going to talk about is really rooted in that relationship, so there is no reason. There is a systemic way where we were made to feel that we were part of the political system, and meanwhile, we are also working on nation building, so when you think about our leadership role, and there are decisions that people have to look at, whether we are contributing to the electorate, or do we really want to focus on our tribal nations and our own indigenous systems of governance. Jenifer thank you. And, shanthi, can you talk about this gatekeeper . Shanthi my background is in the labor movement, and where i live in california, we still have a strong labor movement, so i think there are two ways where that really benefited me. One is that i had people who could vouch for me. My viability as a candidate, and people would see me work on other peoples campaigns and walk precincts. There are those who do not have the networks, because not only will it be hard for them to get on the ballot, they also will not have experience working on campaigns, and i feel that is so important, the cousin candidates need to know what they are going to get themselves into. It is one thing to tell them, ok, youre going to have to knock on doors everyday for six months. It is another thing to understand the physical demands, and also just knowing about fundraising and knowing about all of the other things that are involved and getting endorsements and things like that. In terms of the big challenges in my work to try to get other women and people of color to run, you know, it is honey, because some of the best position to people, most of the parents in oakland are low income people, so they do not have the luxury of taking x months off from their jobs to be able to run, so some of the people who have the best chance, they are completely shut out of the system, and that is something i am trying to figure out. There are some great organizing in oakland, but no one has ever tapped to them for candidates. Jenifer really talk about the gatekeeper, there is this shadowy network, which is true in a lot of cases, but i think you also become a kind of gatekeeper, and as jessica was saying, she is trying to create this other kind of so can gatekeeping be used for good, and how have you worked with that, essentially, katie and jessica . Katie as a caucus leader, part of my job is to get more democrats on the ballot, but i am able to a lot of times use my role as a party leader and gatekeeper and then have the role merged to kind of and so, definitely, i think it can be a useful role, and what i have done since the beginning of my political involvement is to break down these barriers, and i think as a leader, i see that as part of my job, and i will continue to do that. Jessica i worked with a person who was a reproductive justice leader in the state, and she is the only person who has ever held a conference pacific lee focusing on Environmental Justice in the state of pennsylvania. She is openly gay. She is under the age of 35, and she raised her hand to run for office, because her community was being incredibly gentrified, and the city council seats, there were nine of them, had actually been mapped in a way where there had never been a nonwhite person elected in her city council district, and so she raised her hand, because she was feeling inclusive, and tremendous amounts of anxiety about gentrification, and she decided to run. And this is someone who they had been saying, we really want you to run for office, so she gets her name on the ballot, puts together an incredible team, sets up an office in the middle of her district, and raises a competitive amount of money and gets no endorsements. She is the only person who has ever done on the record Environmental Justice, and all of that was because, and we sat in front at each one of these organizations, and i do not mean to pick on them there are many, many others, and they said, we have a process, and the process is the person who was elected before we cannot endorse in this race, or they automatically get our endorsement. All of those people were acting as gatekeepers, right . And i have been there. And they have very clear processes, and i emphasize, because all of them are like, sorry. It is our job to go back to the organizations and say i prevented a person we believe will carry all of our water from not only accessing the ballot but winning and doing that work, so can we look at our process . It our board are the folks who get to endorse, and they dont reflect the vision, of where we want to go, we should change the process. Have we thought about the way we should measure who should be running for office and who we are engaging, and then help us do that work . I have spent a lot of time in meetings with other progressive folks who truly want to see a more inclusive state for elected officials, and then we go back to organizations that prevent that from happening, and so i encourage all of us to be holding each other accountable to the ways in which people are not able to access the ballot and win, and i just wanted to add quickly too that winning is not everything. If they were looking at the candidate, and she had spent 10 years of her life carrying their water, and maybe a long shot, that could be worth it for your values, and sometimes the winning is in the fight. And she lost, but with the highest vote getting, and that is because she was willing to do it. So i just want to say that in terms of winning as a measure of success. Jenifer yes, that is amazing, and it goes to what we talked about about how to be change the pipeline of leaders so they come out of communities through have a base to support them, which can be valuable to further the work, so i want to go there in terms of why is it that our civic institutions that are maybe women centered or people of color centered are not kind of connected to this political power pipeline, and how can we really think about changing that over time. Shanthi i think people get really freaked out by this c3, c4 distinction, and i think we have to be really clear with people that you may not be able to endorse a candidate, but you can tell candidates, these are the values we think our Community Needs and deserves to see reflected. You can do a lot of things to educate the community as a c3 about where people stand on the issues without endorsing anybody, and i think that is a really important distinction that these have, and they need to just going back to the gatekeeper think for a second, i just wanted to chime in with what you were saying about your role. I think this is a very important part of my role. Often, candidate will not have a chance to present themselves to endorsing organizations until the formal endorsement process has started, and i think candidates need to have an opportunity, maybe a year, head of the organizations, with what the organization thinks is important, and start to have a chance to build a relationship, so i am working with some of the organizations in oakland to start to have candidate information night, because i think that is what it is about. Endorsements are not about how you answer the questions. Endorsements are about the relationship, and a lot of candidates do not understand that, and it takes time, and you have to be aggressive about it. And then, how do we change the incentive for gatekeepers . How do we, as jessica was saying, is it all about the win . And it is called shaming and naming. About who they are going to endorse and who they are not going to endorse. Jenifer what i was saying before, when people need folks to show up to a rally, or it is time for the election, and we need you to call your people and get them out to vote, that is when there is the power of the Community Organizations, but what we are saying is that is great, and we want to those organizations to get called when there is an open the, and it is not just like, hey, my friend john. He is pretty cool. Lets get him in here. But who is not represented on the city council . What voices do we need to bring in, and going to the groups and ask them, who do you have . Who is in the ring . I think that is what i was trying to get at more, how do you change that culture . Any other thoughts on that . Chrissie, do you have any thoughts on this . Chrissie i think there are lot of wonderful things to build on, and a lot of the elements exist, but i think what folks are really saying is that they would like a native table to be able to interface with those other tables, so creating very much more of a strategic way to connect all of the dots, and that requires resources and funding that currently does not exist, and so i think that new mexico is a wonderful example. There are examples in other places, but there is so little happening in other states that we are looking to what are the bright spots . What can we see as best practices . And so i think there are opportunities that we can seize. We are looking at this, and that includes native peoples. 5. 2 million is a 30 increase, and we are expecting that to continue, so we are thinking it is the time for us to do that type of strategic pipeline. Jenifer i think we all know that that plays a huge role in shaping the demographics of the officials that i laid out, so it has two components really. Probably more than two, but the two i want to dive into is the system of money and politics, and i want to talk about that, and then there is just a very. Are of income. There were in massachusetts that one of our members is involved in that fans income is actually the number one barrier for women of color. They have to bring in some money, so starting with the money in politics question, if you want to share from your perspective in your experience, we know that there is a huge number of folks who are working on this issue. It is very complex, but there are solutions, as we know, which have been tried in which continue to be tried, but there has not been a movement, which we have also talked about before, which is centered in the community of color and women. It is not very diverse, and i want to bring that in because that seems like part of our challenge and also part of our opportunity. We know that American People want this system to change, but i think in our communities, they have not released the connection between that issue and then Everything Else they care about, so if they all care about the democracy, and we know that the system of money and politics is one of the biggest barriers, can we sort of get more motivated to change that, so i wanted to throw that out there and ask you to share your thoughts on that. Anyone want to charge . Jessica as we have seen this over time, with engagement, we are not seen voter saying, i cannot wait to vote. Moving folks around and spending millions and millions of dollars to get them to do what they probably would have done anyways, and so i feel like i approach this work really in two ways. One is, again, the structural piece. We have to figure out what we are going to do about all of the independent funding and all of the money that pours into elections, and i know there are lots of people working on it, but even those rooms are not diverse and are not thinking about the way that restricting access is a civil rights issue, so being able to take that will be very, very vital. And because i work with candidates all day long, it is also helping candidates to understand that they do have some of the resources that they need in order to raise competitively. Every state has different laws around who gets paid, who does not, how much you are allowed to contribute, but so many women are like i am not rich. I do not have a lot of friends. I cannot run for office because of that. When they are sitting on a facebook list of 5000 and a phone that has 8000 contacts in it, and they may and name five people that know you are running for office, they would be so excited, and they always have 25, and some of those people have never been asked to contribute meaningfully by a political candidate ever, so engaging that community is also a way for us to do this work better and for them to run for office, so i think there are folks who can better talk about what we can do in terms of elected officials accessing more income, but on the candidates side, there are lots of ways for folks to raise. Shanthi you do not get fired for being on jury duty, and you get paid. And if youre serving in an unpaid office, so i think that is a very simple idea, right, that people are serving their country, and they deserve to be called for that, so there is that. I also think we definitely do need Public Financing of campaigns. I do not know that any old joe schmoe should. I think you have to show some sort of modicum of effort to get matching funds, and in oakland, people running for office get matching funds, but not school board, and unfortunately, that is where a lot of women come into politics some of which is through school board, so i think that is a barrier that accidentally discriminates against women. That is important. And not paying people to serve in public office, it affects them. It affects their family. It affects their ability to do the job well and given the amount gift is the amount of time and effort that it deserves. Im very lucky i have a supportive employer, but believe me, it is not ideal. Jenifer katie, did you want to add anything . Katie i think tucson has their own election. I do not know if there are other cities that do, but we had a matching funds system, and that was struck down by the warts, so for a lot of folks, if you had an opponent who was running traditionally, and they overspent the amount that you were getting, you would get matched up to what they spent, up to like three times, so that was away, and it made it a viable option for a lot of folks, and if you have three people running in a district, and they sort of team up to run a slate, there is 120, 120,000 of funding available, and that is a good amount of money, but as shanthi said, that is where a lot of women come in. I have never thought about that before, but that is really it is sort of putting up a barrier there. I think also, again, connecting to the gatekeeper issue, and jessica touched on this earlier, bringing people into run for office, and we also have an obligation to open those doors for them, too, so helping them get started in their fundraising and Opening Doors to where they can access those funds if they are going to run a campaign, and as an elected official, it is always frustrating to me in terms of how awful the dark money and everything is in campaigns and trying to fight against that and at the same time having to continue to raise money, and i think about all of the time ive spent raising money that i could spend doing other things. Not just that i could enjoy myself more but be more effective as a leader if i was not sitting and dialing for dollars half of the time. Jenifer yes. Chrissie, do you want to share what you have found in your research . Chrissie yes, we have had amazing candidates who decided not to run because mexico is the only state who does not pay their state legislature, so the economic area was named as one of the most difficult to overcome, and there have been some attempts at changing that, but it still has not changed, so that is a huge barrier. There is also, as was mentioned, even some specific bias that we hold. Sometimes a candidate does not seem likely to win, so the money does not come in for them at the onset, and once they are elected, the money comes in, but it is really hard to break through that barrier. We have also found that getting out the vote costs money, especially in communities who have huge geographic expanses, to get people to get to the polling, and communities that have a polling place and do not know it, so there are huge financial and infrastructure challenges, so we are looking at what are some of the innovations and ways to overcome these barriers, so some are offering fellowships to candidates who are running, to offset some of the income barriers, so we are looking at some of the other strategies. Jenifer yes, it seems like these strategies are critical for us to make progress. I want to open it up to you, and one last question i want you guys ladies, sorry, to address. When we started this project, we did a big Polling Research project, and one of the things that came out when we did focus groups with americans, diverse american across the country, this feeling of like, well, yes, it would be great if we can get more women and people of color, but does it really matter, because they just get corrupted by the same system, and it is going to be the same no matter what it is, so i would like for you to share your thoughts if you have them on, like, how do we work with that is to mark how do we work to hold the people we bring in, hold them accountable to a set of values, and also, why does it matter, and how can we help people see the vision of how it would be different from their active. Jessica . Jessica this last year has been an example. I have been incredibly inspired about the Racial Justice across the country, and as i am watching people floods into the street and direct action and to organize themselves, having a really, really hard conversation that is really loaded and has a lot of his three, and then i will hear, an official angry about that organizing, and i thought, well, have you talked to the protesters . Have you talked to the people who are organizing . And then working with activists and them saying, elected leadership is all bad. We need to dismantle the government, start again. It is all corrupt. It is all i am sorry. The name of my firm comes from good policy and elected leaders. That is what transforms communities, and we cannot leave that on the table. They need to let the leaders know why and they can help us carry that water, and we also need everyone to be working towards good Public Policy that helps us all live more meaningful lives, and a think that is part of the triangle, and i think to leave it on the table would have an incomplete sentence in the work we have all been doing, and were at the collected leadership can be meaningful is with the people doing the work. They know their communities the best, and we are trying to find out. Jenifer great. Thank you. Shanthi if you guys do not take anything else away from this session, i would think that you should think about the organization you love the most and make it a point to talk to people there. The board, the staff, the volunteers, about running for office, and introduce them to the people you know who are gatekeepers or who are great fundraisers or have some tool or skill that that person could use. If you know that they share values, because i think that is the best and that we can do, is really to put the idea in peoples heads, because people of color have never thought about or asked about running for office. And women, women need to be asked seven times . Seven or eight times, if i start hearing it over and over, maybe i should run. We have the structural things we have talked about, but it has to start with the idea of, well, this person thinks i should run for office, so i will make a pitch of going to your local office and talking about it. Jenifer chrissie . Chrissie i think the young people need to know, and they need to understand the dual citizenship. A sense of contribution in Civic Society both in a tribal and in a nontribals sense, and to participate in the american extra tribal democracy is really a way to show our sovereignty and to make sure we have elected officials who are going to be very much accountable to the communitys interest, and we do not have that right now. We continue to the road to the white house with senator Lindsey Graham. Afterwards we will get your reaction. Again, that is at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. There is more tomorrow beginning with remarks from senator marco rubio. He will be speaking at 11 30 a. M. Eastern. Later tomorrow it is Ohio Governor john kasich turn to address the fire at 5 p. M. Eastern. That will be live on cspan. Tonight, on the communicators. The was into computers, and scifi, and he had always dreamed of getting to america. From a very young age that is what he finds to do. At 17 he ran away from home and did it. One of Silicon Valleys most active leaders, elon musk. Theres been some have, there is this attention to detail, he pushes his workers very hard. I think he has a lot to prove. What i have taken away as he is a guy who has thousands of bright,s and are very and is able to get products out of them that can be commercialized and that are really changing industry. Who ishe is the guy Building Software and hardware and looking at adams and bits in a way that nobody else is. Coming up next, the house judiciary subcommittee looks at the growing problem of heroin abuse and discusses possible solutions to the epidemic. This is an hour 15 minutes. The subcommittee will be in order. The chair will be authorized to declare recesses at anytime. We welcome our Witnesses Today. Our nation faces a profound challenge with the growing heroin epidemic. Last year the number of those suffered its overdoses in six days this past february. This is a problem that does not discriminate by race or geography. 2013 mortality data was released from the center of Disease Control and prevention. The data shows that while drug deaths related to prescription opiates has remained stable, but the mortality rate associated with heroin increased by 39 . This is more than triple the levels in the fall. That represents the third year in a row that the number of heroin has increased nationwide. The weekend, the Washington Post reported tragic story of a family that lost a child to heroin laced with opiate. It has been responsible for a rash of death across the country. This is what often attracts addicts, because they know it will deliver a potent high. It is obvious that the solution of this problem must involve treatment and enforcement. That is why earlier this year i introduced comprehensive addiction and recovery of 2015. This legislation will take steps to combat them. Or example, the bill addresses link between prescriptions and opioids. And sharing those with authorities in it also authorizes grants in they. It will give you Health Professionals and family members, administrating cataract united also introduced the criminal reform and act. This promotes treatment programs over harsher sentences. We know that approximately 60 of prisoners had Substance Abuse addiction and only 11 receive treatment. This is not a crisis that we can incarcerate ourselves out of. It would authorize the use of medication assisted treatment for the treatment of heroin dependence in prisons. Finally, the act would offer training to federal law officials to help them better identify and respond to individuals with Substance Abuse issues. I look forward to hearing from the Witnesses Today additional approaches to curb this and his time i would yield the gentleman from california has it is the Ranking Member of the subcommittee today. Hearing concerns are the best means to respond to the increasing use of heroin, which is proving to be more deadly. Despite the efforts of federal Law Enforcement, the volume of heroin coming into the country increases. Every year, there brought over the border. From 20082012, the dea notice 232 increase in heroin seizures on the border. The rate of seizures continue to rise in the state. Still, the substance is widely available. It is now cheaper to acquire. Over 600,000 americans use heroin to combat or compound the health risks, the heroin sold today is more deadly than ever before. Death due to has risen. Due to produce as risen. Heroin overdoses in the u. S. Have nearly tripled between years of to thousand and 2013. Due to heroin overdoses now exceeded traffic that in the u. S. It is time that we acknowledge the fact that were dealing with the Public Health care crisis given by a Strong Demand for drugs. Where does this demand . Experts agree that prior to the use of heroin, many came to opioids and prescription drugs. Or listen to correlation is strong. I of heroin on the price of heroin has fallen. For those already addicted to prescription drugs, heroine becomes an attractive option. Many states are implementing drug treatment programs for those it is a prescription drugs and heroin. They are now revisiting older forms of treatment. This includes programs are better oversight on prescriptions. Many departments across the country are employing the use of the you anecdotes to heroin overdose. It has saved the lives of over 10,000 americans 1996. Police departments are also working with prosecutors to create programs to send addicts to rehabilitation. Provide a more permanent solution. It reduces crime rates and expenses of incarceration while allowing the Police Department to allocate resources. As we consider proposals to reduce these heroin, we would do well to consider our focus should be too limiting Substance Abuse, reduce the harm of addiction, i look forward to the discussion of this problem. I would like to admit for the record a letter from the drug policy. Without objection, it will be embellished. I now recognize the chairman from virginia. Ibm please to be here today i am pleased to be here today. Over the past month, we had seen any grace in the availability of heroin. It has profound and tragic consequences. Every day brings new stories of overdose across the country, including my sister. January, there have been 11 heroin related overdoses, contributing to nine. Deaths. Mexican drug cartels have increased care when caroline crossing the border. Heroin seizures along the border have nearly tripled as lawenforcement it should surprise no one. John trafficking is profitable, run by criminals interested in money. Given the increasing availability of heroin in the u. S. , jared traffickers drug traffickers want to cash in. The Enforcement Administration estimates that there are 600,000 users in the u. S. , three times the number 2012. That number is expected to rise and that is because there isnt anything million americans addicted to opioids. Once someone is addicted to a prescription needed to clarify that you can pass addiction that addiction, it is no exaggeration to say that heroin use has reached epidemic levels. This is not an urban problem, this is an american problem described american problem. Despite this epidemic and the surge in eaths, there is a legal threat to the people. The Obama Administration has charged its duty to protect the nation from their products. There must be true heart. The use of the dangerous drug. Providing treatment to addicts. Ensuring Law Enforcement versus criminals perceives criminals to bring this poison into our communities. Today, all Opening Statements will appear in the record. I will swear in the witnesses. Please ride. Rise. You solemnly swear that is among money you are about to give is the whole truth, nothing that is helping god. Let the record reflects always responded in the affirmative. Mr. Forbes has a distinguished witness and i will allow him to introduce the attorney at this point and our letter does the next three witnesses. Thank you. As you mentioned, one witness today is nancy are parr who has served as a district attorney. She had implemented new programs and promoting outreach and carrying out the traditional role of a prosecutor in chesapeake. She has taken part in multiple programs. Prior to her current role, she was a prosecutor in suffolk for 10 years. In addition to her public service, she is a member of many more and that many more and organization. The commonwealth attorney, where she was chairman. State commission, the Governors Task force, security, while panels subcommittee, a workgroup, order of personal education, the state department will council, virginia david jolly review team, Domestic Violence committee, the boys and girls club, and the womens club. She is a graduate of the university of virginia. Thank you for accepting art of the season today and i look forward to hearing your hearing your testimony. Au. Mr. Michael botticelli is the director of the drug control policy where he has served 2012. Previously, he served as director of the bureau of Substance Abuse services. He holds a bachelor of arts degree and a masters in education. Mr. Jack riley is he being of the drug Enforcement Administration. He is the highest ranking special agent in area prior to his appointment special special agent in dea. He received a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice and a masters of Public Policy administration from the university of illinois. Angela pochenko. She has tried a number of profile cases. Before becoming an attorney, she was a social worker in new mexico. She received a bachelor of arts in social work and her doctorate from the school of law. I would have each of you to
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