Housand governor debates and share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. The battle for control of congress. Stay in touch and engage by following us on twitter cspan and liking us on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Cspans 2014 Campaign Continues with an Iowa Senate Debate between democratic congressman bruce braley and joni ernst. This race is listed as a tossup. It starts live at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Now a discussion on demographic trends affecting american politics. Well hear remarks from Steve Phillips a lawyer and fill lan troe pis. According to mr. Phillips, the coalition that is likely to dominate american politics Going Forward is made up of Minority Groups and progressed with of whites. This city club of cleveland hosted this hourlong event. Good afternoon and welcome to the city club of cleveland. My name is paul harris and im president of the city clubs board of directors. I am very pleased to introduce todays speaker, Steve Phillips, president and one of the first 50 founders of powerpac. As stated at its website, power pac is a nonprofit advocacy and Political Organization established in 2004, quote, to champion democracy and social justice in states and communities across the country, end quote. Before i comment on pacs, i want to say a few words about our esteemed speakers background. Mr. Phillips grew up in cleveland, Cleveland Heights, so hes back home today and has a lot of friends in the audience gathered throughout this room. He attended Stanford University where he majored in english and after row american stud disand it was very active in student organizations. He later earned his law degree from haigsings college of law in San Francisco. He worked for four years with the Public Interest law firm Public Advocates and at the young age of 28 was elected to the San Francisco board of education, thereby becoming the youngest elected official in San Francisco history. He later became president of the board of education and served on the board for eight years. Our accomplished speakers appearance today is timely as we enter an Election Year that is certain to be a very active one with pacs and super pacs playing a role in the political process. Now, a brief bit of history on pacs. Pacs exist at both federal and the state level. The federal level, the first pac was actually formed in 1947. In the 1970s, Congress Passed a laws governing pacs including establishing contribution limits. More recently in the wake of court decisions, including the United States supreme courts decision in Citizens United which was rendered in january of 2010, socalled super pacs have emerged. Now, theyre prohibited from making contributions directly to a campaign, but theyre able to make unlimited political spending independently of campaigns. The impact of money funneled through pacs and superpacks continues to be hotly debated. Our speaker will present his informed views on that subject, as well as, of course, on another hot topic from the 2012 president ial election, the impact of demographic shifts in our country on the 2012 election and on future elections. So, with that, i am very pleased to present on behalf of the city club of cleveland, Steve Phillips, president and cofounder of powerpac. [ applause ]. Thank you, paul, for that introduction. Very grateful to be here. Just addendum in terms of the bio, one of the things that we created last year plus, theyre going to be materials that pac plus. Org ill be referencing through the site and things on the table that we had had here as well. We were talking about how this is there are a lot of friends here and its very touching and moving to me. Made me think that if you ever this is probably the closest you can have of seeing what it would be like, who would come to your funeral without actually dying. And hopefully this wont be a neardeath experience for me as i try to deliver these remarks. And i do want to give a special thank you to shand ra who introduced me to dan and arranged this opportunity for me to speak here. A lawyer here in town, he and i have been friends since our days at stanford in the 1980s. And i always knew she was a smart guy who had great potential, but he really proved it when he decided to marry a woman from Cleveland Heights. And im very proud of the leadership that he provided around issues of equality and justice and was privileged to work with him around 2008 arnold lot of voter turnout to bring people of color to the polls in that election. I want to thank all of you for coming out today. It is good to be home. And it is great to see so many friends from my days at Hawkins School and my days on dartmore road and i would like to dispel one rumor at the outset is that i am not here to interview for the browns head coaching position. So, although although as a longtime browns fan, my dad my brothers and i got season tickets when we were 7 years old, so ive been a passionate and longtime fan. Eagerly following this process and as always looking forward to next season. But seriously, though, its an honor to be invited to speak at the city club. This is a prestigious platform for anyone to speak from, but for a kid from Cleveland Heights this is a special honored and im humbled to stand here today. And as if the prestige of the podium wasnt daunting enough, my father who is here today and flew up from texas for this heard me he heard two people speak at the city club his whole life, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther king. So no pressure, dad. Cleveland is the Perfect Place to have a discussion about brown is the new white. The future of u. S. Politics and the context of americas demographic revolution. Long before america elected a black president , cleveland blazed a trail by becoming the first major American City to elect a black mayor, carl stokes, for those of you under a certain age, that was 1967. And i still remember my mom making a point to drive us by mayor stokes house when we were children on the way to visit our grandparents. A lot has changed in america since 1967. But many in National Politics have been slow to appreciate these changes. The fact of the matter is that there is a new Majority Coalition in america and that coalition is built on the Solid Foundation of the countrys growing numbers of people of color. And that is what we mean by brown is the new white. To perhaps state the obvious for the past 400 years or so, the United States has been a majority white country. It is worth noting that the continent had many native americans and mexicans prior to the arrival of europeans, thus we talk about the past 400 years. But for the purposes of understanding contemporary american politics, lets acknowledge that majority of the country and its voters have been white for a long time. Consequently, addressing the needs of and responding to the interest of whites has been the central organizing principle of u. S. Politics for a long time. When people talk about winning over swing voters or not alienating moderates, the picture they have in their head soft suburban whites, often women frequently in ohio. In the 1960s, it was nixen silent majority. In the 8 0ds, reagan democrats in the 0s, soccer moms and in the early 2000s x urban voters. These have been seen as pivotal and been the focus of politics and their consultants. Similarly, Public Policy has been hypersensitive. The polling and impression of what might alienate modern white voters. Weve seen a lot of articles about how will americans feel about obama care. My first thought was that those americans who werent getting haelt care for the first time in their life would feel pretty good. But the premise of the question as articulated is how will middle class whites react to the Affordable Care act. That premise is now outdated. One of the masters of american politics is willy brown, longest serving speak of the california asemily. Theres a failed cue. I saw his speech and i remember him saying that the first law of politics is you have to learn to count. Those who are most effective in 2014 and beyond will be those who know how to count. As bill clinton famously said in his 2012 Democratic Convention speech, its about a rit ma tick. And so lets do a little math today. As i mentioned that those who are following online or outside of the room that theres a document that we have that down loads the data of the statistics im going to run through available at pacplus. Org if you have a paper of color that grunts through all this work. So the arithmetic. 29 plus 26 equals 55. That is the new equation for this new era. Allow me to explain. The 2010 census confirmed if theres been a profound demographic revolution in america over the past 30 years, latinos, asian americans, africanamericans, native americans and mixed race americans are now 36 of the entire u. S. Population. The one response when i do these numbers that i hear from people is that not all people of color are progressive. Believe me, i know. I often shake my head wondering what these folks are thinking. The closest statistical measure we have is National Exit polls. The president ial exit polls. And that data shows that the vast majority of people of color vote democratic. 80 people of color voted for obama. So all people of color comprise 36 of the pollation, 80 of them once you strip out the conservative of color, 29 of the u. S. Population. Now, you look at those numbers and think, well, the percentages of whites have shrunk, but still the majority. 60 plus the 7 who are conservatives of color. That would be correct. That would be good arithmetic. Which brings us to another very important yet historically negligented and overlooked Minority Group in america, progressive whites. Progressive whites are the Rodney Dangerfield of american politics. They just dont get any respect. They are frequently be littled or dismissed as irrelevant tree huggers or vegetarians or both. The caricature of progressive whites was captured during the 2004 president ial campaign when conservative attack ad took aim at howard dean supporters by saying, howard dean should take his taxhiking, governmentexpanding, lattedrinking, sushi eating, volvo driving, new york city times reading body piercing, hollywood loving, left wing freak show back to vermont. Now, i live in a very liberal city in San Francisco and i must confess that some people do drink lattes and read the new york times. Theyre still lovely people. But if we look back historically, well see that the role of progressive whites in American Social change has been both heroic and vilified. From the abolitionists in john brown in harpers fairly in 1859 to those who gave their lives in the 1960s civil rights movement, people such at reverend james reid. Andrew goodman and michael shurner in mississippi. Progressives have a long tradition of rejecting their privilege, refusing to stand idolly by and courageously standing with disenfranchised people who are struggling for justice, equality and dmomsy. This tradition has touched and improved my own life personally. As far back as 1964, when my parents couldnt buy the home they wanted on dartmore road in cleveland hiegtds because they were black bch but a progressive white lawyer bought the house for them, deeded it over to them, securing what became the childhood home that i grew up in. In terms of u. S. Politics, people have always thought that there were too fu progressive whites to matter. Growth of latino and asian and black populations that is no long ter case. Look again at the exit polls, going back to jimmy carters election, we see that anywhere from 34 to 48 of whites have voted for the democratic candidate for president. Some years that was a more courageous act than others. So thats an average of 41 of whites voting democratic. So back to the arithmetic. 64 of the country is white. Of that population, 41 are progressives. So that means that the progressive white population in the country is 26 of the entire United States. So you take that 26 add that to the 29 who are people of color, gives you the 55 which is the new majority in america. This demographic and mathematical theer rum has now been tested and proven twice at the National Level with the election and the even more importantly the reelection of president obama. So what does this mean for u. S. Politics Going Forward . The census data is also give us a gee graphic map that shows that the future of u. S. Pom ticks is in the south and the southwest. The new battleground states are the old slave Holding States and the southwest, land that used to be known as mexico that we now call texas, new mexico, arizona and colorado. Two last numbers ill throw at you. 19 and 24. 19 of voters of color is the threshold for whether a Coalition People of color and progressive whites can win an election. The 2010 republicanic tidal wave, three states reelected democratics to the senate. All three of those democrats who won the election lost the white vote but were able to prevail because of this koelation. We use that as the benchmark with colorado. And then this is where the picture starts to come most sharply into focus. There are 24 states in america that will soon have 19 voters of color. And those states are overwhelmingly in the south and the southwest. Arizona, georgia and texas are the new battleground states. Yes, texas. One of the most important races in the country this year will be wendy daviss run for governor of the state of texas. If the democrats take texas, it will cut the legs out of the conservative political machine and make it nearly impossible for the republican to win the white house for the next 20 years. Georgia, barak obama lost by 6 Percentage Points without contesting the race. Represents the democrats best opportunity for senatorial pickup this year as michelle nun runs for the seat that her father once held. So these 24 states have 351 electoral votes. It takes 270. They have 303 congressional seats, 218 is the magic number for majority in the house. These states have the power to elect the next president and secure control of the congress. Jessie jackson ran for president , at the hands that once picked cotton and lettuce can now pick president s, senators and governors. And so democrats were smart, they would be massively investigating in communities of color in the south and the southwest. Conservatives have done the math and its no accident that they are massively investigating efforts to restrict Voting Rights in the south and the southwest. Now, while obamas campaign did spend considerable resources moeshlizing and turning out these new majority voters nk new york, virginia, nevada and florida and colorado, for several months in 2012, with the results to show for it. There is nonetheless still no lasting strategy, program, or leadership pipeline carried out by the democrats in these key areas. Apparently too Many Democrats have trouble with math. And there is a shocking underestimate in the communities of color as too many campaigns continue to chase the evershrinking block of moderate white voters instead of building up the coalition of the future. Many republicans on the other hand are apparently better at math than democrats. Admittedly on the surface it looks like the republicans are locked in a fierce internal battle. You have the tea party who i would submit is fighting the last losing battle of the civil war. Desperately and destructively trying to tear down the entire government rather than let barak obama the duly elected president address the nations problems. The early indications, however, are that the Tea Party Movement has crested. With the implosion of the Tea Party Challenger to govern cay sit, we see that happening here in ohio as well. And other more sophisticated Republican Forces are asserting themselves, forces who know arithmetic and know it well. Eight years after losing to the first black president , the republicans will likely feel the set of president ial candidates 30 to 40 of candidates of color. Marco rubio, ted cruz are all running as fast as they can while the democratic bench is surprisingly empty. Although Chris Christie has a new set of problems on his hands which i must admit i was enjoying watching, he has nonetheless spent the past few years distancing himself from the reaction air elements to the party, courting latino and black voters and made a point to sign Immigration Reform into law in the state of new jersey. So democrats run the very real risk of getting complacent in the face of republican internal squabbles and if underestimated the republican threat to their base. Historically republicans have been so bad on matters of race and equality democrats have not had to do anything. Soon, however, they will actually have to contest for the votes of people of color and make an argument about why they are better than the republicans at addressing the needs of the communities of color and that is an argument that few democrats frankly are familiar with or comfortable making. Lastly, what are the policy implications of emerging new majority in america . I tell my friends who spent a lot of time developing position papers and reasoned arguments to influence the Public Policy debate that as a general rule, elected officials will support any policy that they think will get them reelected. Who do they think are going the elected and unelecting and who will be the voters . Lets look at health care as a case study. If youre primarily concerned about mod rad, middle class white voters. You might be nervous about bauchl care. Some people whose premiums go up, albeit to pay for more robust coverage and thats lost in the hubbub sometimes. If youre objective to solidify loyalty among the latino population growing in america, you should note that latinos have the least access of health care with 35 lacking health insurance. Rather than ringing your hands and worrying about houd obama care is polled among whites, smart ones should be championing how many people are now getting health care, how many children can now see a doctor, how many sick people can finally get treatment. And then they should be smacking their opponents upside the head with ads asking why they think that the richest nation in the history of the world should deny people access to basic health care. How is that moral or right or religious . In one stroke you can win over your growing base, put your opponents on the defensive, and also win over churchgoing moderate whites by appearing to their sense of religion and moderate sense. The bible does tell us to care for the sick. Another example of the new majority is economic and inequality. Look at a map of the distribution of poverty in america, youll see that the heaviest concentrations of poverty fall largely along the same lines as the rising black and latino populations, the south and the southwest. Although these regions are seen as conservative, theyre whats called unnaturally conservatives and they have the least to conserve. A smart politician would champion the minimum wage increase, use that as an argument to win over lowincome whites as well as people of color. The party who cracks that code will rule politics in this country for decades to come. Brown is the new white, i call titled this to get peoples attention. One way is to be explicit about issues of race and ethnicity. But part of why it gets attention is because addressing race touches on deepseeded fears and insecurities about how the country is changing. Fears about how a cherished way of life is perceived to be disappearing. And in fact, you cant truly understand politics in America Today without appreciating the inner play between the demographic revolution and the efforts by too many demagogues in congress who whip up fear and stoke insecurity in an attempt to opposition anything thats opposed by our africanamerican commander in chief. You have nothing to fear. You know that people of color like good food. You know we make good music and culture. Turns out that many of us are sociable, smart, and share the same values as you. In fact, those of us who come from communities that have faced discrimination and oppression are actually often the most hopeful and idealistic of all and dr. Kings famous speech he said even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, i still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream. So if youre worried, put aside your fears. And lets Work Together to build a better america. If youre a progressive white, your time has finally come. As my friend van jones said, if blacks dont vote, greens dont win. And if youre a person of color, lets grasp the role of responsibility that history has presented us. The bible says the rejected stone will be the cornerstone of the new order. Lets use that cornerstone to build a new social structure in america that we can all be proud of. A structure of opportunity, equality and justice for all. Thank you very much. [ applause ]. Today at the city club of cleveland, we are listening to a friday forrum featuring Steve Phillips, president and cofounder of power pac. Well return to our speaker in a moment for our traditional city club question and answer period. And i would ask that you storm formulating your questions now and try to keep them brief and to the point to get as many questions in as all of you are and those joining us via broadcast, wcpn and 104. 9, wciv, or one of the many broadcast partners we have at the city club. Broadcasts are made possible by Cleveland State university and pnc and our live web casts are supported by university of akron. One week from today, january 17, the city club will host a Breakfast Program with the city manager for florida who helped the city manage policies after the trayvon march ttin killing. We will have a luncheon. For a complete lift of our programs to make a reservation or to order a cd or dvd of one of our programs, please visit our website. Thats www. Cityclub. Org. We welcome our many guests today. Cleveland state university, Hawkins School is his high school, policy matters ohio, the chandra law firm. Thank you for your support today. We welcome students to todays program, student participation is possible by a generous gift from the fred shul contribution. We have students from Hawkins School. Stand and be recognized. [ applause ] just a reminder that students get to ask questions. Now we will return to our speaker for our traditional city club question and answer period. We welcome questions from everyone, including guests and students, holding the microphones are mike cromaldy and kristin pianca. First question, please. I want to thank you for being here. Your presentation was wonderful. My question is, theres this arrogance program with a lot of people who feel like they know everything. So even though what you are saying is really logical, its still difficult to get some folks to say, you know, youre right. So i guess my question is, how do you move im speaking of, you know, democrats basically. How do you move them off of that, you know, my way is the best way and i know what im doing to begin to embrace some of your ideas . I know thats a really hard question. I just wanted to see what youre going to say. I was hoping would you have the answer for me for that. Frankly, that is one of the big challenges. Its almost endemic to a certain extent to the proposition. If you help elect somebody to the president , you are going to think youre a big deal and that you know a lot. Thats part of the challenge of people not actually appreciating that. I dont think frankly its as much an issue of just making the logical numerical argument. People know what they are familiar with. They tend to do that. A couple of things that we have been looking at trying to move forward, one is we have to think about what is the pipeline and the Leadership Development were doing. Identifying people from diverse backgrounds, encouraging them to go into campaigns and helping them move forward. It applies at every different level. Wasnt to acknowledge and commend state senator nina turner who has an africanamerican woman running her campaign. We need more candidates who will do that. Cory booker ran for his senate race, he had an africanamerican man run his race. I do think that were doing to have to make the raise our voices. So if you look towards 2016 in particular, which is the next major piece, we have to ask about this and push people at every level. I have seen now the career path. Theres a who would used to work for me, we were doing our super pac work in 2007 in california who wanted to move to ohio doing the statewide field campaign, jen brown. That put her in a position to be the executive director in texas. You move up from level to level. It matters to actually be asking at whatever level, county, region, state, asking the question, who are you actually promoting, who are you investing in . I think its largely incumbent upon those of us who want to see this happen to both be a squeaky wheel as well as trying to be nurturing and elevating the next generation of people who want to do this kind of work. Your statistics seem to be based on the last two president ial elections where a very charismatic africanamerican was up. What would have happened and how would those statistics have been skewed if we have which we might have in the next president ial election a white candidate . Thats the 64,000 question in a lot of ways. Its really going to be you will see how that will play itself out. I was thinking about doing a gathering about after the black president and starting to have that conversation, what is that going to look like. That was very helpful and should not be minimized. Yet lost under the understanding of what the Obama Campaign expiring africanamerican candidate. You had a lot of technology and cutting edge tools. At the end of the day, they had thousands of paid staff people doing the really methodical drudge work of going door to door, identifying people, turning them out. Theres that. The other is that theres a challenge around what is the policy agenda. Are we articulating a policy agenda which will speak to people who dont vote. Many of the people of minimum wage have run on a theme of vote yourself a raise. Then it becomes a more tangible point of why you are voting beyond just this particular person. I would submit that for 2016, we saw i feel in many ways the 08 was the culmination of the civil rights movement. Theres a reason oprah and Jesse Jackson were crying. There was a history around what that meant. The next wave of what is pent up within this country in terms of leadership is womens leadership, womens empowerment, womens role in running the country. As much as there is a strong sentiment that propelled people around electing the first africanamerican, theres going to be the firsame with a woman president. That will be a big factor in 2016. Thank you. If you look think about history, back in the 1800s there were signs irish need not apply. My ancestors from italy, italians were not allowed in Shaker Heights early on. To what degree do you see whats happening with people of color as kind of an extension or not an extension of whats happened where it used to be irish and italians were considered outside of the fold where now everybody would think of them as white and wouldnt think anything about it . I think its i do think that thats taking place. The writer James Baldwin wrote a collection of his work is called the price of the ticket. In the intro he says the price for the european immigrants was to become white. So that has taken place. You do see it in different regard, particularly in terms of different elements of the latino and Hispanic Community and some segments of the asian community, a desire to be treated in just that kind of mainstream fashion. The challenge is that color is such so ingrained in terms of the perceptions, a lot of the biases and prejudices. Dr. King talked about the number of synonyms for the word around the color line, the color issues. So its more difficult when you look that different to just be assimilated in. Thats going to be part of the challenge. The hope would be that we would actually move to a point of not wanting to sub limate. Its all in there but its mixed together but you maintain the different characteristics and flavor of the various communities. Mr. Phillips, as a conservative and someone who believes in liberty, i come out at a different solution than you at some things. I accept at many do the challenge that those of us who believe differently have an obligation to communicate with the brown community. My question is, with respect to your statistics, there was a reason at the university of akron there was a seminar and it talked about one of the best e prepredick tors was religious belief rather than race or anything else for that matter. Theres a lot of folks who are of color, africanamerican churches, hispanics who are very active in their churches, who i think the polls suggest come to a very different point than the progressive point of view on a number of issues, whether its the social issues, whether its limited government, fiscal conservatism, a lot of other things. Isnt there the liekslyhood that what we need to do is come together somewhere more in the middle rather than the extremes of either end and have a conversation more about a range of ideas and a range of solutions . I think i agree with that. We used to talk its not about left wing or right wing but the moral center. One of the critiques i have of ro aggressive faith communities that we dont make enough we dont associate the Progressive Agenda enough with the strong religious and biblical underpinnings of things like dealing with poverty and addressing healthcare. I think that that is a potential area to be able to come together. I want to be clear. My fundamental point is also a challenge to progressives and democrats that they cannot take people of color for granted. That george bush was very effective within texas around understanding and validating the cultural reality, the cultural sentiment of the latino community. His faithbased initiative won over a number of different folks. In those communities towards being allied with him. People used to say back in the day, its no permanent friends, no permanent enemies without permanent interest. They were talking about improving the conditions of people in the society, extending the benefits of the American Dream broadly. I think there are things that can be done in that regard. My wife and i were talking about how theres a lot more Common Ground now among conservatives and liberals around criminal justice issues. Theres a lot of its very expensive proposition to go about criminal justice work the way that we do within this country. Some of the Republican Leaders in the south, mississippi, were talking about the incarceration alternative ways to rehabilitation people. Thats a type of a solution. We were supportive of cory booker who we went to college with as well. He is looking at reaching across the aisle to republicans around some of these sentencing reform issues. Im all for it, particularly since nothing can get passed in current situation, is that where we can find agreement im all for that. Im not arguing that it should be a proposition that just moves in that regard. I think there are a lot of things that the democrats in particular have been slow on in terms of validating a lot of the pieces around the important of faith in peoples lives and ed by and building an agenda that speaks to that. Theres work that needs to be done. I just wanted to say, steve, as a hawken alumni, im sure i speak for the community, how proud we are of you and what you have become in your life. I was reminiscing to think 35 years ago i used to sit in your tv room and watch you dip french fries into your frosty. We used to think you were weird. I want to say how impressed and how happy we are with what you are trying to achieve. My question is, i know your talk is the browning of america and the new states that will be the states to look at as far as texas and things of that nature. Ohio always seems to hold itself around election time as being a very important state. Before we were to move on from that, what do you think or what would be your recommendation for ohio specifically because it always comes down to the last night. We never know which way we are going to swing. I would love to have maybe a blueprint or something plan or some advise from your point as to what ohio could specifically do for 2016 and even now with our government. Maybe you could help with that. Back in high school you didnt think i would amount to much, did you . Ohio remains one of the bell weather states within the country. In a lot of ways because ohio is almost split down the middle in terms of its electoral trends, efforts in ohio make a bigger difference. The margin is so small. If you can increase the participation that has an impact. Its worth studying and understanding better what obama did to be able to win here. The increased significantly the africanamerican turnout that shocked romney people. Their models were wrong as to how many people how many africanamerican people they thought would turn out. This is the this is part of the challenge is that this work is not it should not be episo episodeic. What is the Civic Engagement infrastructure and involvement in Leadership Development thats going on around the clock . Its almost back to the civic club type of days is that people who were a presikt leader on turning out for obama, can they be supported to be Civic Leaders and getting people to the City Council Meeting or to be part of a block club . You start to know who all of your neighbors are. You continue to have that relationship. Election time, you know who the folks are. You are not just turning out to them. I think what i was meaning with turner today talking about how much has preserved of the obama infrastructure. That is one of the Biggest Challenges that we can think about doing is how to actually sustain the activist, the organizers who get inspired and do this work between election cycles. Able to preserve the infrastructure will enable i think us to continue to have the outcomes we want to see. In spite of ohios division between republicans and democrats in president ial elections, we have a portionment of congressional districts done in a way theres believed to be one competitive district in the state of ohio. So i would like you to address the issue on a broader basis of the malapportionment of congressional districts and its impact on the progressive movement. I really believe that redistricting is going to be the most important political fight of the next 20 years. So its under appreciated how much with the republican wave of 2010 taking over all these different state houses and then drawing the lines in 2011 as locked in an undemocratic configuration of congressional districts. Democrats won more more people voted for democrats for congress than voted for republicans. Republicans still have an 18seat majority in the house. Thats just a configuration of redistricting. But i feel like that progressives were asleep. Very little effort, very little organizing around the engaging in the actual drawing of the lines. So we need to be vigilant and pro active around that. Its seven years from now. Mark it on our calendar that we have to be engaged in that process. The other thing is are there ways to also democratize. It took it out of the hands of the state legislature. The lines were drawn by a neutral commission. Looking at the data and numbers and not factoring in ironically, its actually helped democrats in california. You start to see how much the previous lines had been drawn to protect particular individuals. They didnt they werent concerned about the overall configuration. Dont mess with my individual district. If you take that personal consideration out, cut the lines according to what the data actually shows around the demographics, you get better results. Its something to think about. I know there was an effort to try to get a commission here that was not successful in ohio. But something to not give up on is that you can have it be more objective, then you can draw lines that reflect what is the actual composition. In a state this divided, this close every election, you shouldnt have a twothirds majority in the state legislature. Thats not reflective of who is in the state. Its worth engaging in the fight to be able to draw lines that are fair and reflective of who is within the state. You mentioned some of the issues that the Republican Party seems to be having. You mentioned infighting and potentially the cresting of the tea party. You you called them sophisticated Republican Forces that are emerging. I was hoping to ask you to educate us a little bit about some of these forces that you see and what we might want to know about them and watch them and watch what theyre doing. I think before recent troubles we will see how it plays itself out. Chris christie has been masterful at his political route that he has taken within new jersey. He is quite the contrary of all the hostility we see about the president. He is literally embracing the president and working together across party lines on problems addressing the state of new jersey. That creates a certain profile and a certain image. Then hes been very meticulous around reaching out to Leaders Within the different communities of color. He actually had its not an accident that the house refuses to take up Immigration Reform. But they passed a statebased dream act for Immigration Reform in new jersey. He whittled it down a little bit but he signed that deal. I know one of the more left proimmigration latino groups has on their facebook page, Chris Christie, great job you are doing. Then you see that. Yesterday, marco rubio is starting to look at speak up about Poverty Issues and inequality. This growing inequality. We have to deal with this. Pushes around minimum wage. Rubio is talking about there are other ways to go about dealing with this. Historically people have not addressed those issues. We have been able to say we stand for this we stand for ending poverty. We stand for multicultural inclusion. Thats been the defining thats been sufficient to define the distinction between the party. When you have both parties saying were for ending poverty, were for dealing with Cultural Diversity as well, then stroyoue to dig deeper. Democrats are not used to do that and are going to have to be more intentional and assertive around putting forward what they think should be the agenda to meet peoples needs. Looking at our current senate, they are a little bit notorious for not being able to pass any bills at all. This is an issue that it seems like both Political Parties are going to have to address. Do you see an area where we could start to compromise around this issue of colored voters . Where both parties come together to create a mutually beneficial way to benefit the people who are voting. Give me a minute. I think frankly, i think that is no accident that there are so many efforts to suppress the vote right now is that theres a very clear understanding that the more diverse the voting population becomes, the expectation is the worse its going to be for the republicans. So that is why you see these efforts to throw up all manner of legal one would think that this is a democracy and that in a democracy you want everybody to vote. We should do everything we can to encourage people to vote. Particularly, maddening watching in florida people standing in line for hours and hours trying to be able to vote with the governor, his own constituents not seeming to care that his people are going through that kind of difficulty. Because it was serving a political his political end. Its going to be a challenge. I think the one thing that i could think about some of th folks who are trying to get ahead of this curve, marco rubio, he tried to stake out this around Immigration Reform, this piece around the poverty part. Can you look at some of those folks to be able to partner . It would be in their interest to be seen within these communities as being concerned about the needs and about the interests. The other idea, the potential is out there. Woip d i wonder how much we can achieve Common Ground around the application of technology. When you go to the Department Store and you can you dont have to wait. You pull ougt your krecredit ca and vote. Why is it difficult to vote . Why condition ant we ver if vt to vote . Can we partner with google to have the validation to cross partisan boundaries. Welcome home. We now understand your thesis that brown is the new white and that thats going to fundamentally change the political dynamic in our xhunt. Could you tell us more about what your organization is doing to leverage that opportunity, what theyre doing specifically in ohio, around the country, what theyre planning on doing and how people can get involved if they want to . What were trying to do is to create an infrastructure and a vehicle to respond to this changing demographic moment. So we want to connect and coordinate progressive people across the country, use techno logical tools to pool resources and move resources and coordination to strategic races in the states going through demographic changes. We pulled money from as kro the country, moved money to support wendy davis when she was running for reelection in texas before she became famous this past year. Looking at we put money behind cory booker. The next democratic senator africanamerican senator within the u. S. Senate. Were looking for people like that across the country. Were trying to diversify the population of elected officials and elected leadership within the country in a way that we can have people both inspiring and committed to addressing the needs of the countrys new majority. People refer to us as emilys list for candidates of color type of a model. Thats the work were trying to do. Also trying to put good information and data out there so people can understand whats happening. We can make Public Policy and political plans based upon an appreciation of good arithmetic. Thats the basic thrust and the work. People can learn more and can sign up at pacplus. Org. Its been enjoyable creating this vehicle that has enabled us to get connected with a lot of likeminded and idealistic people across the country. Mr. Phillips, you said earlier that a lot of communities of color want to be treated as part of the mainstream. As a result, they may shy away from grouping together to have these hard discussions about politics and race. So how can communities of color overcome this barrier and start having these discussions . Im a strong believer in the power of leadership, in that we have to be able to identify, support and then connect Leaders Within all of these different communities. So if you look back historically we saw the movie on mandela over the holidays. You have to understand how the South African freedom struggle came together. You have leaders and leaders create organizations. Those organizations relate to the communities. Without that leader who are connecting people, educating people, informing people, encouraging others to participate, its going to be very difficult. So i think that that is something im very focused on is trying to identify energetic, xhi committed, talented younger people to take on a leadership role and to be able to encourage and work with and educate and move their communities. That i think is really one of the core critical components. Then if we can get people within the communities doing work with the communities to then the leaders have relationship with one another, thats how you start to build a very broad multiracial Inclusive Movement that can move the country forward. I would like to ask, since you said about 80 of all Brown America is democratic leaning, how would you see it if the republicans were smart enough to run a candidate like condolisa rice . Why has the Affordable Care act created such a riff in america . Its not just created a riff among Corporate America but a riff among americans. Its like a top uk yic you dont to bring up. On the rice thing, my first flip thought is dont give them any ideas. Interestingly, there was talk about her running for senate or governor in california, which i would be concerned about because of these reasons. Shes not ideological, shes a woman, shes africanamerican. She would be an appealing candidate. But she did not fit the conservative orthodox of elements of the democratic california party. So she couldnt get the support. S similarly when powell was thinking about running for president , he would have been formidable. So its these things we do have a a contentious history within this country. We dont like to talk about it. But we have come together through taking the land from the native americans, taking the southwest from the mechl cans, enslaving africans. Way the country has been built with all of that history is still very challenging and still i feel the core of a lot of the politics of the country. People like colin powell are sensitive and want to speak to that, want to address the inequities within our society. Theres another very what i would say far right political grouping, which wants to preserve the status quo as unequal as it is because they have benefit. Thats a big part of the tension. Then it ties into the healthcare piece is that when we had the war on poverty, 50th anniversary now, when Bobby Kennedy went to West Virginia and talked about we have poverty and lifted up four children, that that touched something in everybody about these children, this is not right. We should do something about it. It touched the morality, the conscience of the nation. Part of the challenge of the history of the country is that we feel a sense of otherness. So if a child looks differently or doesnt speak our language, theres not the same empathetic response that we have had. This notion around everybody should have healthcare because we are a great nation that has the capacity and thats what our values are is not the way the conversation is playing out. Which is one of my frustrations with the white house. Instead its like those people are taking are getting helm care and taking money from me. Its the vision. Thats partly what is tied to the Division Within the country. I think thats why we have had this. My hope is that we can he have v elevate that to who are we as a nation that is inclusive, speaks to our values and embraces us regardless of what we look like or what we sound like. Thank you. [ applause ] today at the city club we have been listening to a friday forum featuring Steve Phillips. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This forum is now adjourned. [ applause ] fbi director james comey will speak at the Brookings Institution about technology, privacy and public safety. Right after that the director of the centers for sdredisease con and prevention testifies about the u. S. Response to ebola. He will be joined by the director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases. It starts live at noon eastern also on cspan. Videos need to include cspan programming, show varying points of view and must be submitted by january 20, 2015. Grab a camera and get started today
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