With both scheduled for 6 30 eastern. Irs oversight later in the week. The senate comes in as well at 2 00 p. M. Speeches until 5 00 p. M. The confirmation vote at 5 30. They may return to the Human Trafficking bill. Live coverage of the senate on cspan 2. The third republican, senator marco rubio of florida will announce his body 16 president ial candidacy later today at 5 30. Earlier today we spoke with a political reporter who talked about the announcement and where it is taking place. [video clip] we are joined by mark computer on the line marc caputo on the line, joining us to talk about the announcement of marco rubio. Tell us about the setting and the expected teams that marco rubio is going to talk about expected themes marco rubio is on to talk about. The Freedom Tower built in the 1920s in downtown miami. Really iconic building. He was named the Freedom Tower in recognition of the fact that in the 1960s it was used as what became called it the alex island of the south the ellis island of the south. He is using this as a launchpad to announce that he is running for president. Marco rubio them of being the son of cuban exiles, it fits within his narrative of being the American Dream candidate. Stagecraft is good. Whether Campaign Craft will be good enough to get him across the finish line will be another matter. How is he going to position himself early against the announced candidates . Rubio up to now has been largely a candidate of ideas and biography. In many respects, his echoes to president obama back in 2008. His exact Campaign Strategy and tactics will not necessarily say. I have heard the speech a few thousand times. It is very effective. He talks about how he is the son of a maid and a bartender and how when he goes to high dollar fundraisers he will see in the back of the room a bartender and think back to his fathers struggles and how he is the the film at of the American Dream. The fulfillment of the American Dream. A similar speech he gave at the rnc. As for where he will position himself, it almost seems like all lanes. He has a little bit of tea party, a little bit of establishment. I would not say much of a libertarian alliance. Maybe if you strike saying all lanes. In many respects, his Campaign Success is premised on the idea that jeb bush has too many structural deficiencies to cross the finish line. Scott walker might not be able to make it either and that he almost rises by default. Were going to have to see how that plays out. Host your piece in political what were you writing about . Guest how a candidate got to yes. When rubio looks and his advisors look at his history and trajectory, it was more like what is the reason not to run. They could not find one. The best reason would be to stay in the u. S. Senate and run for reelection in 2016. Florida does not allow you to run for two offices on the same ballot. Rubio is not a fan of the u. S. Senate. Like the institution and procedure and prestige but it really does not do anything. This is not the most attractive place for him to stay. Rubio has his Main Residence in west miami. He did not move to washington. If he does move from west miami to washington, he wants to move to the white house. Host mark caputo covering the story. You can follow his reporting at politico. Com and on twitter. Thank you for the update. Senator rubio plus candidacy announcement scheduled for 5 30 eastern today. We are planning live coverage depending on the activities in the u. S. House. Onto a discussion on efforts to change the American Election process and the future independent movement. The attorney who passed the open attorneys law in california. Independent activists and Political Consultants from around the country take part. Jekyll and sale it moderates the event jacqueline saling moderates the event. I have the pleasure of introducing our distinguished panel here. Lets welcome back to the stage paul johnson. [applause] next is rob richie. He is the executive director of fair vote since its founding in 1992, which is a National Nonprofit organization that advocates for nonpartisan redistricting reform. And establishing a National Popular vote for president. He is an inspiring and out spoken advocate for some important political reforms. Really great. [applause] next to rob is a dear friend and colleague, michael hardy. Michael is an attorney, since 1988. He is a leader in the movement for social and criminal justice for many many decades. He is the founder of the National Action network and serves as executive Vice President and general counsel to the National Action network. Please welcome michael hardy. [applause] next to michael is chad peace, from california. Chad is an attorney and the president of independent voter Contact Media llc. He was one of the leaders in the successful effort to pass top too 2 our open primaries in , california. [applause] we thank him for that. He is the National Legal strategist for and partisanship. Org, and bringing a very important lawsuit in the state of new jersey. He is also the managing editor of ibn. [applause] the final two gentlemen at the end are homeboys. [applause] so to speak. [laughter] harry is counsel to independent. Org and has conducted landmark litigation , protecting the rights of independent voters on the issues of primary reform. In 2002 he served on the new york city charter revision commission, an appointee of mayor michael bloomberg, which considered the issue of nonpartisan elections for the first time. He is also a Legal Advisor to end partisanship new jersey litigation. He won dismissal of a lawsuit that tried to dismantle south carolinas open primary system. Harry kresky. [applause] last but not least, john updike is the president of open primaries, founded in 2014 after being incubated for many years. Open primaries advocates for open and nonpartisan systems and participates in the building of state, local, and National Primaries coalition. John was formerly the director of development for independent voting. Org. We have been around the world together and continue to do so. John updike. [applause] ok, welcome. Thank you all for being here. And joining in this conversation. Here is where i want to start. Why should the American People care about political reform . Put in a slightly different way, what is going on . What is the state of play and affairs that makes it the case that the American People should focus on, concern themselves, and become involved in issues of political reform . Open it up to the group. I dont mind starting. I think they are concerned about political reform if you look at voters. Can everyone in the back hear me . Ok. They are concerned. Look at voter registration. A large segment of the population is giving up on the the two parties. They have become disgusted with what they see. They are disconnecting and disassociating. The reason that they should be concerned about architectural reform or structural reform is because as those voices leave the party, we are leading a more distilled ideological needs inside of both of them, that now is increasingly insisting on not compromising with the other side. That is having an effect on us congressionally and our ability to get people who have different points of views to sit down and Work Together for the common good. The purpose of e pluribus unum, we are losing it. I think what the mayor says and what we heard this morning underscores the point that grounded in the fact that the way elected officials are behaving is not just personal quirks and characteristics. It is incentives that are flowing from the current rules we have. Some people rise above that, but the general pattern of behavior is grounded in structures and rules that they are responding to the incentives within those rules. And acting in a certain way. That if we dont change we will see the same behavior. We are in a time of necessary change, when we have had certain regimes and facts about the American People that have been evolving and changing. But we have old rules and structures. They dont mesh together. If we dont change enough and if we dont change and update and modernize rules we are just going to get into a cycle of problems, that are bad for the country. One of the interesting experiences in the wake of the Oregon Campaign for top 2 was that open primaries did a set of focus groups. We got shellacked in the election. We got just under 33 of the vote. Yet, in these groups, six out of 10 democrats and republicans and seven out of 10 independence said, we want the top two open primary system. My first reaction complexion perp lection. We just had an election on that and we lost. Here we are revealing the depth of support for these fundamental Structural Reforms. In a series of conversations and thinking about this, part of what occurred to me was that people care deeply about reforms. What they want to make sure is in some ways, the we. They want to see a fighting, real Diverse Coalition of people that are committed to making it happen. I think our challenge is not promoting political reform. I think our challenge is promoting ourselves, promoting the movement. Showing the American People that they can trust, they can trust that we can move forward on that. Because they want it. [applause] if i can explain where im coming from, a successful effort in california, we changed with a fundamentally different approach. What people did not understand in california we started more than a year before the election doing nothing other than voter education. It is not about us. Its about the way we elect our representatives. If you put it in a historical context, we had direct primaries to get the Selection Process out of the back room. Where we have gotten today, we have gotten to a process where we had 10 political participation across the country. We have 50 of people dont feel represented by either party. But the first stage of our process is one conducted not for the purpose of electing representatives for all of us. The stated purpose in the law is to elect somebody who best represents those Political Parties. You dont have to run a poll. You dont have to talk to people. Just walk into a restaurant. Everybody recognizes it. The parties are not serving us. The fundamental thing we have to do is not a promotion of ourselves. I am sorry to respectfully disagree. It is to educate the people around us. This is not about independent voters. It is about all of us, and having a system that represents every individual voter. That is not members of the Democrat Party not members of the Republican Party not independents. Its everybody. The right to vote derives from citizenship, not from joining a Political Party. It is that principle that we should be promoting. [applause] i would say that the American People have to care about political reform. We are being locked out, left out, killed, denied, and given nothing. We have a generation of people that are essentially going to be worse off than the generation before them, in so many ways. If you look at that in new york city, for instance, there was a report recently that showed new york has one of the most segregated Public Education systems in the country. Many urban areas are more segregated today than they might have been right after brown versus board of education. You look at jobs, the unemployment rate. People were talking about it earlier today, the wealth gap. All of that on some level becomes a function of government. When government is defined as two parties, then you have to begin to look at the structural issue there and say, what is happening, and how come people are not allowed to participate . I think we have to figure out, there is a way for you to participate, and we are going to show you how. [applause] i found the Panel Discussion this morning both very helpful and very painful, because there is not just a need for cultural change, but really since the 1960s, there has been a huge cultural change in this country. But the political system is still operating as if none of that happened. We elect the first black president with a new coalition and lo and behold for the next , eight years it is politics as usual. Americans are unhappy. Americans want things. Our political system simply doesnt allow changes that are actually happening on the ground, among the American People, to manifest themselves in government and in politics. Something has got to give. [applause] let me see if i can tie together some of what was said here in this first go around and see if we can push in a little harder on this. Paul says, one of the things driving the country towards political reform is the mass exodus of americans from the two parties, creating this huge new group of independents. That is leaving the parties in a situation where they are more controlled by narrow interest, by organized interests. Given the power the parties have, that is setting up a dangerous situation. Chad, you are talking about the importance of an overarching political principle, tied to the history of this country. Including all of the difficulties we have had in fully realizing it, but namely that every american should have the right to participate in a political process without being required to join a political organization, and that is the premise we operate from. Michael, you talked about what is actually happening to people in this country as a result of a decaying and corrupt political system, that we need to reform the system because of those things that are going on. So, i hear these things. And i embrace all of them. This raises the question for me, are we tying these things together enough . Do we have to tie them together, from a organizing point of view, from a political point of view from a coalitionbuilding point of view . How do we connect these things . Does connecting them make the movement more powerful . I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. I think it does, jackie. If i may, i think two, maybe three, no, i guess four years ago, you and dr. Newman did one of your talk sessions at this conference. The point dr. Newman made during that discussion, you know, out of all the things we could organize around, democracy and in a way, politics and reform, is one of the most difficult. There are so many sexy issues out there to organize around. But politics is a difficult one. Therefore, it takes a certain amount of courage, if you will to do that, to go into that. Because its not easy. Its not sexy. So i think, when you think about that, then connected to the tradition at least of progress in this country i come out of a movement that is deeply engaged in social justice. We believe in the traditions of dr. King, so we just came out of the celebration of 50 years of selma. Of course, selma i think the gentleman, i forget which state he quoted johnsons speech when he decided they would move in the congress. Congress, by the way, did not want to pass a Voting Rights act, to vote to pass it by saying that our cause is just, the time is now, we shall overcome. I think when people saw selma and saw the organizing that went into bringing that issue to the forefront of the stage of america, then people felt yes, this is a reform we need. And they felt they could be a part of it. We got the reforms. As difficult as it may be, we have to have the courage to do the things that may be necessary to make this kind of reform sexy to the American People. [applause] that story was a perfect segue into why we cannot disconnect all this. It was only a year before the Civil Rights Act that the Supreme Court said you cannot preclude someone from voting in the democratic primary on the basis of race. It was one year before the Civil Rights Act. What the court recognized there, was that the only meaningful avenue of participation was to the Democratic Party at that time. So the effect on governance, what it does and is doing in california right now is the top two is forcing accountability across a broader spectrum of people. We have just as Many Democrats and republicans in the California Legislature today because the change was not about party. It was about who they are accountable to. When you start the first phase of the project, now they are accountable to africanamericans, and now in 2014 they are accountable to everybody. You get legislators that are acting in the best interest. Of each other. I dont think you can disconnect the legal apparatus from the legislative apparatus, to the realworld facts on the ground. Today, i think we have a serious situation. Frankly, its not that the representatives dont want to listen to us. Its because they cannot. The moment they act in everybodys best interest, they get primaried. One of the interesting things that is helping to tie all this together, the actions of the parties themselves. For the past 20 years, the parties have engaged in an assault on states that have open primaries, to convince the court that they are private associations and should have the right to prevent people who have not signed on the dotted line and joined them to participate in primary elections. I lawsuit says if they are private association