I wanted to respond to what Marvin and Marcie had said. Everything I am going to say is in a vacuum and is not said with any campaign in mind.

CAVEAT: These are my thoughts in regard to disability message within campaigns and to the need for constituency coordinators: there are lots of ways to do it well. I would not characterize one as better than another, but I believe that there is a middle ground of having full community participation, while also having someone who can function on the community's behalf within the campaign, and on the campaign's behalf within the community.

DEAN 2004: Marvin refers to how Dean worked; it evolved from community members loosely associated and building platform ideas, very well and with high energy, to a more structured approach that still included the same community activists but focused the efforts toward specific work assignments on a weekly basis. About every ten days we released a new, targeted policy piece for the two+ months I was there. Not everything we drafted got released, but most things did. I thought the community work was great, but that having a coordinator come in and channel it towards continual policy piece generation, was an advancement.

GORE 2000: The Gore work was mostly done before they hired a coordinator, and so the work for a disability constituency director was to help draft Q&A responses, with appropriate community involvement, draft disability memos for the principal candidates, and go out into the field for advocacy events. I think the field work is essential for bringing the campaign out to the voters in an issue-specific way. I don't think having the candidate integrate a disability component into his or her stump message is enough; it is a tremendous victory and an critical for the general public to hear (and for the candidates to hear themselves say), but I don't think it can replace having issue-specific staff surrogates at issue-specific forums, advocating against their counterpart from the other campaign(s). I am not suggesting that as a criticism of any candidate in this cycle; it doesn't normally happen in the primaries.

CONSTITUENCY DIRECTORS AS A WHOLE: My personal view is that campaigns need constituency directors for every major constituency - women, students, African-Americans, Individuals with Disabilities, Seniors, Latinos, Asian-Americans, the list goes on. I think constituency directors are essential to representing each respective constituency within the campaign, and to advocate against their counterpart from other campaigns. I have done general policy work on campaigns and constituency-specific work, and the energy is simply not the same without a campaign staffer dedicated to a specific issue and constituency.

DISABILITY POLICY CREATION: Regarding campaign disability policy drafting, sometimes the community and the campaign don not see 100% eye to eye on an issue, and sometimes the community activists assisting the campaign don't agree among themselves as to what a policy should be. HAVA enforcement and implementation is an easy example. Campaigns don't like conflict, and sometimes they will go silent when confronted with that. A constituency director serves a critical function to go between the community and the campaign and keep the dialogue alive and headed to a workable outcome or compromise. That is compared to having no disability constituency director, and instead having just a general policy campaign staffer assigned to disability issues, who may not understand the larger issues in play, and who may just give up on that dispute. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and without a constituency director being an advocate inside the campaign in those circumstance, the campaign's focus and attention will be less.

I come from the HIV community, with very aggressive disability/disease advocates. If there were not someone within a political campaign who understands the cause and temper community criticism and their input before passing the comments up the campaign chain, some campaigns would just turn off their ears. Which would lead to greater conflict and be a loss to everyone. In a way, a constituency director is an ambassador to the community, someone who can help organize community forums to communicate with the campaign and enlarge the community's voice within the campaign.

THE FIELD WORK/CAMPAIGN ADVOCACY: Regarding campaign advocacy, I suppose it is a holdover belief from college debate days, but I don't see how ideas are tested well unless in a contest with other ideas. Advocacy forums are the best way, in my opinion, to compare ideas and test them by the fire of questions about implementation, funding, competition with other administrative priorities, etc. I think the best way to do that is to have someone from each campaign, whether in the primaries or in the general election, take to the field and advocate for that candidate, against the other candidates' surrogates.

OVERALL: It is technically a very difficult thing for a campaign to maximize advocacy for disabilities issues and the constituent community without having someone inside the campaign office working on disabilities, all the time. If anyone I worked with on past efforts wonders, so far I haven't done it in this primary cycle for different reasons. I helped two Dem campaigns on their disability platforms, Q&A's, etc., and anticipate continuing that. But having worked on a number of campaigns, on both non-disability and disability issues, campaigns are cost-conscious machines with one direction - forward. They become increasingly, extremely focused as they go along. Anything perceived as unhelpful to a winning message is tossed.

Unless you have someone inside, continually working, sometimes creatively, to integrate disability issues into campaign message (disabilities integrated into general message about veterans, seniors and children, for instance) and working to get one or two disability events into the schedule of the candidates or their family members, disability issues get marginalized. There is a tremendous amount of balancing involved, and only a constituency director is going to take the time to answer all the emails and return the phone calls while still keeping the issue and events on the campaign's agenda until the end. It is just a fact of campaign life.

My opinion, anyway.

Jim Reed

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Here's my wish list for the Presidential candidates (will we find them under our tree?)

1. Each campaign will have a PWD as a disability outreach coordinator (such as Richardson has this year, Dean and Gore have had in prior years).

   
   

2. Each campaign will have a panel of disability activists in contact with each other on a regular basis to formulate policy which is posted on the campaign website, such as Dean, Kerry and Clark had four years ago.

   
   

3. All campaign websites will be compliant with Section 508, to assure access to visually impaired individuals, such as Clinton has this year.

   
   

4. All campaigns will have designated PWD "communities" which are posted on the Home Page of their websites, such as several had during the last cycle, and not unofficial "grass roots" organizations which are difficult to find.

   
   

5. All campaigns will have a policy to assure access to campaign events for all types of disabilities, such as Dean and Clark had four years ago, and post it on its web site.

   
   

6. All campaigns will agree to assure that a minimum of 5 to 10% of their delegates to the national convention, 5 to 10% of their represenatives on the Convention's be persons with disabilities, and assure that persons with disabilities will be part of their staff at the Convention.

   
   

7. All campaigns (including the winning Democratic campaign) agree to target the 15-16% of voters with disabilities.

   
   

8. Governor Richardson will resolve his problems with the disability community in his home state of New Mexico regarding funding for Money Follows the Person, kiss and make up with them, and have them say that they're satisfied with the result.

   
   

Four years ago, Governor Dean set the bar for disability access and involvement in campaigns, with several, including Kerry and Clark following suit. Also, former Congressman Tony Coelho, a prominent party leader, issued a challenge to all of the candidates to adopt his employment program, including enforcement of President Clinton's Executive Order to hire 100,000 PWDs on the federal payroll. While the appointment of a disability outreach coordinator for Governor Richardson (who certainly needs one, considering the problems he has experienced with his own constitutents), is a step forward, we seem to still be far behind where we were four years ago at this point.

I am encouraged by the level of involvement of our community in the Iowa caucuses, and I hope this will be duplicated throughout the country this year.

I encourage all of you to become involved in the disability outreach of the candidate of your choice. And, while we're at it, we need to challenge our favored candidate to meet and exceed the goals on this "wish list."

Can you add to this?

Will Santa be coming down our chimneys this year?

Marvin

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For Immediate Release
July 26, 2007
Contact: Damien LaVera – 202-863-8148

Washington, D.C. – Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today marked the 17th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by calling for the passage of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007. Dean issued the following statement:

"Today marks the 17th anniversary of a truly great day in American history, a day when leaders from both sides of the aisle came together around a commitment to protecting the rights of all Americans. The Americans with Disabilities Act was a milestone in the fight for equal opportunity, full participation in society, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for millions of Americans with disabilities. We are still a long way from making that ideal a reality, but Democrats remain committed to the cause."

"I am proud that strong Democratic leaders like Congressman Steny Hoyer and Senator Tom Harkin have chosen today to commemorate the enactment of the ADA by introducing bipartisan legislation, the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, to restore rights that have been taken away by President Bush's radical court appointees and by the President's reckless budget cuts that gut key programs. Now, with thousands of wounded and disabled veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, a new generation of Americans with disabilities demands a renewed commitment to the ADA. Republicans need to follow the lead of Republicans like Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner and Senator Arlen Specter by supporting the ADA Restoration Act of 2007. Together, we can send a clear message that we will not rest until the original promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act is realized and the fundamental rights of all Americans are protected."

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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