MVPs of 2009
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John Nichols
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She's supposed to know something about technology. But millionaire Senate candidate Carly Fiorina seems to be most interested in subdividing the net so that her pals can make money.
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The president says the combat mission in Iraq is ended. But 50,000 troops remain. And most people are far less excited about changes in Iraq than they are worried by an expanding conflict in Afghanistan and a weak economy at home.
Most Valuable State Official: Mark Ritchie
When this veteran activist ran for Minnesota Secretary of State, he argued that putting honest players in charge of counting votes was necessary to restore credibility to an electoral process that had been battered by Republican gaming of the 2000 presidential vote in Florida and the 2004 vote in Ohio. Ritchie won and two years later found himself managing the recount of one of the closest and most bitter Senate contests in American history. Attacked by right-wing media and faced with massive spending by national Republicans who did not want Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee Al Franken seated in a Senate where he would provide a critical sixtieth vote, Ritchie kept his cool. He ran a clean recount, emphasizing transparency and accountability, and delivered a credible result that survived legal challenges and gave the seat to the candidate who actually won the most votes.
Most Valuable Local Official: JoAnn Watson
A former aide to Congressman John Conyers, Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson bows to no boundary. She's a neighborhood activist who has battled home foreclosures and environmental racism, a determined defender of her hometown who has blocked privatization of public services, and an ardent internationalist allied with the Institute for Policy Studies's Cities for Peace and Cities for Progress initiatives. Watson has led fights for greater transparency and accountability in government, has gone after predatory lenders and has promoted a multifaceted Detroit Marshall Plan to revitalize her economically battered city. She's proudly controversial and remarkably successful at getting local, state and national officials focused on fundamental issues. Like previous honoree Conyers, she is a passionate proponent of single-payer healthcare. But Watson is not waiting for Washington to heal Detroiters. When there was talk of closing hospitals in the city, she led the fight to require that they remain open "in perpetuity." Re-elected to a second full term in November, Watson promises to bang on doors in Washington and say, "You've bailed out the auto industry. You've bailed out Wall Street. How about helping out Detroit in its time of need?"
Most Valuable National Advocacy Group: J Street
Founded in 2008 with the ambitious goal of changing "the direction of American policy in the Middle East" and establishing a muscular "pro-Israel, pro-peace movement" in the United States, J Street has shaken up the inside-the-Beltway debate and helped elect members of Congress who are genuinely committed to dialogue. Thirty-three House and Senate candidates won with J Street backing in 2008, including Maryland Representative Donna Edwards and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, and many of them attended its inaugural conference in October, where Gen. James Jones, the Obama administration's national security adviser, promised the roughly 1,500 attendees, "You can be sure that this administration will be represented at all future conferences." A few weeks later, Hannah Rosenthal, a J Street advisory council member and former executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, was nominated to head the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. J Street's growing influence, and its determined advocacy of the view that "a sustainable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is both a fundamental American interest and essential to the survival and security of Israel as a democracy and home for the Jewish people," has drawn attacks from American neocons, who claim it is anti-Israel. But J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami counters with a letter from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who hails the group's impressive "initiative to form a pro-Israeli-Palestinian and pro-Israeli-Arab peace organization."
Most Valuable Grassroots Advocacy Group: Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
For three decades, Iowa CCI has built and maintained remarkable rural-urban coalitions to fight factory farms, urban blight and abuses of Latino and Asian immigrants. In the current financial crisis, the group has ramped up its activism on behalf of banking reforms that free up credit for small farms, businesses and families while cracking down on payday loan operations. When the American Bankers Association held its annual convention in Chicago, National People's Action called for protests that declared, "We didn't break the banks--the big banks broke us!" Iowa CCI, long a backbone member of the NPA coalition, showed up in force. Viewers of Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! got a flavor of the group's in-your-face activism as Iowa farmer Larry Ginter brought activists from across the country to their feet with his cry, "If you are from rural America and tired of bank greed, stand up! If you are from urban America and you're tired of bank greed, stand up! If you think it's time to put people first and hold banks accountable, stand up!"
Most Valuable Agitator: Cleve Jones
This veteran activist was handed a new level of prominence by the recent film Milk, which highlighted his youthful activism at the side of pioneering gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk. Jones used it to champion the National Equality March, which urged the Obama administration to go beyond rhetoric and assure "full and equal protection for LGBT people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states." In a letter to Obama, Jones explained: "Equal rights are not a 'gay' issue. They are about our shared human rights: safety in our schools and jobs, equitable healthcare and housing, and protection for our families, to name a few. I compare our National Equality March with the Civil Rights March of 1963. Martin Luther King had a dream; we have a dream too. We share Dr. King's belief in the dignity and equality of all peoples, and his commitment to nonviolence. And we share his faith that justice will prevail."
Most Valuable Think Tank: The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
Under the leadership of outgoing director Kristina Wilfore, the center has emerged as the chief proponent of employing direct democracy (initiatives and referendums) to advance progressive policies. Instead of just opposing bad proposals drummed up by corporate front groups and the religious right, BISC has gotten progressives excited about using initiatives to promote fair taxation, environmental protection and LGBT equality. It has also prodded states to prevent abuses of the petitioning process by special interests. Its summer 2009 report, "Ballot Integrity: A Broken System in Need of Solutions," inspired newspaper editorials, legal actions and legislative initiatives to crack down on fraudulent petitioning to place issues on state and local ballots. In Ohio, which got a "D" on BISC's state-by-state report card, State Representative Jennifer Garrison developed a plan to require that companies that pay petition circulators be licensed by the state and obey rules barring misrepresentations regarding ballot issues. Garrison's bill could become a national model for reforming the process, as more states respond to BISC's savvy analysis, smart scrutiny and tough prodding. This is a think tank with good ideas and the wherewithal to get them implemented.
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