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OpenLeft was a political blog active from July 9, 2007 until February 2011 by Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers (originally of MyDD) and Mike Lux, a former official in the White House under President Bill Clinton. [1] [2] Covering political and social issues from a progressive standpoint, it spearheaded a number of causes, including focusing attention and criticism on the Blue Dog Democrats [3] and supporting net neutrality. [4] The website's campaign garnered criticism from a number of Democrats, including Brian Baird. [5]
On February 4, 2011 Bowers announced that Open Left would cease publishing new content, although previously published content would remain available. He explained, "As the people who founded the site, myself included, moved on to other projects, we have gradually run out of money to maintain operations." [6]
Stoller endorsed and helped create the document A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq , a policy plan designed for progressive/liberal Democratic congressional challengers (or incumbents) to endorse and point to as their "plan" for the Iraq War. The plan had several high-profile military endorsers, including retired General Paul Eaton. [7] [8]
In July 2007, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) visited OpenLeft to seek input into drafting broadband legislation in the Senate. [9] The effort garnered notice for the coordination between senior lawmakers and bloggers. [10]
Throughout the health care debate in 2009 and 2010, Chris Bowers worked with readers at OpenLeft to maintain a public whip count on the supporters of a health care public option. [11] His whip count was an attempt to demonstrate that there were in fact 51 Senators who would support a health care reform bill through reconciliation that included a public option. Chris also engaged in a series of posts demonstrating that reconciliation was a viable means by which to pass a public option. Upon proving 51 Senators existed for such a goal, OpenLeft, in partnership with CREDO Action, bought ad space in traditional media sources such as The Washington Post, Slate, Roll Call and The Hill, funded by its readers. [12] The ads were aimed at Majority Leader Reid and President Obama with the message of “no excuses”, pointing to the whip count, and asking Reid to put a public option in the merged Senate bill, which he later did.
Since its inception, OpenLeft has done significant work and reporting on the issue of net neutrality. OpenLeft's writers worked with Congressional and Senatorial candidates to encourage their campaigns to support net neutrality. Congressman and 2010 Senate candidate Joe Sestak wrote a piece on the site voicing his support of the issue. [13] Former OpenLeft writer Matt Stoller played an instrumental role in gaining a commitment from every Democratic Senatorial candidate in 2008 in favor of net neutrality. [14]
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Chris Bowers launched an initiative to influence search engine results for John McCain, and asked readers to do so as well. Readers raised the Google pageranking of links to certain articles on McCain's record so when voters searched for information on the candidate, those articles would be the first to come up. This effort helped voters become more familiar with McCain's negative history on issues such as Social Security, health care for children, and the Iraq war. [15]
In 2009, Adam Bink wrote heavily on the "No On 1" campaign to protect Maine's marriage equality law, discussing the importance of a win for the LGBT and broader progressive movement, and encouraging readers to contribute. Over the course of the election, his efforts helped raise nearly $1.4 million on ActBlue, included over $8,000 via OpenLeft's "Better Democrats" page on ActBlue. [16]
In October, Adam Bink raised money from OpenLeft readers to travel to Maine and report from on the ground. [17] While in Maine, he engaged on a number of issues to elevate attention to the election, including rank-and-file Catholics' response to the Bishop's involvement; [18] the emerging role of new media infrastructure in supporting the campaign; [19] and pushing back on opposition efforts. He also filmed and produced a thank-you video from the campaign to the netroots and organized several online blogosphere fundraisers. [20] Adam also co-produced the 3-2-1 Countdown for Equality designed to help online activists understand the who, what, and where needed for the three LGBT-related elections in November 2009 (Washington State, Maine, and Kalamazoo, MI). [21] When it was “swarmed” by nearly 50 other prominent blogs, it became the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in free media in the final days of the election. [22]
In January 2009, OpenLeft co-founder Mike Lux released a book titled The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. In it, he discusses the history of conflicts between progressives and conservatives, disputes long-time conservative myths about progressive leaders and accomplishments, and details why the time is ripe for another “Big Change Moment.” The book was published by Wiley & Sons. After its release, Lux went on a 60-event, 29-city book tour to discuss the book and the future of the progressive movement. He also wrote a series of posts from the road on what the mood is out in the states among progressive activists. [23]
OpenLeft.com was known for being one of the few blogs on the internet to have built its own infrastructure, including its own email list, fundraising apparatus, and legislative contact tools for e-action. It is part of a left-leaning coalition of websites that pool their web space together to sell to advertisers. OpenLeft has used these resources to create several partnerships to interest progressive media and build broad action campaigns. Such partnerships include working with CREDO to create action campaigns on the public option, including buying ad space and creating petitions to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; [24] Service Employees International Union (SEIU) on building a coalition for health care action, and with Friends of the Earth to provide on-the-ground coverage in December 2009 of the climate change conference in Copenhagen. [25]
Olympia Jean Snowe is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senator from Maine from 1995 to 2013. Snowe, a member of the Republican Party, became known for her ability to influence the outcome of close votes, including whether to end filibusters. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Senators by Time magazine. Throughout her Senate career, she was considered one of the most moderate members of the chamber.
MoveOn is a progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. Formed in 1998 around one of the first massively viral email petitions, MoveOn has since grown into one of the largest and most impactful grassroots progressive campaigning communities in the United States, with a membership of millions. MoveOn did not endorse a candidate during the 2020 presidential primary campaign; it then endorsed and actively supported Joe Biden in the general election. MoveOn is currently endorsing Kamala Harris, the current Vice President of the United States, as the Democratic Party nominee for president in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. Rahna Epting has been Executive Director of MoveOn Civic Action and MoveOn Political Action since 2019.
Democracy for America(DFA) was a progressive political action committee headquartered in Burlington, Vermont. Founded by former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean in 2004, DFA led public awareness campaigns on a variety of public policy issues, trains activists, and provided funding directly to candidates for office, until it ended operations in 2022. At its peak, the organization had dozens of local chapters and more than a million members in the United States and internationally.
MyDD was the first large collaborative politically progressive American politics blog. It was established by Jerome Armstrong in 2001. Its name was originally short for "My Due Diligence." In 2005, MyDD was profiled in Campaigns and Elections magazine, crediting the site with being "the first major liberal blog." In January 2006, the name was changed to "My Direct Democracy" as part of a site redesign, with the new tagline "Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics."
Netroots is a term coined in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set netroots techniques apart from other forms of political participation. In the United States, the term is used mainly in left-leaning circles.
Chris Bowers is a blogger for DailyKos and a manager of their email list. He was a blogger and co-founder of OpenLeft, and was until July 2007 a front-page blogger for MyDD. His focus is on polling and data-driven analysis of US politics, as well as of the blogosphere.
Jerome Armstrong is an American political strategist. In 2001, he founded MyDD, a blog which covered politics, making him one of the first political bloggers. Armstrong coined the term netroots, and was referred to as "The Blogfather" for having mentored many other famous bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas in their early years. He is credited as one of the architects of Howard Dean's 2004 grassroots presidential campaign, and bringing those tactics to campaigns globally. In 2005, Armstrong co-founded Vox Media with Markos Moulitsas and Tyler Bleszinski.
Netroots Nation is a political convention for American progressive political activists. Originally organized by readers and writers of Daily Kos, a liberal political blog, it was previously called YearlyKos and rebranded as Netroots Nation in 2007. The new name was chosen to reflect the participation of a broader audience of grassroots activists, campaign workers and volunteers, thought leaders, messaging technology innovators as well as local, state, and national elected officials. The convention offers three days of programming: panel discussions on emerging issues in politics and society; training sessions to support more effective activism; keynote addresses from speakers of national stature; an exhibit hall; networking and social events. The event draws roughly 3000 attendees.
Firedoglake was an American collaborative blog that described itself as a "leading progressive news site, online community, and action organization". Established by film producer Jane Hamsher in 2004, Firedoglake served as a platform for Hamsher, other writers and commenters to engage in debate and activism. Hamsher shut down Firedoglake on August 1, 2015, citing health reasons, and announced that all posts would be archived at the Shadowproof website, which was launched that year by former staff members. Shadowproof describes itself as "a press organization driven to expose systemic abuses of power in business and government while developing a model for independent journalism that supports a diverse range of young freelance writers and contributors."
Steven A. Elmendorf is a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., who was a senior advisor to House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt for 12 years, serving as his chief of staff after 1997. Elmendorf was also deputy campaign manager for U.S. Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president.
Here are some of Senator John Edwards's votes and remarks on various issues.
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Mike Lux is the co-founder and president of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C., a political consulting firm founded in 1999, focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PACs and progressive donors.
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Charles Robert Chamberlain is an American political leader. He was the executive director at Democracy for America (DFA), a progressive political action committee, headquartered in Burlington, Vermont.
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BlogPAC was a political action committee founded in 2004 by Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong focused on progressive bloggers and politics online. In 2006, Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller took over BlogPAC from Moulitsas and Armstrong. Instead of channeling money to electoral campaigns, the mission was refocused "to defend the netroots and improve the quality of online activism". In 2007 BlogPAC organized progressive bloggers in several states, and offered microgrants to progressive bloggers through the 50 State Blog Project run by Laura Packard. Later that year, BlogPAC ran a contest to fund progressive entrepreneurs for infrastructure building. In 2009, BlogPAC funded the website software platform SoapBlox. BlogPAC was active until 2012.