Chairperson Simon Rosenberg Colors Denim Blue | National affiliation Democratic Party | |
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Founded 1996; 21 years ago (1996) Ideology Third Way
Modern liberalism Political position Fiscal: Center-left
Social: Centre-left | ||
The New Democrat Network is an American think tank that promotes "centrist" Democratic candidates. NDN is a 501(c)(4) membership organization that functions in conjunction with its two subsidiary organizations, the NDN Political Fund, a non-federal political organization (527), and NDN PAC, a federal political action committee.
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Founding
NDN is led and was founded by Simon Rosenberg in 1996 after his split with the Democratic Leadership Council, for which he worked. Before founding NDN, Rosenberg worked as a television news writer and producer and a political strategist for the Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton presidential campaigns and the Democratic National Committee. NDN has offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, and Miami.
Involvement in the 2004 presidential election
NDN claims that it uses a more technologically modern and grassroots participatory approach to its activities than the DLC. The NDN, while not supporting or embracing 2004 Democratic presidential primary candidate Howard Dean, has pointed to his online network of small donors, volunteers, and bloggers as the model to emulate for the Democratic Party. The NDN is now challenging the DLC and is becoming an increasingly influential player in the party's politics.
In the 2004 presidential race, NDN led an effort to turn out Hispanic voters for John Kerry.
In 2004, Rosenberg announced his candidacy for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, but eventually withdrew from the race after it became clear that he would lose to eventual Chairman Howard Dean. Rosenberg then supported Dean's campaign.
Current efforts
NDN is currently in the midst of launching two of its premier initiatives for the coming election years: the New Politics Institute (NPI) and the Hispanic Project.
In 2003 and 2004, the Hispanic Project produced more than twenty commercials on Spanish-language television, radio and Internet that sought to speak directly to America's growing Latino community and highlight the values and ideals that they see as the bond between Hispanic voters and progressive causes, and has recently stepped up its ad campaigns and project initiatives in hopes of reclaiming lost ground among those voters as evidenced by the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.