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The Agenda Project is a Washington D.C based non-profit political organization. It was founded in 2010 by political strategist, commentator, and author Erica Payne, founder of the consulting firm the Tesseract Group. The Agenda Project was founded to connect participants, progressive leaders, and stakeholders to build critical relationships and to deepen the understanding of progressive ideas and specific policy issues. Erik Altieri has taken the title of President for the Agenda Project in December 2015.
Contents
The Breakfast Series
The Agenda Project first began as the Agenda Project Breakfast Series in 2006, a monthly informal discussion about important issues facing the country developed by Payne and co-hosted by Maureen White and Gail Furman. The breakfasts have featured over 100 notable speakers, including US Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman, and author Mona Sutphen. Since then, the Project has expanded, becoming a non-profit organization.
Practical Progress
The Agenda Project launched practicalprogress.org and a weekly Practical Progress e-newsletter to highlight the accomplishments of other notable progressive organizations and to keep leaders and activists informed and updated about the progressive movement. Payne authored the book The Practical Progressive: How to Build a 21st Century Political Movement in 2008. The relaunch of Practical Progress coming in 2016 is News in Progress, a daily blog and weekly newsletter highlighting the most important news and organizations from the progressive movement.
Campaigns
The Agenda Project started campaigns such as F*ck Tea, Hate Begets Hate, Vote Sanity, and Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength. F*ck Tea was launched in the summer of 2010 and included "F*ck Tea" mugs and T-shirts, which on the back read: "Progress is the Real American Party". The campaign was intended to urge Americans "to dismiss the Tea Party and to promote the progressive cause", Erica told Politico. "Hate Begets Hate" was launched in response to the stabbing of a New York City cab driver and other hate crimes against Muslims. The Project suggested that the negative light in which Muslims are portrayed in the media and by conservative public officials is the cause of such violence. "Vote Sanity" was a campaign launched before the November 2010 US Congressional midterm elections, inspired by Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30, 2010. The campaign encouraged voters to vote against Tea Party candidates in the 2010 election.
Hate Begets Hate
Also referred to as "Defending American Values: The Freedom to Worship", the Agenda Project launched a three-pronged campaign in partnership with Auburn Seminary, National Security Network, and Vote Vets in response to politicians and individuals who publicly opposed the construction of Park51 in close proximity to Ground Zero. The Agenda Project coordinated the efforts of the three partner organizations in order to attack opposition to the mosque from three different constituent communities, including:
The Agenda Project also launched pieces of the campaign under its own brand, including:
2010 Midterm Elections Strategy
In the weeks before the midterm elections, the Agenda Project focused on influencing congressional and senatorial races in battleground states, particularly where Tea Party candidates were running against Democratic opponents. This campaign had four main components:
Granny off the Cliff
In May 2011, rising GOP star Congressman Paul Ryan introduced a budget to the House Budget Committee that would privatize Medicare. Despite the impact gutting this program would have on the health of elderly Americans, media coverage of the budget was stuck at “bold” and “serious.” In order to clearly - unequivocally - portray the real impact of the cuts, the Agenda Project cut an ad, Granny Off The Cliff, with a Paul Ryan look alike pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff.
The ad became the de facto descriptor of the Ryan plan. The Washington Times op-ed page compared the ad to the infamous 1964 “daisy and the mushroom cloud” attack ad against Barry Goldwater. In an interview with the WSJ, Ryan blamed the AP Action Fund for turning the country against his plan. He called the ad a particularly egregious example of “demagoguery.” Overall it garnered 20+ million media impressions and more than 300,000 YouTube views. Some media highlights include: The New York Times, Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, The Week, The Baltimore Sun, Morning Joe, Varney & Co., Neil Cavuto, The Ed Show, The Sean Hannity Show, and the O’Reilly Factor. A compiled reel of the media coverage following its release can be found HERE.
Only moments after Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his VP pick on August 11, The Agenda Project Action Fund continued the saga by releasing a new video, Granny Off the Cliff Part 2, highlighting Paul Ryan’s anti-Medicare stance. Chris Matthews featured the video praising Granny Off the Cliff Part 2 as his favorite ad of 2012. He said the ad "reflects what the Ryan budget is all about. If you're rich, we take care of you. If you're poor, off the cliff."
Romney Girl
After a Vanity Fair report revealing the existence of the then GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Swiss bank account stirred up a deluge of criticism in the political media, the Agenda Project Action Fund created Romney Girl, a satirical music video featuring a cheerful tax-dodging Swiss Vixen named Ms. Heidi Svenda Bernasconi – the secret source who came forward to confirm that presidential candidate Mitt Romney has not paid taxes in ten years- crooning “life is taxless, it’s fantastic” to an adoring Mitt Romney. The video created an international incident with the Swiss government, garnered millions of media impressions in international and domestic media, and generated 650,000+ YouTube hits before a “cease and desist” order from Universal Music forced the AP Action Fund to take the video down.
Media coverage highlights include: ABC, CNN, CBS, Bill O’Reilly (TV & Blog), Mother Jones, The Nation, MSNBC, TIME, The Guardian, The LA Times, Salon, Daily Beast, TruthDig, Mass Live, AlterNet, Raw Story, MoveOn.org, The Hill, Daily Kos, RH Reality Check, The Globe and Mail, NY's Daily News, Free Speech TV, Mediaite, and Globo (Brazil’s largest news aggregator).
On August 21, Switzerland's Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (DFAE) publicly denounced Romney Girl's video, arguing that it gives "the impression that having a bank account in Switzerland is dubious in itself.” The DFAE official also expressed concern that according to the video the only "aim" of having a Swiss Bank account is "to hide money from the tax authorities." Switzerland's Washington Embassy reportedly expressed its unhappiness with the Romney Girl video to the Obama Administration. By the time that the video was removed at the behest of Universal Music Group on September 14, the video had over 70 million media impressions.
My Country, My Choice
Long concerned that the critical issue of women’s physical sovereignty was being weakened by the narrow framing of the abortion debate, on October 10, 2012 the Agenda Project launched My Country, My Choice. The video seeks to change the frame of the “choice” debate away from a woman’s right to choose an abortion toward a frame about what wanting to control a woman’s body says about the politician trying to control it. In the video, 28 naked women pose the question “If you don’t trust me with my body, why should I trust you with my country?” The campaign received over 4 million media impressions and more than 150,000 YouTube hits. It was covered by Bill O’Reilly, The New York Observer,RH Reality Check, MoveOn.org, The Nation, Free Speech TV, The Washington Times, & The Daily Beast, among others and tweeted by social influencers like Laura Flanders, Dan Abrams, Kimora Lee Simmons, MoveOn and numerous female actresses.
Stop the Greedy Clown
On the eve of one of the biggest fast food strikes in history, the Agenda Project Action Fund released Stop The Greedy Clown, a behind-the-scenes look at Ronald McDonald working Republican politicians and trading campaign contributions for bad policy. The video came on the heels of an announcement by McDonald's that they were re-launching Ronald McDonald, complete with cargo pants and tweets. "They need to re-re-launch Ronald McDonald," said Erica Payne, Founder of The Agenda Project Action Fund. "Instead of cargo pants, give him a conscience." Payne added, "The CEO of McDonald's makes $9,247 an hour while the people who actually cook the food and serve the customers live in poverty. We need to stop the Greedy Clown before he destroys the country." The video ends by asking viewers to sign the Low Pay Is Not Ok petition which calls for $15 an hour wages and the ability to form a union without intimidation.
Republican Cuts Kill
October 12, 2014 AP Action Fund released a 1:00 commercial entitled "Republican Cuts Kill". The commercial showed various federal and state elected Republicans saying "cut" alongside the amount of reduction in spending for the Center for Disease Control and National Institute of Health, "Like rabid dogs in a butcher shop, Republicans have indiscriminately shredded everything in their path, including critical programs that could have dealt with the Ebola crisis before it reached our country. Yesterday, a health worker tested positive for the virus — now, the effects of the GOP's fanatical hatred for our government may finally be exposed," said Erica Payne, president and founder of the progressive Agenda Project Action Fund.
Republican Cuts Kill... Again
On May 13, 2015, an Amtrak train crashed just outside Philadelphia, killing 8 and injuring hundreds. Just a day after this tragedy, GOP leaders – before bothering to learn the cause of the crash - voted to cut Amtrak’s budget by more than $250 million. Enraged, the Agenda Project Action Fund released an ad demanding an answer to a critical question: Did Republican Cuts Kill . . . Again?
Republican Cuts Kill . . . Again features graphic images are interspersed with facts and figures about GOP cuts to Amtrak’s budget and video of dozens of GOP leaders demanding “cuts” to Amtrak and other critical projects. It includes Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner and dozens of other GOP leaders who have called for slashing crucial funding to Amtrak and other programs.
While the details are still emerging about the central cause of the crash, it is clear that additional funding could likely have prevented the tragedy. According to officials who operate the Northeast Corridor, the route faces a $1 billion annual shortfall in capital needs. The company’s most traveled train line has a “state-of-good-repair backlog” of 11,100 major projects and 4,800 basic infrastructure repairs. In addition, the New York Times reported that the crash could have been prevented with the installation of a safety system known as Positive Train Control. The Association of American Railroads says that it would require an additional $5 billion to complete the installations throughout the country by the end of this year. Instead of considering a strong investment in our nation’s rail system - which would not only benefit millions of Americans but also contribute countless millions in the form of new economic development and employment opportunities - Republicans have slashed Amtrak’s funding every year.
Hold Your Breath
In 2015 Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Scott Walker slashed the budget for Wisconsin’s public education system by $250 million, the deepest in the history of Wisconsin’s higher education, leaving 41,000 without student aid. Scott Walker’s suggestion to people who want to escape poverty is to “learn more and earn more”. His suggestion for those who follow that advice and are now drowning in student loans is… "hold your breath.”
With the help of One Wisconsin Now, Think Progress, StudentDebtCrisis.org, and Wisconsin Jobs Now, the “Hold Your Breath” ad had been widely distributed to highlight the national conversation on the issue of student debt, both to highlight the detrimental policies of Republicans and embolden Democrats to act more aggressively to address this issue.
Puppet for President
After the Koch brothers invested nearly $1 billion in Scott Walker and his presidential campaign, the Agenda Project cut an ad to expose Scott Walker as a Koch brother puppet.The ad claimed that Scott Walker, the puppet president, is a serious threat to our democracy. Puppet4President is an effort to bring attention to this. With the help of American Family Voices, the Puppet4President campaign included an anti-Walker rally that flew a banner over the area where Scott Walker announced his presidential candidacy, that read “Scott Walker has a Koch Problem.”
The New McCarthyism
In the first week of October 2015, Kevin McCarthy publicly admitted on Fox News that the Select Committee on Benghazi was conceived and executed solely to damage former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations. In response to the admission by the once presumed future Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, the Agenda Project released a campaign, The New McCarthyism, exposing Representative McCarthy and his conservative colleagues for embracing tactics straight out of the “red scare” era.
The campaign consisted of an ad and a petition calling for an ethics investigation into the Select Committee on Benghazi. Within the first few hours, the petition gathered thousands of signatures. Within two days, The New McCarthyism ad had received over 200,000 views. Also within those two days of this campaign, the Agenda Project was able to collaborate with Representative Alan Grayson to file an ethics complaint against the presumed future speaker. The complaint was filed against Kevin McCarthy and Trey Gowdy for misappropriating taxpayer funds for political purposes.
The Select Committee on Benghazi has cost the United States more than $4.6 million and has lasted more than 500 days. That total that does not include costs related to the independent Accountability Review Board; the eight previous reports by seven congressional committees; the time, money, and resources consumed by federal agencies to comply with Select Committee requests; or the opportunity cost of not spending this money elsewhere, like improving security for our diplomatic officers abroad.
The term “the new McCarthyism”, coined by the Agenda Project, went viral and was widely used by journalists and the media when discussing the tactics that Congress was using that were at best unethical and at worst illegal. A single day after, Representative Alan Grayson worked together to file the ethics complaint, Kevin McCarthy withdrew his name from consideration to be the Speaker of the House.The 72 hour campaign was a huge victory for the progressive movement as it proved that scare tactics have no place in our Congress. When policy makers misuse their constitutionally granted powers to pursue personal vendettas, those actions will not go unpunished.