Women's Campaign Forum

Mr. Hertzberg is the Senior Editor of The New Yorker. From 1979 until 1981, he was President Carter’s chief speechwriter. He was editor of The New Republic magazine from 1981 until 1985 and again from 1988 until 1991. His years at The New Republic included positions as Contributing Editor, National Political Correspondent, Senior Editor, and Columnist. He has been Executive Editor and Editorial Director at The New Yorker magazine.  He is also the author of Politics: Observations and Arguments.

Ms. Wall Spitzer is the founder and chair of Children for Children, a not-for-profit organization which creates opportunities for young people from all backgrounds to Grow Involved, volunteering their time and resources to benefit children and others, particularly by providing books and other materials to schools in under-resourced areas of New York City. Ms. Wall Spitzer began her legal career with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and then joined Chase Manhattan Bank as a member of its International Legal Group. She is a founding Co-Chair of Project Cicero, the annual New York City book drive building classroom libraries in under-resourced schools.

Michael David has served as the President of Dodger Theatricals since 1980. The off-Broadway theatrical production company has won nearly 50 Tony awards and produced musical hits such as Into the Woods (1987), The Music Man (2000), and Jersey Boys (2005). The organization also teaches educational workshops and offers group events. Prior to founding Dodger Theatricals he was the Executive Director of New York’s Chelsea Theater Center. In total, he has produced 400 plays and musicals in New York, received 139 Tony nominations, and won 49 Tony Awards.

Deb Markowitz is entering her 12th year as Vermont’s Secretary of State and is running for Governor of the New England state. Secretary Markowitz was elected Vermont’s 37th Secretary of State in 1998. She is widely recognized for making it easier to start and expand businesses in Vermont. She eliminated a backlog of professional licensing complaints in the office of Professional Regulation and she strengthened the office’s prosecutions to protect Vermonters from neglect, fraud and abuse.

Secretary Markowitz has made it a priority to improve Vermont’s democracy and promote good citizenship. She successfully and economically implemented an ambitious election reform agenda, making it easier to vote and harder to cheat in Vermont. Vermont’s innovative approach to meeting the needs of people with disabilities without using controversial computer voting machines is a model for the rest of the country. By relying on state employees rather than costly contracts to build and implement a statewide voter registration database she was able to put 11 million dollars of Federal grant money into an elections trust fund to help offset the costs to our cities and towns of future changes to our election systems. She also believes in the power and responsibility of citizens and communities to come together to solve problems. That is why she has focused on getting civics education back into Vermont’s schools.

Throughout her political career, Secretary Markowitz has won six state wide elections and winning every town in Vermont with Republicans and Progressives in the races.  She is a University of Vermont alumnae and received her law degree from Georgetown University. She lives in Montpelier with her husband and their three children.

Julie Menin is the host of the in-depth interview program “Give & Take,” which airs on WNBC.  She is also frequent television commentator who regularly appears on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News and has been featured on many other popular shows, such as “CBS Early Morning,” the “CBS Evening News,” and “The Today Show.” A prominent civic leader and former regulatory lawyer, Ms. Menin fosters substantive and engaging conversations from innovative angles.

Ms. Menin is a proactive voice spearheading community improvement. She serves as the Chairperson of New York City’s Community Board 1. She was elected Chairperson of CB1 in 2005 and unanimously reelected in 2006 and 2008. Ms Menin is the Founder and former President of Wall Street Rising, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to revitalizing Lower Manhattan in the wake of the events of September 11th. She served as a Redistricting Commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and sits on six government and civic boards in New York City. Ms. Menin also contributes her time to the Women’s Campaign Forum as one of our very own board members.

She was recently named by City Hall newspaper as one of the city’s “40 Under 40″ Rising Stars in New York politics. She was voted by the New York Resident as one of the “100 Top New Yorkers”, was named NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week”, and her civic awards include the Women’s Campaign Fund’s “Rising Star” award, the City Women’s Club’s “Civic Spirit Award”, A.C.E’s 2008 “Public Service” award, and Manhattan Youth’s “2008 Public Service Award.

Formerly an attorney at Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington DC and at Colgate-Palmolive in NY, Ms. Menin graduated with a degree in Political Science magna cum laude from Columbia University and received her law degree from Northwestern University School of Law.

Krystal Ball is a candidate in the 1st District of Virginia, where she was raised. If elected, she will be the youngest female ever to enter Congress. Ball feels that now, more than any other time in recent history, is the right moment for her to provide a voice for future generations. There are many issues Ball says she will tackle if elected that would translate, not only in her home state, but throughout the country.

Born to parents who are both teachers, Ball places education as the core element to her platform.  She notes: “I’m a product of the public school system, which is very near and dear to me and my family. In doing my research, I’ve discovered that we spend a lot of money in this country, and we’re not getting results. I believe the best use of our dollars should be to create a system where teachers get the training and the financial support they need, so they can survive.  In turn, this will provide incentive to young people to pursue a career in teaching.”

Tackling our economic problems is an important issue to Ball. “In this country we’ve had the playing field tilted too much in the direction of large corporations in the name of efficiency. I bring my personal experience as an accountant and small business owner to the table and know what it takes to bring our country back economically. We have to focus on small business and entrepreneurship by providing incentives. California has been fostering this approach and is headed in the right direction,” she says.

Virginia is home to the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary.  “The problems facing the environment are very tangible to people here. They live in communities that border the bay, so they are directly impacted by issues like bio diversity, global warming, lack of clean water and over fishing. Though these concerns are specific to our district, they affect us all on a global scale and need to be addressed quickly,” she states. A registered Democrat with Libertarian views, Ball supports equal rights and marriage for the LGBT community and has been very vocal on the issue. “This is something that the government should not be involved in. I profoundly disagree with restrictions that prevent these people from creating stable family units,” she stresses. Ball ultimately credits her family, particularly her daughter, for ever-strengthening her commitment.  She observes: “As a mother, I can’t separate that from who I am as a candidate. It gives me a certain level of compassion and empathy but it also makes me tough.”

The author of New York City’s first Green Energy Code and the historic Tenant Protection Act, Dan Garodnick is a legislator committed to the critical issues for the East Side.

Born and raised on the East Side of Manhattan, Dan was elected to the New York City Council on November 8, 2005.

He was praised by the New York Times for his “independent streak,” as well as for being a “champion of smarter redevelopment along the East River and a fighter for increased funding for the city’s public school students.” In his first year on the Council, Garodnick established himself as a leader in the fight for affordable housing, spearheading the $4.5 billion tenant-backed bid for the purchase of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village.

His “creative problem solving” recently earned Garodnick a place on City Hall’s list of"The Next Generation of Political Leaders in New York.” In 2007, Garodnick secured the funds to build a new library for a middle school in his district — then organized a book drive that added over 4,000 books to the library’s shelves. He was also recognized for his “out-of-the-box public service” after mediating between the owners of a restaurant in his district and a group of workers who had filed a federal discrimination lawsuit, and winning praise from both sides for negotiating an equitable settlement. And in 2009, when the Upper East Side was in need of a location to house a new public school, Dan organized parents in a block-by-block canvass of the neighborhood that produced many promising sites.

Garodnick authored and passed a law to make government work better for property owners by staggering the City’s mandated building façade inspections, and in October 2007 he introduced historic legislation to protect tenants from harassment by their landlords. He wrote the Green Energy Code to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in buildings across the city, and stood up for consumers’ rights by authoring the Livery Car Passenger Bill of Rights and the New York City Fair Debt Collection Act.

With a background in civil rights and education advocacy, Garodnick represented the Partnership for New York City in the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit. Before joining the City Council, he also directed the New York Civil Rights Coalition’s “Unlearning Stereotypes: Civil Rights and Race Relations Program” in 42 New York City public schools, teaching students non-violent ways to combat racial discrimination, and how to use the processes of government to affect social change. Additionally, Garodnick represented thirteen same-sex couples seeking marriage equality in New York State, and sought and received funding to rebuild African-American churches in Virginia and Georgia burned by racially-motivated arson.

Prior to entering public office, Garodnick practiced as a litigator at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Garodnick also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Garodnick holds a J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, and a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College.

Garodnick grew up in a rent-stabilized apartment in the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village community, and he lives in that neighborhood today with his wife, Zoe.