you have ably discharged the responsibility. we're grateful. the case is submitted. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next the national governors' association form on job creation and competing globally. then the committee's winter meeting. after that, president obama and senator portman deliver the weekly addresses. >> and michael porter talks about the importance of steak being competitive locally. he made the remarks in washington d.c. where he does part of the morning plenary session, focusing on improving state economies and job creation. >> good morning, everyone.

>> as the chair, i would like to welcome each and every one of you to the 2011 nga winter meeting. i want to start by apologizing for my laryngitis and to assure you that you can shake my hand. this is just an overzealous reaction to the boeing tanker award. this is an attack for allergies. i took your advice last night to shut up. they have a motion for the adoption of the rules of procedure for the meeting. it has been moved and seconded. any discussion? all in favor? those opposed? part of the rules require that any governor who wants to submit in a policy resolution for adoption at the meeting will need a 75% vote to amend the rules to do so.

please submit anything in writing by friday. i would like, if i could, to take a moment to recognize our new colleague. this is a historic moment for the national governors association to have 29 new colleagues. congratulations to each and every one of the and welcome to the national governors association. [applause] all of us who are incumbent governors would say to you that it is one of the best jobs in america. we would also say to you that based on the circumstances of our times that it is truly one of the most challenging jobs in america. we have a wonderful group of governors, spouses, former governors, state officials, federal officials, foreign government, dignitaries, corporate partners, members of

the media and many others here today. i want to thank all of you for coming. anyone around this table knows that we did not get here without the tremendous support of a spouse, a friend, a family member. gov. heineman, our two spouses are leading them as they go to this meeting over the next three days. he would like to introduce to you are two responses to tell you that today they will make all of us proud as they lead the spouse's delegation to walter reed. there they will participate in supporting our military families. they will read to children there and they will greet their families. they dedicated their time to the veterans of my home state in the washer tanned of veterans across america.

my husband, mike, and gov. heineman's wife, sally. if you would stand? thank you. [applause] we're joined here today by a delegation from the hunan province. we also have a delegation from canada who has joined us today. a point of personal privilege, if i might. to all of us who have known ray, he served as national director for the nga for 28 years. he has seen us through amazing times. this is his last meeting. please take the time, if you would, to thank ray for all that he has done on behalf of all of us over the 28-year span.

join olla said the reception following to honor ray and all that he has done for our nation and the governor. [applause] [applause] for those of you who do not know where he is headed, he is moving to higher education to inspire a generation to join us in the public service and to lead the nation of tomorrow. let me begin today by saying that we certainly live in interesting times. the times are downright challenging for all of us. from conflicts abroad to fiscal challenges on the home front to families needing to save and build for their futures, these times are testing all of us. as americans, we always face up

to our challenges and our job as governors is to leave those solutions to find a path for root for a competitive america. we're now just beginning to regain our footing from the severest economic downturn that most of us will ever experience in our lifetime. we have not yet fully recovered and we may have many tough fiscal challenges ahead. as we gather here this morning, all of us have one thing on our mind and that is how do we regain quickly our competitive edge. we're going to address that question over the next three days and leave you a lot of good ideas to take your home state to grow your economies and balance your budget. that is what the governors do at these meetings. we share ideas and experiences.

we figure of solutions to the problems that we face. that is with the national governors' association is all about. our greatest opportunity in the most fervid challenge is building a strong, competitive state economy in each of our home states. all the demands that we face, health care, pensions, infrastructure will all be much harder to meet if we do not have thriving economies with more people employed in high- quality jobs in growing industries. we also know that having a more educated population is an essential ingredient for a competitive economy. the days when jobs paid middle- class wages and required only high school diplomas are behind us. the job market of tomorrow will belong to those who have some credentials beyond high school. a certificate or a degree. the jobs will move to where those skilled workers are and if we're not careful that means overseas. that is why we are opening the

2011 winter meeting with the discussion about competitiveness with one of the leading experts in america on this subject. it is also why i am focusing on productivity in my chairs initiative, complete to compete. in front of you are materials that to the little bit about this initiative. i would like to draw your attention to a couple of points. complete to compete is about promoting better measures of performance for our higher education institutions. it is no longer and have to know how many students are enrolling in our colleges. we need to know how many students are actually completing their certificates and agrees. how long is it taking them? are they taking up a spot that to go to entering freshmen? how many students end up in remedial class is making a for the k-12 system are preparing their students. it also highlights what is working in our state.

when it comes to graduating year students, there will be new and innovative ideas for how we fund and maintain high quality higher education in america. we will be hearing more about this initiative and opportunity to participate over the course of the meeting. i encourage your to contact the nga staff if you need more resources to deal with these higher education issues that are facing us today in these difficult economic times. we are truly fortunate today to be joined by dr. michael porter who has spent his career examining factors that allow nations, states, and businesses to compete in the modern, global economies. pressure porter's 1990 publication, the competitive advantage of nations, printed a

new theory that is well accepted today about nations and regions competition and what powers their economic prosperity. his theory of industrial clusters has given rise to new ways of thinking about how governments create environment for high quality job growth and strong business expansion. his way of thinking recognizes that human talent is a critical element for such growth and that a state higher education system can be a powerful engine if it is properly aligned with the region's economic goals. prof. porter is recognized as the father of the modern field of competitive strategy and has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world's most influential thinker on management to competitiveness. he's the bishop william lawrence professor at the base at harvard business school. this position is the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a harvard faculty member. in 2001, harvard business school and university joined

nacreous the institute for strategy and competitiveness dedicated to furthering progress reporter's work. i commend his reza made to you. you will find it both interesting. one thing i found more interesting is that he is the senior policy adviser to the boston red sox. my home team could use a little strategy session with dr. porter. this is why you guys are doing so good. prof. porter has been kind enough to bring to each of us some very specific analysis regarding our state's economy and competitive strengths. if you pay for this backup, it would cost you thousands of dollars. you will find that analysis and materials in front of you. i think i speak for all of us in saying, tell us how we can use this information to grow our economies and their citizens back to work which is the fundamental challenge that

each of us as governors face. dr. porter, think for joining us and we look forward to our discussion with you. [applause] >> thank you, governor. that is very kind. we are very hopeful for the red sox this year. hopefully we will have a good year. i am so honored to have this opportunity to speak to all of the. it is really quite a remarkable moments in our country's history and also in the history of many of our states. you had your hands full. all of you. the country has their hands full in terms of our competitiveness. this is a time when i think our position is challenge of a level that i have never experienced before as states, we are of focusing on a fundamental challenge of trying

to get fiscal houses in order. ultimately, that will not solve our problem. as governor grigory just said, the only way to create prosperity is to actually build competitive economies. that is a long term agenda. at a time when there's so much pressure on now coming the here and now, dealing with the fiscal problem, what i like to talk to run to dave may seem a little difficult to think about at this moment, but ultimately, i think it will be single greatest agenda that will determine ultimately the success of your states. that is building an economic strategy in which you can get the consensus of of the key stakeholders in your state to create competitiveness. that is the fundamental agenda.

if we can do that, they will have the resources to deal with the other problems and issues in our society. that is the ultimate agenda. that is the core agenda. how do we build competitive state economies? we have very limited time this morning and we will only be able to give started on that discussion. in order to try and make this discussion continue from each of you and from a year has a presentation that we prepared about your state. it has a lot of very rich data to try and benchmark where you are, talk about the nature of your economy as it is today, how it is progressing and the stars to provide some of the facts that i think you will all media and many of you probably already know which of the necessary to create that

economic strategy. i would like to put the presentation the side for the purposes of this discussion. i'm not going to follow those presentations. i will talk to you now about strategy for the next 20 minutes or so. this presentation is background information for you. as we go out of this meeting, we would offer to work with any of you. we would work to continue this discussion. hopefully, we can have a dialogue. we want to create successful economies in your states. this ultimately, i believe is the fundamental challenge that you face. as i said one minute ago, already has some very short- term challenges in terms of achieving fiscal stability in your states. gov. gregoire talked about that. when you are doing short-term

things like cutting, it is important to do long-term things at the same time. you have to offer not just a challenging short-term agenda to the citizens of your stay, but you have to offer some kind of a positive longer-term agenda. if you can do these two things together, we have found over and over again the you'll be a lot more successful. if all of you talk about is the negative stuff, you will get much less of traction and willingness of citizens to move ahead than if you could also offer a positive agenda. that is why even though it time like this, you talk about economic strategy, and you get by, it is incredibly important. we see that states differ tremendously and the economic performance. this is one of the many charts that talk about how the states are doing in terms of the fundamental agenda of

prosperity. we see tremendous differences. we see states with very high levels of prosperity that are not growing. we see states that are moving up, states moving in every possible direction. you have to get a handle on where your state stands and that will dictator particular strategy that you will pursue. the question is, how do we think about that economic strategy? what will it take for your state to actually build some momentum and build a competitive economy that will allow you to create jobs over time? that is the agenda that we would like to talk about today. in order to do that, we have to understand this idea of competitiveness. but i have found is that competitiveness is widely misunderstood. it is misunderstood in ways that create unnecessary divisiveness and controversy in states about economic strategy.

combativeness is it fundamentally the productivity with which you can use the state's people and capital and resources in order to produce valuable goods and services. if you are a productive state, you can produce a lot of value in a de's work. they could be able to support high wages. it is as simple as that. your prosperity is determined by your productivity. but if you're never productive, you have a really hard time competing against other locations. if you are setting policy is that improve productivity, you're going to have ultimately improved wages and create jobs. if you are setting policies that make it harder to be productive in business, you will be moving in the wrong

direction. productivity determines wages. productivity sets jobs. productivity determines the standard of living. this is the fire loss of the modern global economy. the more we are open to the rest of the world and the more our businesses can invest, it is productivity that determines whether your particular state is going to succeed. your agenda must be limited on your question of how can we improve productivity. we also need innovation. if a company in your state is doing the same thing that it did 10 years ago, using the same production process, producing the same product come it will be hard to succeed. we have all these other nations out there with the low wages. this is why innovation and so on fortin. we have to keep moving the bar,

particularly in the united states where we want a high standard of living. we need to stimulate innovation and process these products. part of a stay competitive this agenda has to be how can we step up the level of innovation in our state? to do that, again, we have to create the right environment for business. that is your job. the job is not to compete but create the right environment. when we find is that if you can trade the right of barman for productivity and innovation that competitiveness is not a zero sum game. your state success does not mean that another state needs to fail. few are addressing fundamental productivity, we could now get more prosperous. that is something on which there is no doubt. if we think the wrong way about competitiveness, the making their cells in serious trouble. we will talk with iran about how state should compete.

when some level, you all the compete. the question is how should we do that from a strategic point of view. this benchmarks the performance of this state. i've got some of gov. christie because he also works with princeton university. i will take an opportunity to use him as an example. you can see that it is the seventh most prosperous state in america. look at the productivity metric here. it is also the seventh most productive state and that is not an accident. prosperity depends on productivity. is the fifth highest wages stayed. that is the maximum. these are all connected.

in order to be so productive, we see that new jersey has a very high ranking in innovation. they have been a great state in generating patents and new ideas. as you look at this chart, you can see that there are some yellow and red highlighting. new jersey, although they are in a good position today, they have slowed down their productivity improvements. they have slowed down the rate of iovation. the clusters are not growing any more. gov. christie's fundamental challenges non the level of productivity. his fundamental challenges to had to get the engine of

innovation and change improvements going again. that is the fundamental challenge. other states will be in very different circumstances. some of you have to create stronger foundations so you can move up in the first place. others of your starting to progress in you're going back to make some transitions in terms of industry. every state has a different strategic challenge. every state must have its own unique strategy. that state's strategy will require, will demand that you engage the private sector. if you do not engage in the private sector, all of the strategy in the world will fail. it is 85% or more of everything economic in your state. you have to give the private sector on board. is a challenge when things are little bit partisan. competitiveness and economic strategy, you cannot be partisan. you have to fundamentally and gives the private sector to be successful. let's talk about strategy at the state level.

at the state level, there are three big strategy issues that we see over and over again as we have a chance to work at the state level, not only in the united states but elsewhere in the world. one has to do the general business environment. everyone of you that has estate offering a business environment. the business environment has to support productivity. how do you improve it? where are the constraints in your business environment relevant to peers at your level? what will it take if you want to move up? that is agenda number one. number two are the clusters. what fields are you strong in? where do you have the merging or existing strengths.

it is not about having firms in a lot of different industries. it does not work like that. the way to build productivity is to have critical mass is of expertise, suppliers, and supporting industries in particular fields. every state economy is specialized in a certain set of fields in which it builds up some unique position. the question is where is your state specializing in how can you reinforce and improve that? that is the second agenda. the third agenda of is the one that has to do with multiple levels of geography. it is partially due to federal policies but your competitiveness is also affected by how well your neighboring states do, what we found is that you want a strong neighbors.

strong neighbors making more prosperous. that is an actual fact. your state is not homogeneous unless your tiny. most of your states consist of multiple subregions, different metropolitan areas. in some cases, your actual economy crosses state borders. four of its successful strategy is to manage across geographic levels. you need to work across state borders and effectively with the federal government. they're better leave a piece on that shelf. what you're going to find is that you will not achieve the success were hoping for. the business environment can consist of four big pieces.

one is the input available. you have to improve the uncut. if you're going to be more productive, you need to have more input. yet the better people if you want to be more productive. the second piece is the set of rules that you put in place about how businesses than in your state with other rules and regulations that govern competition. you want rules for efficiency and productivity. with their peace has to do with the relevant to the -- the supporting industries in your state. finally, the demand conditions. whether the state is a sophisticated market for goods and services because the regulations that encourage

sophistication because the policies you said there really encourage new businesses to grow because you're really encouraged -- encourage it accumulates that demand. of the state level, there are many differences in instances, but there are a number of issues that are important in almost every state in terms of the business in burma. one is regulation and permitting. getting that to be efficient and fast is fundamental. most do have that issue and almost all of you do better. two, there is a lot of unnecessary costs of doing business that we have allowed to grow up in america and your states. unnecessary costs in the sense that we're spending more of the value that we're getting. whether it is energy, health care, you have to find a way to reduce those unnecessary costs.

when there are unnecessary costs to doing business, do you know what that does? it reduces the wages in your state. the depend on productivity. if companies are wasting money because they're spending too much time on permitting, that means they can pay less. do not think of this as some abstract thing, these costs. think of this as coming out of the pocketbooks of your citizens. states have an obligation to make the environment as efficient and supportive of productivity as possible. again, time is short. most of you need to get your training system better aligned with the needs of industry. we see that in state after state.

many of you need to improve your infrastructure. we spend a fair amount of money on infrastructure, we just do not spend it smartly. we do not spend it on the pieces of infrastructure that really have a big economic impact because we tend to spread it around because of the political process to put in place. if you could do a better job of prioritizing investment, it would make a big difference. infrastructure investments that speed up commerce, support productivity in the economy. anything you can do the ease the burden on small businesses will pay big dividends. we know small businesses really generate most of the jobs. any cost falls disproportionately among small businesses because they're small. anything they have to do hurts them more. finally of course, there's the issue of education. education is fundamental and there will be more discussion of that in the session, so i will not cover that. without the talent pool and the skill base, we simply cannot be productive. this is the biggest single issue facing america. we do not have a strong enough

talent pool to allow us to justify our high wages. that is a challenge of the state level as well. the business in burma is part of the story and improving that overall, for all companies but also we find that true competitive success requires you go further and really understand the composition of your economy, what kind of business is the state in? by the business is developing these clusters? we look a state economy, there are two types of industries. one of is what recall local industries. these are industries that every state will have a retail come utilities, health care. these are industries that serve almost totally the local market. there are based on serving the

population that lives in your state. there are the majority of all jobs, local jobs. there are also what we call the traded clusters. these are industries that have to compete across state and across countries. it is this traded a part of your economy that really drive you to prosperity. they have much our wages. they have much higher productivity. they have much higher rates of innovation. we have given you the data on your state in terms of the mix of your state economy in terms of the treated and local clusters. what is a cluster? it is a critical mass in a particular field. this is the crown jewel in massachusetts, as governor matthews knows. is the life sciences cluster. it is not only manufacturing companies but also service,

support, supporting institutions like universities that all come together with expertise and technology in a particular field. here is another cluster in the oil and gas in houston. this got its start selling oil. because houston has built this enormously successful cluster, now they did not sell much oil. when it sells technology, services, skill, and supports a very high wages. this is what happens when you truly can build a cluster. this is how productivity gets built. this is how innovation occurs making it a critical mass a series of fields in your states and reinforce that process. you let the state government support those clusters. that is how successful economies.

we have growing evidence of helen fortin these clusters are. -- how important these clusters are. here is what we know. if you can build a strong cluster, it will create faster job growth. we know that if you can build a strong cluster that it will provide higher wages. we know that if you can build a strong foster that you will have more parenting and other types of innovation. we know that if you can build a strong cluster, that is where the new businesses form. they do not form randomly in any field in your state. they tend to bird is proportionally out of the clusters that you have. if you can get the fly wheel turning, and it spits out of touch of the things. not only do more businesses form, but they grow better, survive better over time. these are something very fundamental to the success of your state. this slide is complicated and it is in your packet.

there is a tendency to think that some clusters are better than others. some clusters, like financial services, have higher wages than other clusters than, for example, tourism. what we have found is that it is the wrong way to think about it. what we find is the dominant influence on prosperity is not what clusters you are in. the dominant influence on prosperity is how you compete in each of the clusters that you are in. 75% of all the differences across the states in terms of wages are not determined by the mix of cultures that you have in your state but by how good you are in the cluster you are in. the last thing for economic development here is very clear. build on your strength. do not chase hot field or try to get into biotech because that is whatever losses as cool.

you have to build on your existing strength. you have to build on your emerging strength. that is the way to build your state economy. do not dream about some field where you have no capability or assets. it will not work. for strategy is to build on your strength. for each of you in your presentation, i have given you the portfolio of clusters in your state. this is south carolina. the red clusters are losing jobs. the green clusters are gaining jobs. the ones in the upper right are gaining market share. the ones on the left are losing market share in america. everyone of you has your own portfolio. everyone of you has your own circumstances.

getting a handle on this, what is going on, and how you can help is going to be fundamental to your strategy. this will really this proportionally drive your prosperity. what we find is that clusters in an economy are interconnected. some of them are related. this chart is a little schematic in the sense that it is try to capture multiple dimensions. see the areas that are overlapping? these are the roughly 40 coster's that exists in any modern economy. when these overlap, that means they are synergistic. with that says is that if you are in education, it helps to compete in the medical devices. if you can put those two together in your state, that will create an even greater strength. the way states diversify is not

random. it will not scatter shot over the chart. it will follow the connections. if you are in medical devices, you have a better chance in analytical instruments. this is how economies develop. here is m massachusetts. you can now see why it is so prosperous. it has an array of clusters. they are synergistic. the challenge is how to keep the vitality going. ok. having the dreaded computer issue here.

thank you. there we go. it's done. ok. now, this picture is a great story about how economies evolve. this is san diego. it is a some region of california, but it is its own defined economy. california needs a strategy for not only california, but each of these defined regions. you can see that the california economy built from one cluster to the next. there are a random. the position in one area give the region some assets that allowed them to get into the

next area. this is how each of you needs to think about this state. where do you have assets to we can build upon and had we facilitate diversification process? let's talk for a second about multiple geographic levels. you all are affected by federal policy and federal programs. one of the jobs the you have to accomplish is that you have to do a good job of getting your fair share of the support. you all work on bottle law. all of you are affected by your neighbors. the department of commerce, when it defines what an economy is, usually the concept is an economic area. there are regions in which the data shows that congress takes place. i have shown a picture of the

northeast of the united states. what you can see is that massachusetts is part of three different economic areas. it is connected to the albany economic area, boston economic area, then down with the connecticut area. when you are thinking about economic strategy for your state, you cannot think of this has the right unit. they're usually not the right economic unit. your state is often connected to multiple economic units. setting the policies to understand and it established that will be very important. the other thing is that you have both rural and urban areas. they're systematically less prosperous.

the average rural wage is $32,000 and urban is $45,000. had to get those connected is a fundamental challenge. we have a big problem in massachusetts year. we have a very high wage state in massachusetts. we have a below average wage state ever else. one of the biggest challenges is to move the prosperity is to not to make the boston region better, of course you would love to do that, but the real problem is how to get the rest of the state that does not really participating engaged. any state economic strategy coming you cannot just look at the capital city. you have to understand how the state's success is built up into these multiple geographic areas. there are a few comments we can talk about later. what i am been talking about, i hope the impression about was to build strategy for your state and the competitiveness that you would have to deal with a fair number of things. there is no silver bullet. you have to deal with a lot of

issues. many things matter. the roads matter, schools, regulations. lots of things matter. when you have a problem like that, you need a strategy. it is the list of 55 action steps. most of them are 55 action steps. that is not a strategy. a strategy is where you develop an overarching view of where your state can be unique. how your state can create a unique platform for a particular set of businesses. as you understand the strategy, it starts to give you a sense of priority. one of those things and i really need to do, because these are critical to how my state will be different, is because strategy's about being different. also, that type of thinking

should tell you which weaknesses that you really have to deal with. every state needs a strategy rego every state needs a strategy that can allow themselves to find their own distinctive role in the american economy and the world economy. i am confident that everyone of you can develop a strategy. all of you have access. it is a question of doing the thinking to think about it that way. how should you be competing with each other? barbara question, is it not? we are all sitting around this table in trying to build competitive economies. yet, we're competing. at the level of individual businesses deciding where to locate. one of the problems is that we have not been competing the right way.

we have been falling into the trap which is sought -- which are cozier some competition. one state wins, the other loses. we have been using the wrong tools to compete. this talks about how we need to change the nature of competition in america. we have to focus even more on getting our existing companies to invest more in our states. we will have much more success if we doing your job of existing with our companies rather than going out looking for new ones. it is the existing companies that are really going to drive success. we have to stop competing for every plant. our state has this position, these strikes, and let's focus

on reinforcing their strength. we have to be more strategic about the way that we compete. if we could lead to specialize and get better at what we're good at then we will see everyone living a much more rapidly. offering general tax breaks does not work. all it does is take money from the state and give it to businesses in a way that is not very productive. if we're going to spend subsidies, we need to do not assets that will stay in our state. we can support training, infrastructure, help build the institutions. those kinds of state investments are going to lead to a long-term return on investment. just competing for tax breaks

will make this neutralize each other. we have to think about how we support and how we've had businesses come in and not just doing it. many states come i find, offer subsidies to offset the high cost of doing business in their state. what you're going to do is fundamentally lower the cost of doing business. do not hunt. tackle the real problems rather than try use subsidies to offset our neutralize them. that principle is ineffective over and over again. many states are in free-for-all. every city, region, subregion, county, is out there struggling. the states generally successful are the state's that can get some appropriate efficiency and collaboration. understand that is not a zero sum game. the issue. looking for those investments

that it is circumstantial and everyone should not be going after everything. if we're going to attract investments, we have to engage the private sector. of the best efforts i have never seen around the world are those where the government in the private sector do it together. where you can get business leaders in a particular field to help and work with you to the record the next in the next one, it will be much more effective. i promise you. we also understand that the process of economic development has fundamentally changed. it used to be government driven. today, it is a collaborative process and involves engaging companies, universities, trade groups, and all types of other institutions in the process. the you have that five of collaborative process going on in your state. i do find a way of engaging

these and other actors around a fact-based agenda? as this time when you are having to take all these really tough actions that is important in achieving the ultimate success. let me make a few final remark said that if we have time, we will take the questions. what we have to understand is that the goal of the economic shredded you for your state is to enhance competitiveness i hear too many governors say their goal is to create jobs. you cannot do that. the only way to do that is to enhance competitiveness. we have to get the cart before the horse.

is about building competitive this and then that will create jobs. two, as we go about doing that, productivity and innovation must become the guiding principles. everything we do, every policy that we said, every executive order, you need to be thinking, is this moving the ball on productivity? will this make us a more productive state taxes is moving the ball on innovation? will this allow for more innovation? if the answer is yes, usually the thing to do. number three, sometimes the five governors get it into their head that to do competitive finishes that they need lots and lots of new money. the answer is you do not. this is really about using existing resources better. there is often plenty of money being spent on economic development. do not think that this is capital intensive stuff.

bayh they give we could just make our infrastructure investments more effective that we could get a huge impact even if we did not have more money, even if we had less money. they give competitiveness as setting the rules, policies, collaboration, strategic agenda. it is not about taking out your checkbook in deriding a big check. as i said, to do this welcome you have to mobilize the private sector. you have to get them on your team. they can do a lot of this themselves. if you could just get them energized and if you to give them a feeling like you are all in it together. i'm confident many of you are doing so, but i cannot emphasize enough from the world. finally, i want to say that coming out of the bruising

political campaign, in which many of you have been engaged recently, on what to say that improving competitiveness and economic strategy is not partisan. it is about building the prosperity of everyone. the benefits of economic strategy are going to be even greatest for the middle and lower middle income brackets that it will be for those who are at the top. we have to turn this issue into one of getting results, not ideology. there is no ideology here. in the competitiveness, there is the iron law of productivity. it is just a fact. we have to be able to convince all of our colleagues the matter would discussion we have all these other issues to think of it that way. that comes from being clear

about what we need about competitiveness and taking the collaborative approach to the process. hopefully -- will take a look and this will provide you with some specific advice about your state. this is meant to start the discussion and not concluded. we would be thrilled not to take some questions and have dialogue with you in your economic development directors over the coming years. i will say this to conclude. i hope things get better in washington. i hope our federal government is more successful in tackling some of the issues it has to tackle in terms of economic strategy. i'll tell you that what is really going to determine the success of america in restoring competitiveness is actually what all of you do.

the real greatness of america from an economic point of view is the decentralization. every state, and many cities, take responsibility to drive competitiveness themselves. i hope washington will help, but i have great hope that the skipper people can be those who will turn around the competitiveness of this country. thank you very much. [applause] >> we do have time for questions. can we begin? gov. herbert? >> thank you, dr. porter. i think the states are the laboratories of democracy and we can lead to this economic recovery. i am fascinated to hear the discussion about how this is not about ideology and how this works. there are certainly differences among the economists in the country to stimulate their not

to stimulate. how do we get past the ideology because there were certainly in -- >> may i have your attention please? may i have your attention please? we have an emergency report in the building. please leave the building in the nearest stairway. do not use the elevator. may i have your attention please? may i have your attention please? >> there has been a fire emergency reported in the building. please the the building in the nearest exit. >> do we need to do it? >> we need to go. [sirens]

>> a big hurry up and get back to your seats we will reconvene. -- if you could hurry up. please take your seats so we can resume with dr. porter.

>> ladies and gentlemen, if you could please take your seats again, especially the governors, we will resume our conversation with dr. porter. this is at the request of our chair who is losing her voice, and maybe her patientce. >> should we continue, governor? >> this is much more like my harvard business school class than such an august meeting. let's move quietly, and we will continue the discussion in the time we have. governor herbert, your question about partisanship. i think there are many

macroeconomic issues like the stimulus or not that there is a lot of debate on. i think when you get down to the level of competitiveness, there is quite a wide consensus on many of these issues. the big partisan issue that i encounter over and over again is if people think that competitiveness means lower wages, that it's very partisan. but of course, competitiveness is not about lower wages. if you have lower wages, that means you are not competitive. competitiveness is about higher wages. if we can get everybody to understand it is about creating productivity so we can support higher wages, then a lot of the partisan concerns tend to get less vigorous. i think you can communicate to your citizens that my job is to create conditions here so we can all get paid more, but we cannot

get paid more unless we turn that, unless we can be more productive and have better skills and have a more efficient infrastructure. hopefully that can be a less partisan discussion that some of these broad issues of stimulus or not stimulus, should taxes be this high or that high. those issues get very partisan. a lot of the fundamentals can be agreed upon, certainly within the business community. i would not go into this thinking it has to be partisan. i know there are other governors here who have had these experiences. >> dr. porter, you were describing the importance of not having resources leave the state, and the competition that often exists between states going and offering significant financial incentives to get a corporation to build a plant or open an office in their state. is it feasible to consider if

the governors all agreed that no state would offer financial incentives for existing jobs, that would only try to fuel new jobs or new offices. no would tried i try to frame the discussion as what kind of competing across states, keeping the total the same? i call that zero sum her. what kind of competition is a healthy competition? that build strength. in this particular area, i would suggest a distinction between general tax breaks, you just get lower tax breaks and incentives that are tied to the company making investments in training

in the state, in infrastructure in the state. if we could get the competition and incentive game to be about investing in state assets rather than just giving tax breaks, i think that would be a very great step forward. maybe that is something many states could agree on, because ultimately plants that come to your state just because of lower taxes will be what economists call footlose. so you want to attract investment to your state, because you offer assets. because you have a cluster in that area, because you have trained people in that area. and that is the way we want to compete, because that makes us all better and more productive. i hope you can lead us in that direction.

>> in oregon and washington, almost half of the competition is in health centers. we have medical devices that are extremely expensive that benefit individuals but have no impact of population health. we're now spending a bit of our gdp on that industry. can you talk a little bit about the apparent contradiction? >> absolutely. health care delivery is a local industry, not a traded industry. that is part of their problem. if health care delivery in your state had to really compete with health care delivery centers around the world, they would probably be a lot more affected. it is a local industry, and it

is almost a local monopoly, that is people go to the hospital and they really do not choose where to go. and i have done an enormous amount of work on health care delivery and how to move away from the mess we're in, which has a lot to do, i think, with the finding of value as a goal, starting to measure health outcomes, starting to reduce the incredible -- incredible implementation of services we have in every state. every community hospital offers every service. and the governors that would be interested, i would be happy to send you easy to read, not to dense material about some of the critical steps to drive productivity in health-care delivery. i think we're starting to get consensus on some of the key principles. i am very encouraged today.

i think there has been the wake up call in our health care delivery system, and there is a lot more flexibility to actually change, but i think every governor needs to be making sure that your medicaid program is leading restructuring, not just pumping in more money. if we bump in more patients and more money and do not change the way we do it, we are in deep trouble. >> governor ran paul. >> it seems like years ago whenever we saw state-by-state comparisons of personal income, you would see relative cost of living statistics state-by- state. why is it that i feel like i never see those statistics anymore? >> well, you know, you should

not be comparing your wages to your cost of living to really understand your true prosperity. in if you earn the high income have to pay a lot for everything you need to buy, somehow the income produces less. when we compare countries, that is pretty easy to do. we adjust it for what the dollar will buy or yen will buy. in the state area we do not see those comparisons. when you are trying to improve the standard of living in your state, driving up the average wage is all smedley will matter. you also have to make sure you are controlling the cost of living the best you can. if you have a high cost of living, that will for you in competing for talent. this is an issue gov. patrick and i and many others have been talking about for a long time. we have a tremendous amount of

talent. that is likely getting better now for unfortunate reasons. i think the cost of living is another agenda i did not emphasize, but in the overall equation, it is a piece of the pie. thank you, governor. >> thank you. i thought it was a great presentation. you said a state is best off when they have neighbors. i was wondering if you could give a couple of specifics about how states can work together in a regional area when they of different policies and different industries and the like? >> one of the things that we found was if you are in the pharmaceuticals and your

neighboring region, which may be in the state next door is also strong in pharmaceuticals, it turns out that both of you are disproportionately stronger than if you'd just had one region in that area and not the neighbors. , and that is because the economic choices do not respect state boundaries. they are more focused on where the people are, where the gut -- where the geography is. you often see clusters and other economic activity spill across state borders. all of you have examples of that in your state. that says if you are in delaware, you cannot think of delaware as the economy. delaware is connected south and into the philadelphia region, and when you are thinking strategically about how to drive to lower for work, you have to start thinking about how to make it easier and avoid any

distortions or barriers or a silly policy differences that would somehow hurt the ability to tralee and freight across the region. -- to truly integrate across the region. certainly having a good transportation and logistical connections is key. trying to harmonize taxes and things like that so we do not have these artificial things that would distort the economically most productive thing to do. that would be the way i would think about it. >> one last question. please. >> thank you for the presentation. i think all of us around the table sure that same goal of wanting to create jobs, and that is what most of us ran on or are trying to do.

my question is, my frustration as a governor, and i bet we all share this is when i go talk to my job creators and say as governor what can i do to help you grow jobs, their answer is i have jobs, i just cannot find the work force that is trained to do those jobs. that cost money. what we're trying to do is look at early heard -- early childhood education. it children ready to learn across the spectrum since education is one of the places where governors can close the gap between the jobs of are out there and the lack of folks to do the jobs, how do we do that if we do not spend more resources? >> you raise an excellent point.

i certainly do not want any of us to oversimplify this challenge. i would make a couple of responses. absolutely the talent and skill issue is at some level fundamentalists. as we think about productivity in supporting high wages, the only way we will be successful at that is to raise the skill level. the americans with very high education are just striving the americans do not have a high school degree are struggling. it is all about skill. it is all about education. ultimately that is a long-term agenda. now the question is what do we do as governors to try to move the needle on that? i would say first of all that all of you are probably spending money on training

already today. every state has training programs. you can spend that money all lot better. you can get those programs much more tied to your clusters, private sector needs. if you think about how to reorganize, some states move faster than others. if you have more money to spend on training, so much the better. ultimately there is a lot you can do just by doing it more effectively. i would tell you that the private sector will spend more money on training also. the private sector is willing to step off on this, because they understand it is lacking skilled people. companies do not want to train in house. they would love to have well- trained people they can just hire. they will often contribute. in the area of public education. the logistics' -- system sticks

statistics i have seen show that we spent quite a bit on education. in massachusetts we had a commission a few years back and we had all of the school districts. there was an estimate of $1 billion we were wasting because we have the school districts and they were doing overhead functions and doing redundant and repetitive and so forth. i do not want to make this simple. if we have more resources we want to deploy them and spend them, but i find so much opportunity to deal with human resources issues much more objectively than we are now if we are willing to take on some of the system design and structural issues that we have in other areas like health care. we have a moment where maybe some of these issues around

fragmentation in school districts and duplication, maybe we can take some of these issues on right now. so what i would encourage you to do not be paralyzed by your budget. realize there is a lot you can do to spend the money you have available better, and drink -- think structurally. think about innovation in terms of tackling some of these things. very good question. i know there will be an extensive discussion of education issues later in the program, so i shied away from them given the limited time, but governo your best part question. [applause] >> thank you, dr. porter.

not only has he done a wonderful presentation here today, but he has volunteered to give us his presentation, which we will get out to each of you, that there may be ways in which we can continue the collaborative work with him with our commerce department agency head and in other ways. i cannot tell you how valuable your vision and experience is. thank you for being here today, and thank you for your continued friendship. thing here. [applause] >> the national governors' association meetings are being held here in washington this weekend. tomorrow live coverage begins on the sustainability of medicaid. in the governors will hear from the douglas holtz a thin and michael burgess. that is live tomorrow at 11:00 eastern here on c-span. -- douglas holz-aiken.

>> after that, president obama will deliver the weekly addresses. then political independence assess their views at a conference. >> tomorrow, a reporter's roundtable. on this week's budget showdown between congress and the white house, over spending cuts and a potential government shutdown. myrna perez looks at state efforts to redraw government districts. also, a discussion of muammar gaddafi. that is live is 7:00 eastern here on c-span.

the democratic national committee held its winter meeting in washington. this session was moderated by tim kaine. he looked ahead to 2012. other speakers include william daley and hilda selez. this is about an hour, 15 minutes. since we were last together in school reform and restoring government. he has tirelessly advocated for the residents of the district for more than 30 years.

his dedication to children and their families has been a hallmark of service. it can be summed up by his singular governing philosophy. welcome mayor vincent great. -- vincent gray. [applause] >> good morning. will latewe say a special welcome to well committee. let me wish you a happy birthday. i also want to welcome the vice what other chairs of the committee and all of the state chairs who are here and the chief of staff, bill daley.

wellthe chair of our state committee for the district of committee -- or the district of columbia -- for the district of columbia is here. [applause] the folks of the district of columbia, please stand up and be recognized. [applause] i am delighted to be here. i appreciate it mentioned by governor kaine about what we have done for the children of the district of columbia. we are working hard on it. i introduced legislation to do what was a fairly bold moves,

to create pre-kindergarten services for everyone in the district. we introduced the legislation and we said we would get ourselves six years to get that done. we said we were going to create higher education incentive grants and other programs associated with it. i am pleased to stand here today to say this program has been so popular that it has not taken us six years. in september, we became the first city in america to say we have a seat in an organized education program for every child between3 and 4 years old -- between 3 and 4 years old in the district of columbia. we have seen an enrollment

increase in our traditional public schools in the district of columbia and we are on an upsurge. we are some really challenged budget fairly. we just closed a budget gap and we are facing a $500 million budget gap next year. since we are so strapped, there is a nasty rumor going around that you cannot spend your money in the district of columbia. we want you to spend every dime you have in your pocket in the district of columbia. we take credit cards. we take checks. and given the challenges we have, we will take an iou from everyone in this room because we know you are good for it. as we face the challenges in the district of columbia, we also face the challenge of

disenfranchisement. the word, "indivisible with liberty and justice for all" -- when our liberty and justice going to come to the people of this city? [applause] we just saw the republican majority take away the limited vote that our outstanding congresswoman had in the congress. she could vote until early january. what did that mean? it meant she could pass a vote to break a tie. that has been taken away from her. that on the heels of us paying $3.60 billion in federal taxes

per year. us sending our sons, daughters, and relatives to fight the measure -- to fight democracy -- fight for democracy in other places and the comeback and they cannot get the rights they thought to get in other places in the world. [applause] it is time, ladies and gentlemen. we ask our democratic friends, our democratic militants to stand with the 600,000 people in the district of columbia. it is time to eliminate this kind of injustice in the nation's capital of the democratic world. there are 119 democratic capitals in the free world. we are the only one that does not have a vote in the national legislature. it is time for that to end. [applause]

i have to be candid with you. it is not that we want a vote. we believe not only should we have a vote in congress. but given our commitment to this nation, we should be working toward becoming the 51st state of this nation. it is right and it is just. i welcome you to the city. i asked you to do great work on our behalf. i look over to joining you in charlotte in 2012 when we come together for our convention. i look forward in 2012 to be able to say, we have stood up. we have made a concerted effort and we can show some progress toward eliminating the injustice we suffer every day in this nation's capital. thank you and i was you -- i wish you a successful meeting. [applause]

>> thank you, mayor gray. [applause] thank you very much, mayor gray. and thank you for reminding us -- 119 capitals. you reminded us of the unique position of the district of columbia. we are pleased to be joined by someone who is no stranger to some of you, the honorable bill daley. he was the head of the office of corporate responsibility for j.p. morgan/chase. he has extensive experience in the business world.

he can do the demonstration well-positioned to help the president in a challenging time carry out and push through his agenda to win the future. in his political life, he was the campaign chairman for al gore's political -- presidential run in 2000. he served as special counsel to president clinton in 1993. join me in giving a warm dnc welcome to bill daley. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you very much chairman kaine. let me wish you a happy birthday. from what i heard, i heard about the reception at the white house and the open bar at the white house.

it was so impressed -- i am impressed with the turn out here today. obviously, the democratic party could not be in better hands that it has been under tim kaine's leadership. he is a leader. he is someone who has proven leadership in the political realm and as governor of virginia. i know the president is appreciative of the leadership and the time and energy he has given. you know how hard he works. we are all grateful for your leadership. let me also recognize mayor gray. you would have thought i would have learned never to follow a mayor. [laughter] it is not a good thing.

some things are just stupid. the mayor is giving great leadership. the passion with which he spoke about this city and the need to bring quality and representation to the people of the city -- we all continue that fight. the president feels as strongly as he does for the people of the district. we will be joined by our outstanding secretary of labor, secretary solis later this morning. last, but not least, let me knowledge the hard work of the north carolina -- the dnc officers. that we acknowledge my friends from illinois. i have to do that if i plan on going home in two years. [laughter]

obviously, i thank all of you for what you are doing to win elections and the links you go -- lengths you go to make policy. making the case is not just about what happens in washington. it is about winning support and driving change across the country. that is what you help the president do every day. that is what you help democrats do every day. when someone tries to knock us down, you have kept the fight going. i think about what happened last december. a lot of talking heads, the conventional wisdom in this town -- whenever the conventional wisdom in this town says something, take your money and go to las vegas and bet against them. they said the president's agenda was done. in just the span of a few days, think about what we were able to accomplish. we got a deal to expand middle- class tax cuts and tax credits for college students and small

businesses, something that is already making a difference in our economy and helping to create jobs. not only that. there was a treaty to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world and go after loose nukes, a bill to take care of 9/11 first responders, and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. so that gays and lesbians can buy for their country openly. [applause] your efforts are important to keep his agenda moving forward. we have got to keep up the fight. at this time in our country, there is not a day that goes by that i am notawed -- not awed by the number of the competing problems the president has to address and there is not a date i am not -- a day i am not impressed by the leadership he provides.

the question is, how do we succeed in a global economy that is more connected and more competitive than ever in our lifetime? how do we ensure that new jobs and businesses are taking root here in our country? how do we win the future. as the president has said, this is going to depend on having the most skilled workers, the strongest commitment to research, and the fastest, most reliable way to move our goods and information. we have to out-educate, out- innovate, and out-build the rest of the world. it is important that you carry this message back to your communities.

in education, we have initiated the most ambitious reforms in decades. we launched race to the top. it says two states across the country, if you raise your standards and look for innovative ways to improve performance, we will show you the money. 40 states are pursuing their own vision of reform. at the same time, a lot of people said it was not possible to end subsidies to banks for college loans. but the president and our colleagues in congress got it done. we are making college more affordable to millions of students and revitalizing our community colleges. next is an ovation. [applause] thank you. community colleges play an enormous part to the -- in the future of this country. we must strengthen them. they must be the bulwark of the

future jobs in the country. next is innovation. last week, president obama this is it intel in oregon. they have one of the most advanced plans for building microprocessors. that plant is a window for our future, proving that we can be more than consumers of things. we can manufacture in obeyed the products here and sell them around the world. that is why we are backing more research, extending tax credits for businesses that in debate on our shores and pushing clean energy standards that will create jobs, in our dependence on foreign oil, and by climate change. we have to out-build the rest of the world. we cannot expect to grow on a 20th-century infrastructure. from high speed rail to high- speed internet. we have to invest company-- invests in -- and that in companies that move equipment quickly.

we have to reform our government, including making sure our government lives within its means. we have got to stop spending on things we do not need so that we can make investments in the things we do need. this involves some difficult choices. we had to cut back on some things we would not ordinarily want to cut because we do not have the money to pay for everything. the president's budget includes more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction. the president also increases investment in clean energy, infrastructure, and job training programs. he has extended tax incentives that will spur investment in hiring.

it would be a mistake to balance the budget by sacrificing our future. [applause] that is where i would like to close. there have been two tough years for our country. in hard times, it is easy for people to lose faith. we have still got the world's largest economic, the best universities, the most productive workers, the most innovative entrepreneurs. we can point to two years of incredible progress. two years ago we were in a crisis worse than any of us have known in our lifetimes. today, our economy is growing and we are adding jobs. we pass reforms to prevent future financial crises and to stop people from being exploited and denied coverage by passing health care reform.

we are fighting hate crimes with bills that have been held up for many years. we have succeeded because you have had the president's back. while the president was making the case in congress, you were making the case in your communities. you motivate your friends and neighbors to call their representatives and not on doors and spread the word to their local papers and facebook. those actions made all the difference. with your continued support, there is no telling how much we can accomplish in the next two years. we have elections to win. more importantly, we have big things to do. thank you. together, there is no stopping us. thank you and god bless you. [applause]

>> thank you bill daley. we look forward to working with you to support the president and the agenda of with the next two years. your strong leadership will be a key ingredient in the reelection of the president in 2012. i would like to abolish the hard work of the vice chairs of the -- like to acknowledge the hard work of the vice chairs of the dnc. jane is our vice chair. mike honda travels all over the country advocating for important causes. congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz is what our most effective advocate. she carries the democratic message as well as anybody in this room.

our treasurer is a key reason to widely -- why the dnc finances are so strong. linda, it is great to be with you today and work with you. raymond, thank you. it is great to have you here. donna brazil has been part of the meeting for the last couple of days. we all know donna. her efforts on behalf of candidates and committees at all levels -- she has been in sixth in states for the dnc since election day. she is a spectacular boys for

us. give a bid around-- applause she is a -- donna is a spectacular voice for us. if a big round of applause for the vice chairs. [applause] >> i am going to start and andy is going to finish. our finance department is fortunate to have a strong base of supporters who believe in the president, the party, and our principles of governing and who are willing to put their money behind their beliefs. we worked on the field, data,

and charts -- and targeting in places where we felt we could lend some expertise and some manpower. we were able to do that without taking a single penny from lobbyists and other special interests. that is important. [applause] thank you. something that is important to be present in our efforts to increase the grass roots control of the party. we continue to out-raise the rnc. our goal is to support the president and democratic candidates by strengthening the dnc and the democratic party. we want to be in the best position going into the 2012 elections. governor kaine and others are

working to improve our lives. the assault -- i am will do whatever i can to help this president. i don't know about you, but i am fired up and ready to go. [applause] >> thank you, jane, you have done a terrific job this year. in the the citizens united world of funding, the other side has done well. in federally regulated fund raising, we had a terrific year. we raised $122 million. bells were contributions that averaged $55 each -- those were contributions that averaged $55 each. we always go back four years for the comparable period.

in 2006, we raised $69 million. in to doesn't end, we raised $122 million. -- in the doesn't 10, we raised 200 -- in 2010, we raised $122 million. jane and her team and the team governor kaine put together did a terrific job. as soon as we are done, go to the website. it is $10. we had 1,067,000 separate individuals giving us money last year. that is up 61% since 2006.

[applause] 400 it the thousand of them had never given to be -democrats- 450,000 -- 450,000 of them had never given to the democratic national committee before. in terms of the fund raising team, we are doing great. where we are right now, we have a $15 million bank debt. we have about $1 million in payables. we are a little ahead of them. we have a lot of work to do. we do not have as many billionaires. we have to do this. the year is off to a great start. we have whittled down some of our payables. we are a doing very well. the first contribution of 2011

was from my mother. in november, she was 90 and about two turn 91. we thought this was a good buy. she was still here for a thanksgiving. we were thrilled, but a little surprised. christmas, new year's eve, she was determined to get one more calendar year max out for the dnc. she left us on january 3. darned if she was going to stick around long enough to see nancy pelosi and her battle to john boehner. -- her gavel to john bain [applause] -- to john boehner. >> thank you.

the whole finance team is here and they have done superb work. we now have a great visitor. it is someone you know and you know well. it is secretary hilda solis. secretary sillies has been a public servant. it says since first -- secretary hilda sully's has been a public servant or 30 years -- secretary hilda solis has been a public servant for 30 years. she led the battle to raise california's minimum wage. she served in congress for almost one day. her priorities for expanded access or affordable health care, improving the lives of working families. she was a recognized leader on clean energy jobs.

she authored the screen dogs act that provided funding for veterans -- author d green -- authored the green jobs act. there is nobody better who could be u.s. secretary of labor and hilda solis. we are pleased to have her with us today. give her a warm welcome. [applause] >> all right, folks. we are ready. thank you for inviting me. thank you for being so gracious for that kind introduction. i understand it is your

birthday. happy birthday. in addition, i want to thank the dnc officers and my colleagues on the hill with whom we work in tandem to get good things done for our country. two years ago this week approximately, i was sworn in to office by our newly elected president at the time, president barack obama to be the first latina cabinet member in our history. [applause] aside from that, coming in was tough. as you know, we were in the depths of a recession. we were losing a hundred thousand jobs per month.

the president took strong and decisive action. we passed the recovery act. we we want the health care system. we reform the financial system. we got out of that mess. we got america back to work. we added 1.1 million private- sector jobs in 2010 alone. i _ private sector because we get a lot of criticism -- i underscore private sector because we get a lot of criticism say that we do not create jobs that lead anywhere. it has been across industries and regions and a first committee. do not let the pundits tell you that is not the case. i have to report on that every month. we are taking steps necessary to establish america's leadership role.

clean energy, rebuilding american road bridges -- american roads, bridges, and railways. each of you know that there is a lot more work to be done. i have travelled across this great country and have met with many workers of every age and background. unfortunately, some have jobs. some are still looking. some have given up. i know we all understand their frustration and their pain. i know that all of you have put in your time and energy to help build the this democratic party. we know our country is strongest when we are united. i have travelled around the country in the lead up to be november election to remind the team knows why it matters to both -- it matters to vote. and also to remind our women

that they will never be second- class citizens in our party. [applause] and we need to be excited here. in places where we talk directly to latinos, union members, and women, guess what? places like nevada, colorado, and california, even with the wind in our faces, we were able to win. [applause] but we know of our work is not done. not every corner of america came out. people now have to be reminded. the american public needs to know. we need to be out there reminding them that the election do matter. they've really do. as your secretary of labor -- they really do. as your secretary of labor, i

have been following elections in indiana, colorado, florida, and different places around the country. even in my own state of california. we know many states are facing tough budget decisions. we know there is room for shared sacrifice, shared sacrifice. we have seen our brothers and sisters and public employee unions willingly give up their fair share. they have offered to negotiate in good faith to help their states stay afloat in been in these tough times. the governors in wisconsin and ohio are not just asking the workers to tighten their belts. they are asking them to give up their uniquely american rights as workers.

[audience booing] these are our neighbors, friends, and families. they teach our kids. they risked their lives to keep us faith in our communities. all they are asking for is to be treated with respect and dignity. [applause] guess what, folks? all they are really asking for is the opportunity to sit down at the table like grown-ups and to work together to solve problems. that is what collective bargaining is all about. [applause]

ladies and gentlemen, we know that sitting down together and working through our problems does not cause budget problems. as i recall, that is how you solve budget problems. in every family across this country, when times are tough, we do that. we sit down at the table and we talked and we discussed and we negotiate. during these tough times, these governors are not finding that as a solution. admittedly, i am a little bit by is. at some of you know, i come from a union -- admittedly, i am a little bit biased. at some of you know, i come from a union households. my mother worked tirelessly in a toy manufacturing plant for many years trying to make a good

life or her children. there were seven of us. i thought there went back to mexico and came back later in life and work hard as a firm worker. he worked in carpentry and the oil industry. he ended up a shop steward in a union to help immigrant workers who could not speak english understand that they had protections here. any person who works in this country has a right to be protected. every administration, republican and democrat, has opted to uphold those laws. that is what i am doing today. [applause] all my parents wanted, like many of you, was that they wanted to be paid an honest wait for an

honest today's work. -- an honest day's work. that is what it will -- was the workers in wisconsin wants. but it is not what the other party wants. that is why the work that you do is so important to america's working families. while the other party is working to take america back to the days when we did not have collective bargaining and shared responsibility, democrats have a different plant. in the state of the union address, president obama set out his plan to win the future by out-educating, buy out innovate thing, and out -- out- innovating and out-building the rest of the world.

what is really exciting, the reason i love this administration is that president obama and i share a vision. that division is good jobs for everyone. [applause] -- that vision is good jobs for everyone. let me tell you what i mean by good jobs. jobs that support a family by increasing income and narrow in the wage gap. jobs that export products and not paychecks. jaws that rebuild a strong middle class. jobs -- jobs that rebuild a strong middle class. doubts that allow workers to organize and -- jobs that allow workers to organize and collectively bargain.

new protections are offered to workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. he provided job training opportunities to help them upgrade their skills. he took the bold step to save the american auto industry, one that is earning record profits bringing back manufacturing jobs. guess what, folks? we are not done yet. our 2012 budget is designed to help win the future for american workers by guaranteeing that we are in a position to win in the global economic. that means cutting back on whistle spending. it means spending the money that we do not have on investment programs that will promote innovation and job creation. these are policies that will

move all of us forward. maybe it is become -- it is because i come from the congress. i am also aware that the president also proposal to move forward will make clear to the american public-the president's -- the president's proposal to move forward will make clear to the american public that we will provide the kind of educational tools and job training opportunities that will insure everyone in america had access to those jobs. the president's vision is one where business and labor working together to grow our economy together, to create the jobs together and to win the future together. [applause] it is an america where our

factories make things again and where everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion has a chance to succeed in this country and to be treated with dignity and respect. the approach of the other side is different. they would rather cut everything. blame the worker. divide our people and to draw lines in the sand. where we say yes we can, they say, north you can. had we listened to them, they would not be a gm or a chrysler. they would not know what imported from detroit means. they say workers and managers cannot work together to solve problems. we know that the only way to solve problems is by getting both to the table. they say the gap in pay between

men and the women cannot be closed. we say equal pay for equal work. [applause] they say immigrants and their children cannot contribute to our economy and our communities. we know many already have. i am even one of those. but guess what, folks? we can do better. we can help support this administration to pass the dream act and immigration reform. [applause]

i am a democrat because i know america to be a place where many dreams can become reality. i am one of those products from an immigrant family whose family struggled to come here to fight a better life, a better way to be part of the american culture. i am lucky that i am one of those, along with my siblings, to be able to have those opportunities. i am proud to say there are many who came from my background who are seeing those successes and getting back in so many ways and so proudly to our american culture and our society. i will close by saying to you because i is on. we work together. we help those -- the fight is on. we get the win.

fired up. i don't know about you but i am fired up, and i and the president are depending on you. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, secretary solis. another round of applause. wow, that will send us out into all 50 states and six territories charged up. next on the agenda is the report of our budget and finance committee. the chair recognizes kurt and michelle to give the report. >> thank you very much. my name is can he rememberen

maddox, i'm the co-chairman of the budget and finance committee and i'm from the great state of california. i'm a little nervous. yesterday we had a very spirited meeting and we focused on the rules and responsibilities and we looked at three items. the issue of contracting, specifically, minority contracting, diversity at the n. -- d.n.c. and what are we going to do to make thure minority vendors play a major role at the convention in 2012. we had a very spirited discussion and i just want to point out that it was the leadership of the black caucus, the asian-american caucus and the latino caucus that brought this to our attention and i want

to thank them for their leadership. we had spirited discussions and came up with a list of recommendations that were improved unanimously. moving forward we want to help the d.n.c. do what they do well, which is win elections for democrats all over the country, but we want to make sure we do it in a much more inclusive manner and include those communities that have played crucial roles in the election of this president and democrats throughout the party. we're not going to handcuff the party but do it in a much more inclusive manner. i am proud to present our report and say that we had a great day yesterday. thank you very much. [applause] >> the report contains a number of recommendations in -- and a

mechanism to continue forward. and i want toe thank kerman and michelle for their little. with that i would entertain a motion to accept the report. is there a second? is this any discussion in all in favor say aye. any opposed, no. the report of the committee is accepted. thank you. i'm going to make a few remarks before we move into old business and new business. we have a number of new members of the d.n.c. i want to welcome you. you have a lot on the table. this is the first meeting that we've had since the mid terms as

an entire d.n.c. and i want to start there and i think we have to acknowledge it was a very tough night. it didn't go the way we wanted. wave eelection usual push both houses the other way. that didn't happen, thank goodness. we lost seats and it was more than seats. i thought about what congressman cleaner said the other day in the executive committee. we're not about numbers, we're about people. when i think about the mid terms i think about people. i think about really good public serpvanlts that i know and probably who you knew who have not returned. most of them didn't return not because they weren't doing the right thing. they indict -- did the right thing. and when people do the right thing in a political climate

where it's tough to do the right thing, make tough choices because they need to move the nation forward, obviously we want to see those people rewarded. sometimes if you do the right thing there can be a backlash. the empire strikes back, as they say, and we lost a number of good people who did the right thing who are either not back and i can't help but thinking of people who are back, like the speaker, who did a magnificent job in two years, speaker nancy pelosi, who is still there fighting for us as our diplomat -- democratic leader in the house but not in the same election. there were lessons learned. there were challenges. those or independent voters who supported the president in 2008

did not support democrats nationally. that's something that we, the white house and all, we have to work on. our young voters who don't have a great history of mid term turnout but who had an amazing surge in 2008. we actually saw young voters do better in 2010 than in a normal midterm but we hoped it would be better still. and with women voters. the democratic party has had a spectacular habit of winning women voters by a pretty spectacular fashion. we can do better there. there were a couple of bright spots and i think that you have

to mention them. some of the democratic poor con stitch owens sis were very good. african-american voters nationally turned out very, very good. just a piece of data i find kind of remarkable in this score and i'm going to use this as an example but there are others. we had a horrible voting night in wisconsin. we lost the governor's race, lost a great senator, senator feingold. 2006, we had a great night. we won a sflat seat, won the governor's race. in the most democratic jurisdiction in wisconsin, the city of milwaukee. the voting turnout in 2009 in the city of milwaukee was almost 15% higher than it was in 2006.

democrats voted very well in that city and cities across the country so we have to recognize that. latino vote was strong and was a critical vote in turnout in some races in colorado, california, oregon. any late-breaking race that wasn't decided election night, the colorado senate race and the oregon governor's race and the washington senate race and the illinois's governor's race and the minnesota governor's race, all the late-breakers all switched our way which told me in those close races, it's field politics that matters so there was good field activity because of state parties, organizing for america volunteers and strong upturn. but look, you can't sugar coat it. it was a tough night. and after that night i

remembered a wonderful line they always remember after anything tough because it tells you, it's touch. progress isn't always complete straight line. william faulkner. they may have kilt us, but they ain't whipped us. if you ever needed proof of that proposition, what bill daley told you about, all the pundits, it was hardball ha -- horrible, the democrats were on their heels and then we ended up with a president and congress at the end of that lame duck session that god -- got more good work done -- the 9/11 responders bill. the other guys tried to block it but we made it happen. the start treaty. there was a pill in this there that a lot of folks didn't want to swallow with respect to the

tax cuts on the wealthy. but the president said we're going to come back and talk about that right in the heart of a presidential election when everybody is paying attention and when we have the opportunity to have it affect an election. in the lame duck you played a big role. the one i want to mention is the repeal of don't and, don't item that. one went through so many twists and turns. i know folks were so frustrated. it was up, it was down. it was part of the defense thoroughization. the republicans blocked it. even in the middle of december it looked tough. you helped us with petitions that we could deliver to key snoorts' office and get them onboard. we had nearly 3/4 of a million

petitions we should deliver to congress. great active victim by the american public and volunteers and the american military saying we want you to do this. we've seen the president continue since with a strong state of the union, with a compelling and compassionate and tremendously moving presentation to a grieving nation in the aftermath of the horrific shooting in tucson. things can along dark one day and how quickly they can turn. there's a lesson there too where they can look good one day and turn too as well. but the challenges we've faced in november have not deterred us, not slowed us down. they've energized us and we've gotten up and we're battling with a great president to do good work. the election has ena -- enabled us to paint in pretty stark

contrast the choice that is before the country. you heard the president say, we're going to win the future. we're optimists, we're hopeful. the other guys have been the doom and gloomers but we're going to win and we're going to be about the future looking forward and tackling new challenges rather than going backwards and fighting the battles of the past. like the president said, we're going to outinnovate and outeducate the rest of the world. on the economy -- i get into these discussions in richmond or wherever i travel around. i don't just away talk to democrats. i have a lot of friends who are independents and republicans. people say what's the president done in the caucus? at the end to have bush

administration, the g.t.b. in this nation was shrinking by 6% a -- 6% a year. that's unparalleled since the great depression in american history. now the gross domestic product ask growing again. it has for the past year. we've gone from a shrinking economy under the other guy's leadership to a growing economic under democrats' leadership. in jobs -- and we're not where we want to be yet, but the president came in at a time when the jobs had fallen off a cliff. we lost 750,000 jobs, more than that in january of 2009 when he was inaugurated. we have grown -- the private sector economy, 12 months ago. in the other guys we were losing

jobs under democratic leadership, we are gaining jobs. and data part three for your argument with anybody around the kitchen table who wants to know what democrats have done with the economy. if you put a dollar in the stock market the day that george bush was inaugurated in 2001, what was it worth when he les office? 78 cents. eight years, declined by 22%. if you put a dollar in the stock market the day barack obama was inaugurated it is worth $1.50 today. what's that -- that's what democrats do. we grow the economy, protect people's jobs and pensions. we're winning the future. we're climbing out of the ditch that they made. we're battling for green energy and battling for inclusion. the other side is the party of the past. they said if they got power they would focus on jobs.

let me tell you what they've been focusing on. if you look at republican governors all over this country, uffles major education cuts. i'm traveling. i was in texas, wisconsin, the week before. i go to all these reinstates and one thing i see where republicans are at the help is massive cuts in education. how are we going to outeducate and innovate and continue to grow if we're cutting that talent expansion that is public education? we can't do it. that's certainly not a pro-job strategy and yet that is one they are pursuing. in the house there's basically an effort to focus on issues and take away the rights of women. you saw last week the house voted to completely defund planned parenthood. cervical cancer screenings,

education, health care, protecting women's choices, contraception. what does that have to do with jobs? going after women. what does that have to do with jobs? you're seeing, as secretary solis, thank you congressman -- congresswoman wasserman schultz, try and define what it means before they say hey, this is stupid. but they all had their names on the bill and we're not going to let any of those sponsors forget what they were trying to do to american women, right? [applause] you heard the secretary talk about wisconsin and other states. if it was a company, what c.o.e.

do we admire no wages a public wear wire -- war on their own work force out of the gate? there are c.e.o.'s that do that but none that we dwyer. -- admire. because as the secretary stayed -- said, a good c.e.o. knows it's about trust. these are the people that teach our kids, care or our parents and grandparents in nursing homes, the people who are trying to keep our streets safe or provide fire protection and the notion that we're going to go after them and make them evil and make them the bogeymen, even when they are willing to engauged in the shared sacrifice that public employees engage in almost every day shows what the other side is about.

the first thing the republicans did what they -- when they came in. it wasn't about jobs. they wanted to repeal health care. they wanted to take away from seven million small businesses, the tax credit that small businesses are getting to help them afford health care. that was against jobs but they wanted to do it. and i can't resist because i heard somebody say this. does anybody else find it odd that the way they really go after this -- they call it obama care. obama care. care is a bad word, right? care is a negative. it's wrong to care. we're against care. we're going to fight against care. i'm glad obama cares. i'm glad democrats care. i'm glad democrats care. i'm glad democrats care. [applause]

because look -- look. if it's not democrats who are caring that somebody's getting kicked around because they have a preexisting illness in -- illness, who's going to care? if it's knot democrats caring about the cost of college and trying to eck expand -- expand pell grants so people can afford, who's going to care? we do care and we're proud of that and proud of our president. i like our odds and i think we're going to see more and more of this over the next two years and it's going to be easy for us to make that choice plain to americans. a few more words. just to give you a preview. by the time we are next together the reelect will be up and running. likely to begin in the second quarter of the year.

the reelect will not be in the d.c. area. most sitting presidents do that. but the president said look, it worked in chicago the first time. there was good carl ave there. let me go back home and make sure the reelect is run where it worked as well. so that reelect is going to start up and i know we're all beginning going to be deeply engauged at every level. there is exciting news on about the compensation in -- ghention charlotte. we had four great cities. every city had their checks in the plus and minus column. north carolina was that state that we won by the narrowest margin percentage-wise of any of the states that we won in 2008 and i as your chair wanted to send the message that we're not playing defense in 2012.

after winning 370 electoral votes, we're not going to play for the just get it over, into the end zone. we're going to play for the big one in, every corner of this country. we're going to go into territory that the other guys think is theirs. if we play strong in north carolina, we're going to play strong in virginia, florida, the south, we're going to play strong everywhere and that's what's so exciting about it. the conventions can be a little bit different in. keeping with the spirit of the president's campaign and in keeping with the spirit of the way we have raised fund into this organization, we've made an important decision, the 2012 democratic convention will not take any corporate cack. we will cap contributions and predict cbses from federal lobbyists. i know a lot of folks who work

with tax and a lot who are federally registered lobbyists that are my friends. but this is a national extension of the d.n.c. pledge to not accept these contributions and we do that because there is a belief and a fear that all the seats at the table are bought up and that regular folks can't be the wunds financing conventions and campaigns aachieving the victories. the president said this will be touch but i want to make sure everybody knows that if you're an individual you're welcome. but we're not letting the institutional players buy up all the seats at the table. we set a big bar for ourselves but calling the convention in charlotte the people's convention. it's going to set the standard for later convention. we want to set the standard in diversity and in financing as

well. let me finish with a couple of thanks. it's a time of transition. there have been some announcements already about some staff changes at the white house at the d.n.c. and in the forthcoming reelect. no, not that kind of transition. not that kind of transition. [applause] here are two statuers i definitely want to acknowledge. where's clyde in clyde williams, our political director. stand up, clyde. clyde, stand up. clyde williams. [applause] so a lot of you -- most of you have worked with clyde and his political staff. clyde and the white house deputy

chief of staff are worried and have long wonted -- wanted to go back to new york. they're moving back to new york. we won't really miss clyde because we're going to be fighting the same battles. he's going to be in new york and abroad and beyond and doing great things. clyde, you have so much public service left in you. we thank you for -- to your wonderful contribution to the president's success and we look forward to working with you more down the road. please give clyde a big round of applause. and then the second staff transition they just want to announce is jana, the executive

director. she's done a superb job in. 2008 she was battleground states director for the a bill: campaign. she came into the d.n.c. and she has been announced as the deputy campaign manager when the ereelect forms. jan is right next door to me and we work on these issues together and figure them out and she's been a remarkable leader and for a person as young as she is, has tremendous talent and has done a lot of good work. out her window in washington, she gets to see the capital. -- capitol. out of her window in illinois, she gets to see the frozen lake 12 months of the year. i know she has loved that capitol view. we wanted to give her something

she could hang up in still have that view. so jan, if you could come up, we want to present with you something. this was the capitol before everybody signed all over it. and then a great announcement. some of you know and we had him with us on thursday during many of the meetings. we got a new executive director. the king is dead, long live the king. we celebrate the one going out and celebrate the one coming in. patrick gar -- gaspard. many of you know patrick. if you don't know him, great background in political campaigns and political work. great background in the labor movement. an organizer by heart and conviction. put that talent to work for the obama campaign in 2008.

he's been director of political affairs at the white house. starting next week patrick but onboard oz -- as our new executive director. patrick? please give him a big round of applause. [applause] you know they always close with a truman line. in virginia, you always have to close with a jefferson line. but as d.n.c. chair i always am using the truman line. i was a the rumor caucus. one of my favorite truman lines is every american farmer thinks he's smarter than the president of the united states and every american farmer would be right. americanism is a distillation of all the spirit -- heroes who

have laborrd and fought and died for the common good. we're the party of jefferson, roosevelt, clinton, obama. we're the party of hilda solis. the party of inventors with big ideas, young americans studying for college degrees and old americans. the party of interpretters and small business owners, the party of hard-working mothers and fathers all over this country. we're the sum of america's strength, and that sum is always greater than the participates. together we are going to win in 2012 and we are going to win the future. thanks very much. [applause] dd [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> in his weekly address, president obama talks about

reducing the deficit and urges congress to find common ground in reaching a budget agreement too avoid a government shutdown. then we'll hear from senator rob portman on the need for job creaks. he criticizes the president's budget approach for its failure to reduce government spending and the national debt. >> over the last month i've been travel -- traveling the country talking to americans about how we can out educate, out ino serrate and outbuild the rest of the year. we'll require a government that lives one its means but it will always require investing in our nation's future. increasing our commitment to technology, building new roads and bridges.

the schools and colleges of oregon are providing a highly skilled set of engineers. outside of baltimore, engineering is the most popular budget. in wisconsin, a company called lion is putting hundreds of people to work manufacturing lights in a former shutered plant. high speed internet in michigan has allowed students and entrepreneur nurse to collect to the local economy. one company is selling their products online, which has helped double their work force and make them one of america's 500 fastest growing companies. investigate -- investment in

education and infrom structure are payments in our future, but the only way we can do this is by getting our house in order. we have to make room for the things we need. that's why i've called for a freeze on annual domestic spending over the next five years, bringing this kind of spending to it lowest share of our economy since dwight icer hour was president. that's lower than it was under the past three administrations and lower than it was under ronald reagan. putting this budget freeze in place will require tough choices. i've frozen salaries for hard-working civil servants for three years and programs i care greatly about. i'm not taking these steps lightly but because our economic future demands it.

still, this is just a start. if we're serious about tackling our long-run fiscal challenges, we need to cut exess sieve spending in medicare and medicaid, defense spending and spending through loop hols. i am willing to cut programs to help us reduce spending. but we need to outcompete the rest of the world. we need a balanced approach to deficit reduction. we can't sacrifice our future. next week, congress will focus on a short term budget. for the sake of our people and our economy, we cannot allow gridlock to prevail. both democrat and i can republican members of the house and senate have said they believe it's important to keep the government running while we look for a way to balance the

budget. it won't be easy. there will be plenty of debates and disagreements and neither party will get everything at once. both sides will have to compromise. that's what it will take to do what's right for our country and i look forward to working with members of both participants who reduce the budget, sharpens america's competitive edge in the world and helps our future. thanks, everybody, and have a great weekend. >> i'm rob portman. i'm pruled to represent the people of ohio as the new united states senator. from i've heard over the past couple of years and what i continue to hear across our state is a deep concern over jobs and the future of our economy. there's an understanding frustration with washington's failure to address even the most basic problems. people are looking for little and instead they see the same tired political responses.

we were told two years ago this month the way to grow the economy was through bigger government, more spending and government. the stimulus package ended up costing over a approximately dollars. it was a grand experiment that failed. it not only failed to produce more jobs, the cost added up to a record deficit again this year and a national debt that is dangerously close to the size of the entire u.s. economy. this growing ret ink is hurting the economy today and mortgaging the future for our kids and grandkids. who -- so we've had to relearn the lesson we all know in our hearts. you can't spend your way to prosperityy. the federal government is spending more, growing bigger and becoming more involved in our economy and our lives. this historic failure to control

spending directly affects our economy and the ability to create jobs. it pushes up interest rates, crowds out private investment and leaves us with three bad choices. higher taxes, more borrowing or both. left unchecked. this could lead to the kind of financial cry says we see in greece and other countries. washington is adding onerous new federal regulations, a tax code that expirpse. unpredictable rising health care costs and an increasing reliance on the middle east and other volatile participates of the world for our energy. it's time to change course. there's an urgency about this that the american people get, even while many in washington seem to be in denial. we must worget -- work together to puts in place pro-growth measures and spending restraints

and we must do it now. this means an acting new tax policy to take away uncertainty and encourage investment. it means real health care reform that truly reduces costs, helping small businesses and families afford access. it means sensible regulatory reform that reverses the growing burdens on employers that drive jobs overseas. it means a national commrge policy that uses our own resours to stop our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and it means stopping the red ink that threatens to swamp our economy. once a year, presidents are required to submit a federal budget that sets out a physician if -- vision for the coming year and into the future. it is a little opportunity and a salem responsibility. there was a lot of -- solemn

responsibility. there was a lot of eachings surrounding president obama's budget last week. and he promised action. in last year's budget provepl he assembled a commission that called for deep staving redid you gos to stave off a fiscal and economic disaster. the president himself haas rightly pointed out "what we have done is kick the can down the road. we are now at the end of the road and not in position to kick it any further. and yet, the president's budget did that. he rejected the recommendations of his own sfiss cal commission and made the road more perilous by advocating deeper debt and ignoring partisan bipartisan calls for pro-growth and tax reform and economic restraint. neff instead of making the tough

choices, the president's budget locks in the higher levels of spending over the past two years and doubles the national debt. as the democrat's co-chairman of the fiscal commission said it goes nowhere near where they'll have to go to around our fiscal problems. having chose on the duck the tough choices for the coming year and beyond, the president and democrats are rejecting to any spending cuts congress can control. this despite the fact that the deficit is at record levels and this time of spending has increased 24% and over 80% if you include the stimulus. our goal as republicans is to make sensible reductions in spending and create a better environment for job growth, not to sthut down the government. getting our deficit under control is the first step we can

make and the single most important step washington can take. in ohio and around the country, people are looking for common-sense leadership to get us back on track. they know what we americans are capable of. the innovation of millions of new jobs that are in our grasp in -- if washington will create the resolve. they know we risk a fiscal nightmare if we do not act and act now to do what's right. thank you for listening. >> next, political independents assess their impact at their i enyull conference. the national governor's association winter meetings are being held in washington. the governors will hold from

douglas akin of the action forum and texas congressman michael burgess. that's tomorrow live at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. use the c-span video library to learn more about the executives. hear state of the state addresses all free online. search, warnings clip and share any time. we take to you new york city for the 2007 national conference of independents. the topic, can independents reform america? sponsored by the committee for a unified independent party. the conference looks at the current state to have independent movement and its influence on the american political system. political reform efforts in the u.s. and around the world are discussed.

this is just over an hour. [applause] >> thank you. it's time now for another dispatch from the movement. from the great state of colorado, former laplata commissioner joel riddle and former speaker pro tem of the colorado house of represents, kathleen curry. >> i'm so excited to be here today. my name is joel riddle and i'm a former laplata county commissioner. i was the democrat party chair

in my county and in twins i ran and beat an incumbent republican for the seat. i was named the rising star i was told i was not acting like a good democrat. i put a republican candidate sign in my yard, which was a definite no-no. when i had the audacity to challenge the county budget, meetings came to a screeching halt. my decisions were too independent so at this point i decided it was time to actually become an independent.

after numerous warning that doing so would be the end of my political career, i did it anyway. on august 21, 2009, i remember the time and day i walked down the office and down the hall carrying my new voter registration to the county clerk. but it turns out i couldn't run as an independent because you have to wait 18 months to run for office after you leave a principal party. i took this inequity to federal court and was joined in the lawsuit by representative kathleen curry. but very sadly we lost. it was crushing news. we were both incumbents who wanted to continue to represent the people. we just wanted to be independents. almost instantly, though, i knew that instead of running for

office, a way to make a bigger difference was to build the independent movement. so i formed independent voters for colorado. and one of our first goals is to bring a open primaryry initiative to our state. and once again this is one of the most important things you can do to improve your life, of the people of colorado. i am so anxious to take what i'm more in this conference back with me and put it to use. thank you for your inspiration. >> my name is kathleen curry,

and i'm a former state representative from colorado. i served in our legislature for three terms, from 2005, to 2010, and ended up being second in command, and i also chaired the agricultural committee. i have been a lifelong democrat. but i became unable to stomach the direction the party was going. the democratic leadership thought that it was ok to tell representatives like me how to vote i did not run for office to help the party stay in office. the speaker accused me of being off message and as we say in colorado off the reservation. in 2009 i decided to leave the party and become an independent. joelle was my inspiration.

after we lost the lawsuit, i ended up running as a write-in candidate for my house seat, and in colorado we have term limits, so i could only serve one more term. i lost by-election by less than 300 goats out of 30,000 ballots that were cast. as a right in. by halin colorado, major party candidates are permitted erase double the amount of money that i could raise. if you go to court, you find

that all of the election judges must be affiliated with one of the two major parties. election officials themselves will give voter data to major party candidates and they are not obligated to provide that data to an unaffiliated candidates. that is what we are called, subhuman, unaffiliated candidates. this is just a short list of problems. elected officials must provide reform. i served as a committee chair and a second from the top. i know of what i speak. i thought i could change the system from the inside, but it got to the point were being inside meant i had to sacrifice my personal integrity, too big of a price to pay. i will run again and next time i will win. ninth my message -- you

i know my message is an independent is a good fit for the voters of colorado, and i know that this is oscar but tonight it worried. [laughter] friday we had a bill that died in committee on a 5-4 vote to open our primary system up a little bit. some would say semi-open, i would say close, primary system for people to vote without changing their registration. it died on a 5-42 vote count and this is why it died. our state is broke. that fiscal note was there because the secretary of state found that there would be so much more participation in the election that it would cost us too much money. and therefore the bill but to go down. that is what we are up against. that is what i am going to

change when i go back. thank you all for being here. [applause] >> thank you. and now it is my pleasure to introduce one of the not so secret weapons. he was our general counsel and the country's leading legal advocate on the back of the independent voters. his litigating some of the top election law controversies to run the country, with a 30-year history in landmark cases in clothing ballett -- ballot access, public financing, and open primaries in nonpartisan elections. please welcome tony kreski. joining harry, will be a host of today's conference. jackie taylor, and for c-span

viewers just joining us, it is a national association of independent voters who now make up 30% of the country. independentvoting.org is the national leader in non-partisan political reform. please welcome back to the stage jackie taylor. [applause] >> hello everyone. let me ask our palace to come up and join us here on state -- our panelists did, and join is on stage. hello, john. please have you. so nice to have you. james, good. hi, rodney.

how are you? ok, so what i want to do to get us started, i want to introduce our distinguished panel here today. and then get our conversation going. so john avalon, who you saw earlier in that fantastic video statement he made about some of the issues and the problems of organizing around haiti and the negative impact of that -- hate hate and a

negative impact of that, he is a contributor to the daily business, -- the daily beast, he is also the founder of no labels, the organization dedicated to bipartisan cooperation and in 2010, he led the census union task force that endorsed a non-partisan municipal elections in new york city. he played an absolutely crucial role in the citizens union voice in this whole process. we're just thrilled to have him here with us. our second traveled here from chicago and we're so glad the storm did not getting your way. she has been holding government and corporate power accountable of building democracy as a public interest lawyer for over two decades. many of you have read her very

eloquent expos say -- expose. this book was inspired by her experiences as a manager of ralph nader's 2004 campaign. theresa is the founder of the illinois based advocacy center. she is that citizen works, where she directs the project to reform the fine print in standard form contras. anyone with a contract problem, see your after the panel. and she is a wonderful person and has been so supportive of us and i really by you our friendship and our partnership. jim you saw in the video. he is a part of a network of 10

health centers and school-based clinic which provide free services to more than 125,000 children and adults in los angeles. is the president of the board of the community clinic association of los angeles county, he chairs the board of strategic action for a just economy, and the coalition for community health. he was the founder of the national reform party and serves as the party's first national secretary. he has been a leader in the independent movement for the last 20 years and is a wonderful friend and an important voice on the west coast and nastily for independent politics. next to him is a bradley, founder of tusk strategies, and in 2000 bradley served as the campaign manager for mayor michael bloomberg's successful

reelection bid. he was called by the new york press, blumberg's secret weapon. he served as deputy governor for the state of illinois from 2003 to 2006 where he oversaw the state budget, policy, regulation, and operations. he is a very passionate supporter of nonpartisan elections and we had a great time working together during the 2009 campaign, bradley tusk. dr. lenora fulani rejoins us. she is a co-founder of the all stars project and she has funded a youth program. she currently serves as the dean of a unique university-style institution open to people of all ages, and as we saw in the cnn clip earlier today she is an outspoken advocate for nonpartisan elections and she

popularize this reform and a broad mix of communities. she is probably best known in the arena of politics for challenging the traditional alignment of african-american voters with the democratic party. she is the founder of the new york independent party. lenora fulani. next to her is michael hardy, a civil-rights attorney in new york city, and his primary area of practice includes criminal defense litigation, not-for- profit organizations, employment, and civil rights litigation. he was a founding member of the national action network and has served as counsel to the network and to reverend al sharpton for over 15 years. michael has been in the forefront of the legal fight against police brutality in the new york city, defending victims and their families in some of this city's most high-profile

cases. in 2007 we were very fortunate to have michael defending the voting rights of members of the new york city independent party in state sturbridge in state supreme court. an old friend, a longtime ally, michael party. -- hardy. cathy stewart is next to michael. known to many of you, she's the founder of the independent party of the york and tears of manhattan organization. she serves as the city wide coordinator for the new york city organization for the party, and she runs the party on the ground. in 2009, those efforts resulted in a record-breaking 150,000 votes on the independent party line for mayor bloomberg. cathy stewart is the founder of politics for the people, a free educational series designed for independence. she is my code to girl, cathy stewart. -- my go-to curl, cathy

stewart. next to her, a wonderful friend and adviser, doug schoen. that has been advising presidents, prime ministers, and politicians including president bill clinton and mayor by bloomberg for over three decades. you've also been advising me. i know i do not rank with presidents, prime ministers, and others. [laughter] doug keeps his finger on the body politics, anything important for the independent movement. and one of the most energetic -- he is the author of many votes, including "declaring independence." please welcome douglas schoen.