DMI appears DMI in Reuters: on radio from Salt Lake Major “Democrats Won, Middle-class City, Utah to Finger Lakes unions distribute but Did the Middle squeeze part of region, New York, talking Promote scorecards to their Class?” winning Democratic about shared economic “Principles for an political directors message in midterm interest in progressive nationally elections immigration Immigration Policy policy to Strengthen and DMI releases Expand America’s “Congress at the Middle Class” Midterm: Their Middle Launch Congressional Class Record,” our Google Adword Scorecard Google campaign advertising Ads viewed 24 third annual grade of each member million times scorecard, of Congress June All Scott Shields, incumbents “An outrageously MyDD.com: “To me, this who fail in midterm cogent, easy-to-read, is brilliant. What better way elections with one trenchant piece of analysis. to get relevant information exception received F Wow. And the google pop-up to people looking up their on DMI scorecard grade is a brilliant stroke. state representatives than Who ARE you guys?” Peter a Google AdWords “I took the Siderski, elected official, campaign?” advice of Susan Brennan Westchester County, of Sayre and looked up the voting New York. record of my U.S. House representative, DMI John R. Kuhl. Not surprisingly, regarding the same seven bills used to rate performance releases Pioneer “State relating to the middle class vs. the rich, Google Ad word politics clicks campaign “It’s time he, too, voted against all seven bills and “Fighting for New with ‘Googling’” in March for Voters to be also was rated "F" (0 percent) by the Drum in Albany Times York’s Middle Class: Frank with Don” in Major Institute.” Kurt Bishoff, Letter Union The Alaska Report on to the editor, New Jersey The American Dream Rep. Don Young, Star Gazette in the Empire State” who got F on Report scorecard scorecard of NYS disseminated by legislators, Young Elected Officials Network, a March program of Young DMI honors People For Funded by Wynton Marsalis, Expanding Open Society Anna Burger, and access to universal Making Institute Markos Moulitsas pre-kindergarten, big corporations Senator October pay their fair share of John Kerry at Annual Benefit, June health care costs, highlights May A grade in press release DMI Releases DMI “DMI on the 2006 DMI’s hosts blogger Executive Director State of the Union”— roundtable with Markos rapid-response has bi-monthly of DailyKos.com at column in the analysis of the impact Annual Benefit of the President’s New York Daily proposals News on the middle class, January Double DMI hosts “Cities? staff and What Cities?” with Mayor Bryon Brown DMI operating of Buffalo, budget March Marketplace DMI is of Ideas in New York Welcome new City’s premiere 2006 board members – gathering place Randi Weingarten of for progressives the United Federation leaders DMI of Teachers and hosts “Campaign Morris Pearl ‘06: The Year of the Hostile Takeover?” Making with David Sirota, Holding prescription May corporations Christine Quinn, drugs more Speaker of New York accountable for Funded by affordable, City Council, subsidies, Democracy December on panel September Alliance

110 East 59th Street, 28th Floor New York, New York 10022 drummajorinstitute.org Design: Randi Hazan / multipod Photography: Laurent Alfieri, Pascal Perich DMI Immigration Funded Op-Eds in Chicago by Open Society Partners Sun Times, New York Institute to work include Young Newsday, with local groups on People For, Campus TomPaine.com incorporatingimmigration Progress, Roosevelt advocacy in their Institution DMI launches grassroots Write work DMI Scholars to open letter to train next generation Lou Dobbs about inadequate DMI of public policy immigration appears on CNN’s DMI in staffers advancing analysis Lou Dobbs Daily News, NPR’s Planning Tonight On the Media funded a progressive DMI on Lou Dobbs by Open Society partnering with Institute agenda “To this day, Nebraska Appleseed to the best set of use DMI immigration principles I’ve read for Funded by framework in red dealing with immigration Horace Hagedorn state America is the Drum Major Institute’s Foundation to apply middle class framework,” shared economic Engage NAC in Progressive Majority Maureen Lane Ezra Klein, The American interest framework to conversation about head Gloria Totten: presents at conference Prospect Long Island immigration “Progressives at all levels with John Edwards reform so they can of government require staff members as keynote blog about the that are superbly trained, articulate and issue ready to fight for good progressive policy. 500,000 By introducing college students to the see ads between policy arena and giving them the skills Launch they need to be effective advocates, the March and Netroots Advisory October Drum Major Institute will ensure that DMI presents Council (NAC) with the next generation of progressive at Personal 15 blogger/online leadership is waiting in On PBS, Democracy Forum strategists in the wings.” Air America, on Google Ad Word October New York Times, campaign DMIblog read by TomPaine.com to thousands talk about 10th daily The Nation anniversary of reads Mark welfare reform Traffic to Winston Griffith’s post Manhattan on food injustice and Borough President DMI’s websites asks for article for Scott Stringer says “[Because triples from print edition of DMI’s Google AdWords campaign,] any legislator 2005-2006 Maureen Lane who got a D or an F on middle Marketplace on live archive runs Welfare Rights class issues is going to [be] Initiative organizing women freak[ing] out.” includes podcasts, video downloads Daily News impacted by welfare policy and transcipts sees Zeke Edwards’ at Hunter College. She was blog on quality of life in first graduating crime arrests and class of WRI asks Zeke to write DMI Fellow Deed theft Op-Ed on the topic Adrianne Shropshire, legislation DMI Director of Jobs passes New fellows blog With Justice, York State daily on the panel legislature DMI Fellows program in second Recruit Mark full year, inserting Cyrus Dugger, Mark Winston Griffith NYU Law graduate, Launch Senior works on deed theft writes about deed voices of grassroots to serve as first legislation through theft legislation on activists into the Fellow Fellowship in Civil his job at Neighborhood DMIBlog Economic Development public policy Justice, protecting Advocacy Project Americans’ access conversation Prescription drug affordability to the courts top issue for new Launch Our Fellow Congressional House American Andrew Friedman TortDeform.com: Enterprise leadership Cyrus Dugger the Civil Justice on Univision Radio as Institute and Election Day monitor on Air America Defense Blog, Manhattan Institute talking about justice September on efforts to restrict battling it out on immigrant Adrianne Shropshire for sick Ground Class Action TortDeform.com writes “Valuing Zero workers voting Fairness Act analyzed Thousands City Workers” in in Congress at the of visitors AM New York, Midterm: Their Middle daily August Class Record

IMPACT 2006 DMI Research Creating well-researched, well-messaged tools to advance a progressive agenda.

2003YEAR IN REVIEW

People Poliics &in America’s Big Ciies

A critical conversation about the implications of the profound demographic transformation now under way in our city

John Logan Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research

John Mollenkopf Center for Urban Research of City University’s Graduate Center

featuring Maryland State Senator

co-sponsored by: DRUM BLACKPLANET.COM GLORIA GARY LAWLAH CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE MAJOR DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP FOR THE 21ST CENTURY On her pioneering work to hold corporations accountable FOR PUBLIC THE FOUNDATION FOR ETHNIC UNDERSTANDING for their fair share of employee health costs. INSTITUTEPOLICY MOVING IDEAS NETWORK PROGRESSIVE MAJORITY

“I have great admiration for the Institute and am a frequent visitor to your site even as the materials you send find an important place on my shelves.” — BILL MOYERS

“The DMI study, released at the end of last year, “What politician doesn’t love the middle appears to be making inroads with immigrant class? Many more than you’d think, and labor groups and may fundamentally change according to the Drum Major Institute for the way many advocates see the issue.” Public Policy, a progressive think tank.” IMPACT “If it isn’t read, it wasn’t written.” That’s DMI’s approach to and opted instead to favor the already wealthy and powerful: a research. We don’t issue reports to see our name in print. We surefire recipe for a shrinking middle class. A vast majority of view our research as a tool, and measure our success based on senators and representatives earned a grade of C or less. how these tools are used to advance a progressive agenda. Guided by our motto, DMI’s scorecard went beyond evaluating Over the years, DMI has released over 15 reports, developing a legislators on a single issue, and instead allowed people to hold reputation for sharp analysis of the impact of public policy on their representatives accountable for their overall commitment to the current and aspiring middle class. We present progressive the issues that matter most to working Americans. Congress at solutions formulated to resonate with the vast majority of the Midterm influenced Americans trying to achieve the American Dream. We were numerous campaigns and was pleased to see that the middle-class squeeze was a dominant theme referenced widely in in the midterm elections, and even more pleased that our reports publications ranging from the were referenced throughout the year by press and policymakers. National Journal to the Appleton-Post Crescent (the On the night of, we released DMI on the 2006 State of the DMI Ad from Google Adwords campaign hometown paper of Appleton Union, the only instantaneous analysis of President Bush’s State Wisconsin) and in hundreds of blog posts. We launched an of the Union Address. We provided analysis and statistics to unprecedented Google AdWord campaign so that any person within illustrate the inadequacy of his proposals—like Health Savings the United States who searched for a member of Congress on Accounts, an ambiguously defined American Competitiveness Google would be instantly informed of the grade that specific Initiative, and the capping of medical malpractice awards–in elected official received on DMI’s scorecard. Our ads were viewed addressing the true struggles of America’s current and aspiring 24 million times, and many clicked through to our scorecard’s middle class. We disseminated our instant analysis to thousands easily accessible website. before the sun came up, and provided commentary on radio shows throughout the country the following day. Applying our successful approach to New York State, DMI released Fighting for New York’s Middle Class: 2001-2005 NY State Before the issue catapulted to the forefront of the national Legislative Scorecard in March as a tool to evaluate New York’s conversation, we brought our unique lens to the immigration Senate and Assembly. While by no means naïve about Albany’s debate. Principles for an Immigration Policy to Strengthen severely dysfunctional legislative process, we believe that a thorough and Expand the American Middle Class is the first report to examination of how their representatives voted on the issues most connect immigration to the larger conversation about America’s important to them will help to remind New Yorkers why it matters squeezed middle class and those striving to attain their place in that we have an effective legislative process in the first place. it. We make the case, systematically, that progressive immigration reform is in the interest of hardworking Americans if it does two DMI’s research resonates beyond the policy-making community things: 1) bolsters—not undermines—the critical contribution into the heart of America and their kitchen-table concerns. that immigrants make to our economy as workers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and consumers; and 2) strengthen the rights of immigrants in the workplace in order to avoid a “race to the bottom” that harms American workers. The status quo doesn’t cut it, but neither do misguided proposals that create a permanent class of exploited workers or drive thousands into the shadows to compete in the underground economy. Praise for DMI’s research: The paper, released in December of 2005 and updated throughout On Congress at the Midterm... 2006 as new legislation was introduced, has been used widely. “I've used the scorecard in at least 30 or 40 posts since We’ve been asked to present our framework across the country, DMI started publishing it and I have explained it in depth from WTBQ in Orange County, New York to CNN’s Lou Dobbs to Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader, to countless members Tonight, from the Bangor Daily News to the American Prospect, of Congress and to various progressive challengers” from the National Immigration Forum to New York’s City Hall. —Howie Klein, Down With Tyranny.com Not to mention candidates for office who have looked to our analysis to develop their immigration platforms. The Open Society On Principles for an Immigration Policy... Institute and the Horace Hagedorn Foundation have since funded “To this day, the best set of principles I’ve read for us to further translate our framework into tools that can be used dealing with immigration is the Drum Major Institute’s by grassroots organizers nationally and on Long Island, the perfect middle class framework, and I encourage [Paul] stage on which to examine the shared economic interest in Krugman, and anyone interested in this debate, to give immigration reform. them a read…the Drum Major Institute has done it!” —Ezra Klein, Writing Fellow, The American Prospect DMI’s third-annual congressional scorecard, Congress at the Midterm: Their 2005 Middle-Class Record, was our most On Fighting for New York’s Middle Class… heavily-used to date. We took a close look at the decisions made “An outrageously cogent, easy-to-read, trenchant piece by Congress, from creating new obstacles for families overcome of analysis. Wow. And the google pop-up grade is a with debt trying to declare bankruptcy to a disastrous budget that brilliant stroke. Who ARE you guys? This was aimed to pay for tax cuts benefiting the rich with dramatic cuts outrageous... I have bookmarked you and am forwarding to student loans and health programs for the poor. In vote after links to my large group of democratic friends. Knock my vote, Congress disdained the concerns of working Americans socks off.” — Peter Siderski, elected official, Westchester County, New York

“When policy makers and experts acknowledge that education is an important step in young people’s ability to achieve their own financial security, they’re right. Denying this same access to poor adults, who are primarily single mothers, does nothing to end poverty and makes for cruel and counterproductive public policy.” —Maureen Lane Welcome to the Marketplace of Ideas In the Marketplace of Ideas, we don’t just talk about problems, we highlight the policymakers who successfully tackle them.

IDEAS WE BROUGHT TO MARKET:

Making Prescription Drugs Holding Corporations Accountable Reducing Recidivism Through More Affordable for Their Fair Share of Employee Restorative Justice Health Costs Making Pre-School Education Universal Making Health Care Universal Leveraging Government to Protect Lowering the Cost of Insurance Increasing Accountability for People from Corporate Malfeasance Through Increased Regulation Economic Development Subsidies Tackling Environmental Injustice Confronting the Need for Massive Strengthening the Labor Movement Through Legislation School Construction

“Andrea Batista Schlesinger, executive director of the liberal Drum “More importantly, what the Ground Major Institute for Public Policy in New York, said the Democratic entirely different kind of tort reform victory proved to both parties that acknowledging Americans are administrative mechanisms that allow struggling economically is not a losing strategy.” quickly without having to face unfair IMPACT “The Drum Major Institute’s recent forum on increasing accountability and developing better uses for economic development subsides with Minnesota State Senator John Hottinger was both informative and enlightening. I found it so useful to hear about the ideas of both colleagues in government and well-informed advocates about effective legislation in other states, particularly Minnesota’s progressive and far reaching bill.” — NEW YORK STATE SENATOR LIZ KRUEGER

We are building the premier archive that demonstrates the power of government to play a positive role in people’s lives. Today’s policymakers and influencers can turn to the Marketplace archive for real ideas, not just rhetoric. In the Marketplace, we choose not to daydream or complain. We choose to give the microphone. In the Marketplace, we don’t just talk about how great it would be if children had universal access to pre-school. We give a microphone to the policymaker who made it happen. In the Marketplace, we don’t lament the fact that the criminal justice system is a revolving door, with far too many cycling in and out of prison. We give the microphone to the Sheriff who created a model of restorative justice that reduces the recidivism of violent offenders by up to 80 percent. In the Marketplace, we don’t complain about the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, one of the biggest burdens on a middle class already pushed to the brink by health care costs. We give the microphone to the legislator who actually reduced the prices of pharmaceuticals. Over the last three years, the Marketplace has given the microphone to progressive policymakers addressing our nation’s most critical challenges, from holding corporations accountable for the public subsidies they receive to environmental injustice to out-of-control insurance costs. We look forward to expanding the series to provide more ideas to address the most pressing problems we face. In the Marketplace, you’ll find yourself in good company. Taking advantage of our home in , we engage New York’s incredible progressive leadership in each of our discussions. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Representative Jerry Nadler, The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, State Senator Eric Schneiderman, and Reverend James Forbes all know that in the Marketplace they will find the ideas about how to make fair and effective public policy. In the Marketplace, community organizers and business leaders connect, government staffers find new ideas to bring to their bosses, and bloggers find themselves seated next to aspiring elected officials. Our events are professionally recorded for television broadcast and viewing on our Web Site. You can watch our conversations on YouTube. You can download them to your Ipod. You can read the transcripts, which we send to thousands of policy makers and influencers around the country. The Marketplace is available to anyone at anytime and embodies DMI’s mission of generating the ideas that fuel the progressive movement.

Zero victims’ experience demonstrates is that an “One of the things I really like about Drum is necessary. What we actually need are new legal and Major is that it doesn’t really have as much legitimately injured Americans to receive compensation of a political agenda as it does an agenda to procedural hurdles and burdens of proof.”—Cyrus Dugger come up with ideas that work.” —Melvyn Weiss Next generation Using the Internet to engage people in a conversation about the public policy that impacts their lives.

“Clearly, the power of the netroots changed electoral politics in 2006. Putting the power of the press in activists’ hands made candidates sit up and take notice. Now, it’s time to use that power to help change policy for the good of our society—and DMI is perfectly positioned to do just that.” — TOM WATSON, DMI BOARD MEMBER AND CHAIR, NETROOTS ADVISORY COUNCIL

“City government cannot meet its obligation to keep New Yorkers safe and provide effective services without “The offshoring of jobs has already wreaked breaking down language barriers by providing translation an appalling toll on the job prospects and and interpretation services.” —Andrew Friedman wages of working New Yorkers.”—Amy Traub IMPACT The Internet changed politics in 2006, but DMI is using it We don’t see the web as a place to host a stale Website and pdf’s to change public policy. of our reports, but as the ideal platform on which to shape the public conversation and influence the direction of public policy. We are committed to taking advantage of the power of the So we try to create tools that are rigorous while also hard-hitting Netroots, the collection of bloggers and online strategists who and web-friendly so they can become viral on the Internet and are shifting the political paradigm into the 21st century. In 2006, take on a life of their own, engaging regular people and Internet we accomplished a think tank first with the launch of our activists along the way. Netroots Advisory Council. We are taking lessons from them about how to use internet technology to best present our Think tanks should not be insular organizations handing public research, and they are getting the kind of web-friendly, policy down, but instead should capitalize on the power of substantive analyses from us that will enable them to tackle people to weigh in on the policy that is supposed to serve them. legislation as well as they do legislators. DMI believes that you change the conversation by changing who participates in it—and the democratizing power of the web offers We are using the Internet to find innovative ways to disseminate an amazing forum for making the conversation about shaping our research. This year we launched a Google ad campaign to policy more inclusive, broad-based, and energized. correspond with the publication of our New York and Congressional middle-class scorecards. We didn’t ask people to Think tanks—boring? How 2005. find their way to us—we brought our work to them. So when people searched for information about their members of Congress, they found a DMI ad in the Sponsored Links section www.drummajorinstitute.org with the grade of that member on our scorecard. People Googled their representatives over 24 million times between June and Election Day, and each time, they learned something meaningful that transcended political propaganda. And we know that we reached millions—literally—that we otherwise could not have. Those who clicked through the DMI ad found a custom Web site to lead them through the records of their legislators, complete with voting records and analysis of the bills we graded them on. The blogosphere responded with over 100 posts referencing our scorecard, engaging thousands more in the conversation. Our presence on the Internet is strong and growing. Unlike most quick-hit political blogs, the DMIBlog is written by people at the forefront of efforts to create fairer and more effective public policy. We invite people and organizations whose work should have a larger platform to guest blog for us, like Amber www.dmiblog.com Sparks of Grocery Workers United, Heather Boushey of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, and Omar Freilla of the Green Worker Cooperatives. Several thousand visitors come to the DMIBlog everyday to read thoughtful posts on topics from court victories for day laborers to a reflection on how urban development projects and the dialogue about them is impacted by race and class. This year we launched TortDeform.com: The Civil Justice Defense Blog, to provide a much needed counterweight to the tort “reform” movement. TortDeform.com has attracted a community of people and organizations involved in this struggle, from Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen to the Center for Justice and Democracy to Jordan Fogal, a woman living in Texas who lost her home because her access to the courts has been whittled away by tort “reform.” From daily analysis of the battles to defend regular Americans’ access to the courts, to online battles between progressives and the American Enterprise Institute, TortDeform.com is a leading venue for discussion on one of the most important issues before us. On www.drummajorinstitute.org, you can access all of our research with ease, as well as watch, read, or download our Marketplace of Ideas events to your iPod. We’ve been asked to share our developing expertise in this area nationally, at conferences including Personal Democracy Forum, DL21c, and Yearly Kos. Gathering of the Blogger Host Committee at the 2006 Annual Benefit honoring Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos.com.

“To this day, the best set of principles I’ve read for dealing with immigration is the Drum Major Institute’s middle class framework, and I encourage [Paul] Krugman, and anyone interested in this debate, to give them a read.” DMI Fellows Changing policy by inserting credible voices, not professional pundits, into the public conversation.

“At our daily opinion journal, we turn to DMI Fellows frequently to get behind dry headlines and bring life and urgency to social policy issues. DMI Fellows have written for TomPaine.com on immigration, the middle-class squeeze, the civil legal system. DMI Fellows bring a unique perspective informed by both practice and policy on issues facing many Americans.” —ALEXANDRA H. WALKER SENIOR EDITOR, TOMPAINE.COM

“Study after study shows that education is crucial for attaining economic security. Eighty-eight percent of women receiving welfare who graduate from college move permanently out of poverty. Yet these regulations curtail educational opportunities for many receiving welfare by piling on make-work demands without letting states count the long hours spent studying and going to school toward the work required to receive benefits.”—Maureen Lane IMPACT “Why is it that 2/3 of the time that I find out something new and insane that society should know about, it’s coming from someone at DMI?” —MATT SINGER DMI Fellow Adrianne Shropshire with New York Assemblyman COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, PROGRESSIVE STATES Richard Brodsky on Marketplace of Ideas panel, September 2006 EDITOR OF “LEFT IN THE WEST” BLOG The work of DMI Fellows:

On Arrest to Arraignment: The DMI Fellows program inserts the voices of extraordinary community-based advocates into the debate about the public As a public defender in , I encounter people policy that governs our lives. In doing so, we bring something during every arraignment shift who have been in jail for over 24 hours, sometimes for over two days. While too often missing from a conversation dominated by Ivory Tower arrestees wait to see a judge, they miss work or school, “experts” and professional pundits: credibility. fail to appear for job interviews, face childcare dilemmas, DMI’s Fellows are real people with real on-the-ground and are often without vital medication. Even if the case is experiences. They know what policy looks like when it succeeds, resolved at arraignments (with a sentence of a fine, for and when it fails. Working with DMI’s communications and example), the actual punishment—losing a day’s pay, or even employment—is far more severe. —Ezekiel Edwards research teams, the DMI Fellows take their perspectives to Op- Ed pages, radio and airwaves, and, of course, the blogosphere. On Wage Abuses: They offer a perspective that someone who simply researches the In late June, the community organization Make the Road by issue cannot. For example, 2006 is the ten-year anniversary of Walking joined with a number of churches to launch a boycott President ’s historic “welfare reform.” Fellow of a supermarket that fails to pay many of their workers any Maureen Lane has a unique analysis of the failures of welfare base pay. Workers are usually afraid to stand up for themselves reform as a former recipient of public assistance and current Co- because they don’t want to lose their jobs, and too few of them are organized into labor unions that can give them Director of the Welfare Rights Initiative at Hunter College, institutional power in the workplace. —Andrew Friedman which supports welfare recipients as they work toward a college degree. Her thoughts were featured in The New York Times, on On Racial Prejudice in Financial Services: TomPaine.com, on Air America, in a PBS special hosted by Amy As I was standing before a group of 200 homeowners Goodman, and at an Iowa College of Law’s conference on and homebuyers talking about the perils of predatory welfare reform at which John Edwards was the keynote speaker. lending, people were nodding their heads in recognition Their fellowship is often a complement to their day-time and affirmation as I explained the aggressive, abusive and often illegal tactics of high-cost lenders and scammers. organizing. In 2006, Fellow Mark Winston Griffith, who started They may not have heard the terms “predatory lending” a community-based credit union in the Bedford-Stuyvesant or “high cost lending” before, but they sure knew what it neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1990’s and who now serves as looked like. Most of the people in the room were people Co-Director of the Neighborhood Economic Development of color. What made this workshop more significant is Advocacy Project, advocated for deed theft legislation to fight that most were solidly middle class. There is indeed a predatory mortgages through his fellowship. His writing color line in America and nowhere is it more obvious than complemented his successful legislative efforts at NEDAP. Mark in the area of financial services. —Mark Winston Griffith was also asked by The Nation to report on the lack of access to affordable healthy food in lower-income communities and has On Access to Education as a Route out of Poverty: published staunch indictments of financial injustice in the credit The students I work with at Welfare Rights Initiative know card industry. that hidden in the shadows of welfare to work programs is the fact that women with children, who are able to find Our Fellows are out there on issues driven by their daily some kind of job and move from welfare, still are not able experiences. Zeke Edwards, former defense attorney for the to lift themselves out of poverty, not by a long shot... Bronx Defenders, argued that upstate voting districts, which An important step toward bridging the gap is access to only exist because they count disenfranchised prisoners from education: Research shows that 88% of women who downstate among their population, drain the urban communities attain a bachelor’s degree move to jobs with a living that these prisoners come from of funding and political clout. wage and permanently out of poverty. —Maureen Lane Andrew Freidman, co-director of Make the Road by Walking, a On the Transit Strike: non-profit that organizes community members in Brooklyn and While viewed with suspicion by every broadcast and print Queens, wrote widely on the need for translation services for media outlet in New York City, Roger Toussaint’s framing people still in the process of learning English. Adrianne of his unions’ strike as a modern day civil rights action Shropshire, head of New York Jobs with Justice, wrote on the was and is completely accurate. It was civil disobedience importance of valuing New York City’s workforce. of the highest order. It raised the question of how much we do or do not value the work of the working class and The DMI Fellows program will grow in 2007 with a fresh crop of the degree to which many New Yorker’s have accepted leaders from the frontlines. We are proud of this program, a the notion that we are undeserving, have no right to prime illustration of our commitment to challenging the way demand better, and should quietly accept less. It was think tanks do business. about more than a contract. —Adrianne Shropshire

“I guess the moral of the story is that my mother had to die “Is Brooklyn’s congressional delegation a friend of in order for me to escape credit card default and possible the middle class? For the most part, yes, according financial ruin. For too many American families, not even this to a 2005 ‘scorecard’ recently released by the bargain with the devil is available.”—Mark Winston Griffith Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.” DMI Civil Justice Creating new tools and constituencies for the effort to protect Americans’ access to the courts.

This year we commemorated the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 “Refreshingly free of legal jargon, TortDeform attacks. Headquartered in New York City, DMI was particularly helps remind us how important it is that we all alarmed by the plight of the sick Ground Zero rescue and have access to the courts.” cleanup workers who have been given the legal runaround in —REBECCA BAUER, NATIONAL CAMPAIGN their pursuit of justice. TO RESTORE CIVIL RIGHTS From initially denying a link between Ground Zero and workers’ illnesses, to fighting workers’ compensation claims, to claiming the and an Arthur Garfield Hays Roger Baldwin Civil Rights and city was immune from all Ground Zero lawsuits, New York City Human Rights Fellow, was our first Civil Justice Fellow and officials and businesses have essentially made it as hard as possible embodies our vision for the program. for those exposed at Ground Zero to get back on their feet. When Cyrus and DMI looked closely at the issue of tort “reform” While the case of 9/11 is a singular event in our nation’s history, and access to the courts, we realized that within popular media the treatment of the Ground Zero workers is symptomatic of many there were a lot of conservative voices framing the debate and of the unjust challenges injured Americans face when attempting advocating proposals without a progressive response. We to pursue remedy. Over the last several decades, a collection of launched TortDeform.Com: The Civil Justice Defense Blog to corporate interests self-identified as tort “reformers” have aggressively confront and transcend the arguments put forth by the tort pushed forward laws that make it increasingly difficult for ‘reform’ movement and to influence the public discussion. Americans to hold corporations accountable for their misconduct. With guest contributors including Ralph Nader, the Center for Think tanks like the Manhattan Institute have been hard at Justice and Democracy, and victims of tort “reforms” themselves, work feeding lobbyists and politicians the language to articulate TortDeform.com has become a focal point of the conversation the nation’s problems as the result of greedy trial lawyers suing about the future and importance of our civil justice system. As too many corporations. This has had very serious impacts, Ian Welsh, managing editor of The Agonist.com, put it: leading to state and federal legislation that blocks regular “Until TortDeform.com it was very difficult to find anyone Americans’ access to the courts. making the simple DMI decided to fight back. We created a fellowship, endowed by argument that justice board member Melvyn Weiss, for recent law school graduates means nothing if who have a background in progressive activism to spend a year citizens can’t use the at DMI learning about and working on civil justice issues. courts to get redress for wrongs done to Cyrus Dugger, a graduate of New York University School of Law them….TortDeform “Reclaiming the debate of America’s legal system supplies the ammunition is “mission critical” for the Progressive movement —the facts and the legal and Tort Deform takes on the task. Much more knowledge for anyone who needs to respond to the right’s attempt to make the court than a ‘legal blog,’ Tort Deform dares to ask system a place where businesses sue each other and which “Why” Americans see our legal system as a foe ordinary people are excluded from.” rather than a friend—as a system that harms us rather than protects us from danger. And then, A society in which people do not have access to the courts to having posed that question, Tort Deform seek a remedy for their injuries cannot be a functioning generates the ideas to bring about positive democracy. The Drum Major Institute will be hard at work taking on the right in their pursuit of an agenda driven by change for justice.” corporate America, and not the real needs of Americans. —JEFF FELDMAN IS EDITOR OF FRAMESHOP AND A CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST WHO LIVES AND TEACHES IN NEW YORK CITY.

“As we wait for better national policies, state and local leaders can take “The dichotomies presented to us—taxpayer practical steps to bring the underground economy we rely on into the member, city versus unions—are false. It is light of day, ensuring that everyone who loves and works on Long workers who pay the taxes that fill the coffers Island is incorporated into the economic mainstream.”—Amy Traub governments in the first place.”— Adrianne IMPACT DMI Scholars Basic Training for the War of Ideas.

DMI Scholars will identify progressive DMI’s mission is to provide tools to those who advance a college students from underrepresented progressive agenda. We already provide the ideas. Now we will communities and train them in the skills provide the talent to execute those ideas. necessary to obtain and succeed in In doing so, we will meet a significant need. As Gloria Totten, the entry-level public policy positions. Executive Director of the Progressive Majority, an organization that recruits and trains progressive candidates on the local level, recently said, “Progressives at all levels of government require staff At this year’s National Conservative Students Conference, one members that are superbly trained, articulate and ready to fight for young conservative stated that he comes, “to network with fellow good progressive policy. By introducing college students to the right wing conspirators, because we’re all going to run the country policy arena and giving them the skills they need to be effective some day.” advocates, DMI will ensure that the next generation of progressive True or not, that’s what he is taught to believe. The success of the leadership is waiting in the wings.” conservative right-wing in this country comes in great part from In doing so, we will develop the future Chiefs of Staff, how well they have nurtured their young. Many of the Issues Directors, and Legislative Analysts advancing a policymakers and influencers that drive the conservative progressive agenda for our country. movement today were the young leaders of yesterday. They were mentored, supported and placed on the pathway to influence. For far too long progressives have been more successful with getting young people to rallies and community service than “Having the political aspirations that I do, the DMI preparing them to enter the world of public policy, where the Scholars program seems like a great entry to the ultimate long-term success of an agenda of social and economic world of government and public policy with real justice is determined. opportunities that will affect the rest of my life.” Enter DMI Scholars. —WENDELL MARSH, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE DMI Scholars is the Drum Major Institute’s answer to one of the most critical challenges facing the progressive movement today: the lack of a pipeline dedicated to supporting and guiding talented DMI SCHOLARS “This program will young people into the field of public policy. We are recruiting college The election If you are a progressive ensure that we have activists from under-represented populations who can become, if is over. college activist who people who understand wants to shape the guided, the next generation of progressive thinkers and leaders. Now direction of our country, the need for progressive what? DMI Scholars is for you. DMI Scholars centers around a two-week Summer Institute that policies within the DMI Scholars is a “Public Policy 101,” Our first Summer preparing college students from diverse Institute training for will begin in 2007 as a “Progressive Public Policy 101” of sorts: communities to successfully enter the DMI Scholars will be circles where policy in New York City from public policy world. July 29–August 12, 2007. The progressive movement now needs a And if you complete A basic training that offers DMI Scholars the public policy lens, our intensive training decisions are made and diverse, talented group of activists to view successfully, we will public policy as a vehicle for their activism. help you explore analytical and writing skills and resources and experiences to careers in this field The Drum Major Institute for Public through internships and influenced. It guides Policy (DMI) is a think tank staffed by networking opportunities. understand, navigate and successfully enter the public policy young progressives who want to drive public policy, not just lament its failures. All expenses students in a way that We created DMI Scholars to build a farm are covered. Applications accepted world. For those who successfully complete the Summer team of Chiefs of Staff, Issues Directors, on a rolling basis and Legislative Analysts advancing a December 8, 2006– January 17, 2007. helps them succeed in progressive agenda for our nation. Institute and remain interested in the field of public policy, DMI If you want to learn how to make an A PROJECT OF impact on the policies that impact you, the field while remaining will facilitate ongoing leadership and development opportunities become a DMI Scholar. true to their values.” through internships and mentorships with progressive www.drummajorinstitute.org/dmischolars —WALTER BARRIENTOS, policymakers and advocates. BARUCH COLLEGE

versus union municipal “People watching Lou [Dobbs’] show don't think, you know, today is health care day for me. Today of city is an education policy day for me. Today is tax cuts for me… They experience things as an Shropshire overall feeling of anxiety. And Lou speaks directly to that anxiety.”—Andrea Batista Schlesinger A Message from DMI Founder Bill Wachtel

After six years of failed domestic policies, representing their interests in those on the conservative right, we don’t co- Americans used the “short walk to the voting Washington, DC. opt King’s vision and values. We live them. booth” that Dr. King used to speak of to This election showed that the “drum major So if you can find a place on your list demand change. They were no longer satisfied instinct” lives on. Now more than ever we of worthy causes for the Drum Major with the immoral chasm, widening at a must heed Dr. King’s call for all of us to Institute, I assure you with absolute dramatic pace, between the haves and involve ourselves in the march to social confidence that it will be an investment that have nots. justice. Indeed, it thrives in the care of people will make you proud. As we approach 2007, our nation finds itself at like you: Americans who share Dr. King’s Please make a contribution to the Drum an exciting time. The Drum Major Institute dream of a fairer and just nation and are Major Institute today—and become, as finds itself is in important position to speak to willing to support the work required to Dr. King said, a true drum major for justice. the critical issues of this time like the minimum achieve that dream, citizens who understand, wage, social security, and immigration. as a moral matter, that the rich can’t get richer Sincerely, if the poor are getting poorer. Bill Wachtel You would be amazed how many elected officials are turning to the institute for This cause is a deep part of my heritage. My guidance. And how many people are turning father, Harry Wachtel, founded the Drum to DMI to learn more about their elected Major Foundation (the predecessor to DMI) “If you want to say that I was officials and whether or not they are when he was one of Dr. King’s close a drum major, say that I was a advisors. I grew up surrounded by a drum major for justice; say that generation of like-minded heroes who knew I was a drum major for peace; that giving back to our nation means say that I was a drum major helping the weakest among us, because “I for righteousness. And all of cannot be what I ought to be, until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” the other shallow things will not matter... I just want to Our work has results—both at the ballot box leave a committed life behind.” and in the legislatures of this great nation. Policy matters, and DMI stands for policy —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that doesn’t demean the memory of Dr. King Ebenezer Baptist Church, by stealing his words, but that honors his February 4, 1968 Bill Wachtel and Martin Luther King, III dream by putting words into action. Unlike

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Stuart Feldman STAFF Chelsey Capital Ambassador Andrea Batista Schlesinger Chairman Matthew Goldstein Executive Director Good Works International, LLC City University of New York Amy M. Traub Melvyn I. Weiss Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Associate Director of Research Vice Chairman Waterkeeper Alliance Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP Cyrus Dugger Martin Luther King, III Senior Fellow William B. Wachtel Realizing the Dream in Civil Justice Founder Wachtel & Masyr, LLP Daniel T. McGowan Penny Abeywardena HIP Health Plan of New York Director of Strategic Relations John Catsimatidis Red Apple Group, Inc. Bernard Nussbaum Elana Levin Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Communications Manager Bruce Charash Apple P.I.E. (Partners In Education) Morris Pearl LeeAnn Fletcher BlackRock Operations Manager / Cecilia Clarke Development Associate Sadie Nash Leadership Project Tom Watson Changing Our World Sarah Solon Sandra Cuneo Policy and Communications Associate Cuneo Advocates Randi Weingarten United Federation of Teachers Tsedey Betru Jennifer Cunningham Director of DMI Scholars 1199 SEIU Jennefer Witter United Healthcare Workers East The Boreland Group, Inc. Rosanna M. Durruthy Andrew Young III Aequus Group Young Solutions

“Donald Trump said last week that ‘The middle class is disappearing and America is becoming “Brave, new labor a two-class society. Soon you will be either rich or poor.’ This isn’t news to squeezed middle- and realized the class Americans. But when even Donald Trump is warning about the death of the American labor competition Dream, isn’t it time for our nation’s leader to pay attention?—Andrea Batista Schlesinger system of broken IMPACT Thank you to our donors for their generous support. Founders Circle Drum Majors Drew & Rogers, Inc. Austin Evers $100,000 and Above for Justice Stephen & Elyse Gutman $1,000—$4,999 Susan Herr Thomas Fontana Open Society Institute Astoria Graphics, Inc. Jack Hoffinger Cynthia Freeman & William Wachtel James Katz Josh Goldstein David Axelrod Stefan Friedman Melvyn I. Weiss Daniel Keating Evan Behrens Alissa Levin Aaron Goldberg Tonio Burgos Marjorie Harris Patrons Larry Luftig Jerry Colonna Michael Murphy Eric Hauser Randi Hazan $50,000—$99,999 Rosanna Durruthy Karen Newirth Noah Heller Chelsey Foundation Trust Matthew Goldstein NYS Public Employees Federation Margaret Kass Morris Pearl Hecht & Co. Zeva Oelbaum & Hilary & Junichi Kitasei Philanthropic Fund John Reichman Hildy Kuryk George Kaufman Defenders of the Dream Iara Peng Rick LaBreche $20,000—$49,999 Craig Kirsch Darryl Pitt Athena LaFlamme-Edwards Neil Barsky Laborers’ International Precise Corporate Printing Maureen Lane Union of North America Michael Rabinowitz Democracy Alliance Raymond Levin Steven Levy Diane Reeves Abraham Markman HIP Health Insurance Susan Mackenzie Retirees Association Andra Miller Plan of New York of D.C. 37, AFSCME, Al Maloof AFL-CIO John Mollenkopf Horace Hagedorn Foundation Jack Marco Daniel Rose Roy Moskowitz Sallie Motch United Federation of Teachers The New York Observer William Sipper Andrea Batista Schlesinger Christopher Murphy David Pollak Keepers of the Flame The Public Zulaihat Nauzo Retail Wholesale Advocacy Group Paul Ness $5,000—$19,999 & Department Store Union Giovanna Torchio Dirk Neyhart 1199 SEIU United Tom Osterman Healthcare Workers East Daniel Rosner Concerned Citizens David Ourlicht John Catsimatidis Service Employees $199 and Under International Union Sylvia Perez Change to Win Labor Federation Jay Ackroyd Viktor & Lillian Thomas Sweitzer Pohorelsky Bruce Charash Louis Albano Katrina vanden Heuvel Ken Albrecht Clifton Poole & Amy Traub Chelsea Green Publishing Alan Vinegrad Clifford Anderson Marcia Poston Peter Fine Tom Watson Dawn Barber Maria Teresa Rojas Howard Wolfson Ruth C. Bauer Mark Gallogly & Elizabeth Strickler Bruce Rosen Vshift, LLC John Berman Local 32BJ SEIU Martin & Barbara Schiffer Alfred Yates Bruce Bernstein SEIU Local 200United Helen & Louis Lowenstein Raoul Bhavnani Harris Silver Chris McNickle Progressive Patriots Adam Bonin Jonathan Silverman $200—$999 Nancy Burnhan New York State James Siminoff John Amorison Leonard Carr Trial Lawyers Association Michael Swanson Sarah Jean Avery Jamie Chandler Sagner Family Foundation The Lloyd Group Sarah Baglio Lewis Cohen Bernard Schwartz Ronald and Susan Traub John Chachas Margaret Cott Limor Weiner Stephen Siegel Cecilia Clarke Carolina Dyer 21ST Century ILGWU Sandra Cuneo William A. Estlick Heritage Fund Michael D’innocenzo Cynthia Edwards UNITE-HERE *This list includes contributions from December 2005 through November 2006. leaders have taken a fresh look at the problem “The more you look closely at what happened in the aftermath of true source of wage depression and unfair 9/11, you start to see an alarming parallel between those events is not immigrant workers themselves but rather a and the model of putting profits over safety—or what I like to immigration laws.”—Amy Taylor term the tort reform business model. —Cyrus Dugger DMI: A Gathering Place for America’s Progressive Leadership

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1) John Edwards 2) New York State Governor 3) Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos.com 4) Senator Hillary Clinton 5) Paul Krugman 6) Maryland State Senator Gloria Gary Lawlah 7) SEIU President Andy Stern 8) Harry Belafonte 9) New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn 10) Arianna Huffington 11) Change to Win President Anna Burger 12) New York City Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott 13) Katrina vanden Heuvel 14) Wynton Marsalis 15) DMI Founder Bill Wachtel 16) United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten 17) Representative Charles B. Rangel 18) Al Franken 19) David Sirota 20) Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa 21) Ambassador Andrew Young 22) Howard Dean 23) DMI President Emeritus Fernando Ferrer

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“This administration has corroded the public values that promote “This bill makes explicit the right-wing calculus children’s and parents’ well-being: the public sector’s competence, that the working poor cannot be allowed to collective responsibility to one another, and the ability of many benefit unless the idle rich benefit poor Americans to save and own homes.”—Mark Winston Griffith exponentially more.”—Elana Levin IMPACT “The world would be a better place if DMI got more money!” SUPPORT DMI —ARI BERMAN, THE NATION

Now that you’ve read this annual report from cover to cover, you Dear Friend: know that the Drum Now what? Major Institute is playing a critical role in The mid-term elections are over. Where do we go from here? advancing a progressive Unlike in sports, a victory in politics is only meaningful if it agenda for our nation. leads to something else. In this case, electoral victories must lead to public policy that will actually improve people’s lives. Today, more than ever, That’s why we do what we do. The Drum Major Institute for we are in a critical Public Policy’s mission is to generate the ideas that fuel the moment in the war of progressive movement. And since 1999 we have provided the ideas. DMI can do its part to turn the midterm research, the models, the policies and the tools that have shone electoral victory into a a bright light on how government can actually work for the people. more meaningful, lasting It’s not always glamorous to be a part of a think tank. But it’s times like victory for the American these—when elections are over and the tough task of governing begins—that Dream. But we need the need for our work is clear. your support.

This year has special meaning. It’s been five years since I came to DMI, Here are five ways and in this time I have watched the current administration push the you can make an investment American Dream even further out of reach for most of us. So I am honored in the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy: to serve as Executive Director of an organization that fights back by equipping regular people to hold their representatives accountable, challenging the tired • Make a CASH CONTRIBUTION orthodoxies of the left and the right on issues like immigration, and with a check, credit card, or by wire transfer from your bank. preparing a new generation of progressives to create fairer and more just public policy. • CONTRIBUTE ONLINE. Our secure gift service offers DMI wouldn’t stand a chance against the well-organized and well-funded a quick, convenient and safe think tanks of the conservative right if it weren’t for the commitment and method for making a contribution using your credit card. Visit sustained support of our DMI community. Thanks to you, we doubled our drummajorinstitute.org/support.html staff size and budget and enjoyed an unprecedented national impact in 2006. We are now prepared for even more influence in 2007, when the country • Give a GIFT OF STOCK OR OTHER SECURITIES. You may needs our ideas the most. claim a tax deduction for the full market value of appreciated On behalf of the DMI staff and Board of Directors, thank you for stock, bonds, and other kinds your investment in our shared mission to defend and strengthen the of securities that you have held American Dream. The New Year beckons with fresh hope and exciting for over a year.

opportunity. We look forward to the challenge. With your support, DMI • Join an EMPLOYEE MATCHING will seize this moment and help our nation to emerge from six years of GIFT PROGRAM. Many conservative failures. employers will match charitable donations made by their Thank you again for an extraordinary year. employees (often on a 2:1 or 3:1 basis). Ask your Human Resources or Public Affairs office for more information.

• Consider PLANNED GIVING. Andrea Batista Schlesinger Name the Drum Major Institute Executive Director for Public Policy in your will. Your contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you for your support.

“I took the advice of Susan Brennan of Sayre and looked up the voting record of my The Peter B. Collins Show U.S. House representative, John R. Kuhl. Not surprisingly, regarding the same seven bills used to rate performance relating to the middle class vs. the rich, he, too, voted against all seven bills and also was rated "F" (0 percent) by the Drum Major Institute.” The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy is a non-partisan, non-profit think tank generating the ideas that fuel the progressive movement. From releasing nationally recognized studies of our increasingly fragile middle class to writing landmark analysis showing that a progressive immigration policy is in the best interest of America’s current and aspiring middle class, DMI has been on the leading edge of the public policy debate. For more information, please visit www.drummajorinstitute.org.

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