Turbulent Times: Latest Election Analysis with Jim McLaughlin and Matthew Bennett

Turbulent Times: Latest Election Analysis 

with

Jim McLaughlin 

Pollster, Republican Strategist, Partner and President of McLaughlin & Associates

and

Matthew Bennett

Democratic strategist, co-founder and executive vice president for public affairs of third way

Tuesday, July 23,  6:00 - 7pm ET, On Zoom

Top Democratic and Republican campaign experts, Matthew Bennett and Jim McLaughlin joined The Common Good to check the pulse of the 2024 election. From the Trump nomination, his new running mate Senator J.D. Vance, Joe Biden's surprising withdrawal, the push for Kamala Harris, and other seismic shifts in the 2024 election dynamics, these top veteran political strategists offered their expert insights into what might lie ahead.  Will Vice President Harris clinch the Democratic nomination? Who will be on the new ticket? Watch now!

Watch Now:

About Our Speakers:

Jim McLaughlin is President and Partner of Mclaughlin & Associates, a nationally recognized public opinion expert, strategic consultant and political strategist who has helped to elect a US President, Prime Ministers, a Senate Majority Leader and a Speaker of the House. Jim has worked for over 70 members of Congress, 14 U.S. Senators, 10 Governors, numerous Mayors and scores of other elected officials. He also serves as a consultant and market research strategist to Fortune 500 companies.

McLaughlin has a wide range of political experience, having personally managed political campaigns as well as business and marketing campaigns. His expertise as a former campaign manager gives him special insights on political survey research and how it can best be applied into a key element of a winning campaign. He has worked on campaigns at virtually every level of American politics, and was recognized by Campaigns and Elections magazine as one the “Rising Stars” in American politics.

Mr. McLaughlin has been called a “Big Winner” by a leading political magazine for his work on some of the top races in the country. McLaughlin was one of only two Republican pollsters named as a part of Roll Call Newspapers’ Fabulous Fifty for his work and was also profiled as a “Mover and Shaker” by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. Mr. McLaughlin has worked on some of the top races in the country. During this past election cycle, he helped to elect President Donald J. Trump and McLaughlin & Associates helped win 5 of the 10 toughest congressional races in the country according to one respected publication. McLaughlin & Associates has also been widely accredited for its accurate polling in predicting a Donald Trump victory.

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As a 23-year-old campaign staffer, Matt Bennett helped stage the infamous “Dukakis in a tank" photo-op that helped sink Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign. Matt would never again put a candidate in a tank (other than a think tank), but now he's a long-serving veteran of many political wars.

His pursuit of center-left politics has taken Matt from the campaign trail to the White House, and from the pages of The New York Times to appearances on Meet the Press and 60 Minutes. He worked on both of the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton, his political hero. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton White House, where he was the principal White House liaison to governors and covered issues ranging from disaster response to Medicaid to immigration. Prior to that, Matt traveled with Vice President Al Gore on his White House staff. He was Director of Communications for Wesley Clark's presidential campaign in 2004, and from 2001-2004 he was Director of Public Affairs for Americans for Gun Safety.

In 2005, Matt joined his three fellow co-founders in establishing Third Way, believing that there is a tremendous need for fresh thinking and moderate ideas in a time of extreme political immoderation. Matt loves coming to work every day to take on the big questions our country faces with some of the people he respects most in the world. He considers helping to extend marriage equality to gays and lesbians one of Third Way's proudest achievements so far.

Lay of the Land

Lay of the Land

with the ultimate political insiders

Susan Glasser, Peter Baker, and David Frum

and Norm Ornstein, Moderator

Wednesday March 15th, 5:00 -6:00 via Zoom

How has our democracy and the two parties changed – given the turn to the radical right in the Republican Party even after Trump’s 2020 defeat and Biden’s sometimes rocky two years in office? The Common Good has brought together renowned journalists Susan Glasser, Peter Baker, and David Frum lead in discussion by Norm Ornstein.. 

Join us on Zoom to discuss the changes of our democracy during the upheaval of the last few years, the shifting balance of power in the GOP today, and the near future of 2024’s election season. Be sure to check out Susan Glasser and Peter Baker’s latest book The Divider: Trump in the Whitehouse, 2017-2021 also available for purchase.

Susan Glasser, renowned staff writer and star political journalist at the New Yorker. She was previously at the Washington Post starting in 1998 where she edited the Post's Sunday Outlook and national news sections, helped oversee coverage of Bill Clinton's impeachment, covered the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and served as Moscow bureau co-chief with her husband, Peter Baker. She was editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy until 2013. Glasser then joined Politico, and served as editor during the 2016 election cycle. She also was the founding editor of Politico Magazine. Now, she writes the online column "Letter from Biden’s Washington" in The New Yorker, where she is a staff writer. Glasser has also written three important books with her husband Peter Baker. 

Peter Baker is an award-winning author, journalist at the New York Times, and political analyst for MSNBC. He has also written for the Washington Times and the Washington Post. He won the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 2007. Baker also served as Moscow Bureau co-chief with his wife Susan Glasser, and has published numerous books with her as well as other political books including Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, a detailed narrative account of the two-term presidency of George W. Bush, Obama: The Call of History,  and Impeachment: An American History. He has also served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for the Times until 2016 where he returned to cover the Trump presidency.

David Frum is a writer for The Atlantic, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, and the author or co-author of now ten books. Frum has been active in Republican politics since the first Reagan campaign of 1980. From 2001-2002, he served as a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. He is credited with helping to create the phrase "axis of evil” in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address. In recent years, Frum has been one of many prominent Republicans to openly criticize Donald Trump as not representing Republican or foundational democracy values. He is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and BBC.  From 2014 through 2017, Frum served as chairman of the board of trustees of the leading UK center-right think tank, Policy Exchange. The Common Good was proud to host Frum as a member in January of 2018 as a participant in our Town Hall at Hunter College,  “Trump – Year One” Panel, alongside historian Douglas Brinkley, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, and political strategist Edward Rollins. Frum currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board,

Norman Ornstein (Moderator) is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies politics, elections, and the US Congress. He is a co-host of AEI’s Election Watch series, a contributing editor and columnist for the National Journal and The Atlantic, a BBC News election analyst, and the chairman of the Campaign Legal Center. Dr. Ornstein previously served as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission. A longtime observer and analyst of American politics and the US Congress, he has been involved in political reform for decades, particularly campaign finance reform and the reform of Senate committees. He has also played a part in creating the Congressional Office of Compliance and the House Office of Congressional Ethics. Ornstein also serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board,

Insurrection: The January 6th Final Report with Ari Melber

Insurrection: The January 6th Final Report

Featuring Ari Melber with Andrew Weissmann

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 2023 AT 7:00 PM

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST NEW YORK

You’ve been watching history in the making. Now join us for a very special evening at the iconic New York Historical Society to discuss the first draft of that history, from the violent and deadly January 6th Capitol insurrection to the wider efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. We welcome Emmy Award-winning MSNBC anchor Ari Melber and former prosecutor and General Counsel to then FBI-Director Mueller Andrew Weissmann.

Ari Melber expounds on the foreword he wrote for the Harper Collins edition of the January 6 Report, now a #1 New York Times bestseller, and spoke with former prosecutor and Mueller General Counsel Andrew Weissmann about the findings, the case for future indictments, and the pending special counsel probe into Donald Trump. Both speakers will also took audience questions during the evening.

Watch or Listen Now:

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:

Andrew Weissmann served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office and as Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice. He was appointed by the Bush administration as Deputy and later as Director of the task force investigating and prosecuting individuals responsible for the Enron Scandal from 2002-2005. Weissmann served as a federal prosecutor in New York’s Eastern District for 15 years as the chief of the criminal division and has extensive experience in private practice.

He has taught at Fordham Law School and Brooklyn Law School and is currently a Professor of Practice with the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University School of Law. Weissmann is the author of Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation, a frequent commentator on MSNBC, and a contributing author for The Atlantic and other publications.

Ari Melber, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer and attorney, is the host of “The Beat with Ari Melber” airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC and founder of “Mavericks” on NBC. Melber also serves as MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent and an NBC News Legal Analyst, reporting on law and justice stories across all NBC platforms. Melber received a 2016 Emmy Award for his reporting on the Supreme Court.

Before joining MSNBC, Melber practiced First Amendment law and served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate. He received a J.D. from Cornell Law School and is a member of the New York Bar. His writing has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic, and he is a former regular contributor to Politico, Reuters and The Nation. He has participated in a number of events for The Common Good.

The Russia Investigation with Congressman Adam Schiff and Secretary Jeh Johnson

Newsmaker and rising congressional leader, Congressman Adam Schiff, appeared with special host & TCG Honorary Board Member Secretary Jeh Johnson for an elegant luncheon and briefing. Congressman Schiff, the Ranking Minority Member on the House Intelligence Committee and Russia Investigation Task Force, gave the latest on the Russia election interference probe, the growing threat to liberal democracies from a rise in authoritarianism, prospects for the Midterm elections, and many other consequential topics. Financial advisor Peter Maroney and TCG Founder Patricia Duff co-hosted the event.

listen:

WATCH:

Congressman Adam Schiff is the ​Ranking Minority Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and spearheads the Russia Investigation Task Force. As the U.S. Representative for California’s 28th District, Schiff has focused on growing the economy, bolstering national security, strengthening our communities, helping small businesses, and improving education, safety and health care. In his 9th term, Schiff served as State Senator for California’s 21st District, chairing the Judiciary Committee, the Select Committee on Juvenile Justice and the Joint Committee on the Arts. Before serving in the Legislature, Schiff served with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in LA for six years.

Former Secretary Jeh Johnson has distinguished himself in both public service and private corporate law practice. He served in the Obama cabinet as Secretary of Homeland Security (2013-2017) with vast responsibilities for homeland security, immigration, natural disaster relief, and many other critical policy areas. Prior to becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, Johnson served as General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2012) and General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force under President Clinton (1998-2001). Earlier in his career, he was Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1989-1991). Currently, he is a partner with the law firm of Paul Weiss. We are honored to have added Secretary Johnson to The Common Good Honorary Advisory board this year.

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