Home » Eugene Training Agenda

DFA Campaign Academy Agenda

Eugene, OR         April 10^th & 11^th, 2010

Saturday

Sunday    

Training Presenters

Matt Blizek – Field, Planning and Online Organizing

Matt is the National Field Director at Democracy for America. He was born and raised in rural Iowa and first got involved in politics at the University of Iowa.  In 2001 he managed his first campaign in an attempt to elect a UI student to the Iowa City Council.  Not long after, he was elected Vice-President of the student body where he fought against radical tuition hikes, corrupt apartment management companies and police harassment on campus.

After graduation Matt spent the 2004 election cycle fundraising for the DNC and doing GOTV for MoveOn.org.  In 2006 he was selected to join Russ Feingold’s Patriot Corps program and was deployed to Montana where he did Field Organizing for Senator Jon Tester.

For the last two years Matt has managed a national training program for Democratic activists and candidates at Democracy for America.  Since joining DFA he has organized over 56 campaign trainings in 31 states, training over 3,000 people to become better activists, campaign staff or candidates.

Nick Passanante - Field, Targeting, and Leadership Development

Nick is the Deputy National Field Director at Democracy for America.  He got his start in electoral politics in 2006, when he was inspired by Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter’s message of education reform and joined his successful campaign as a campus organizer and GOTV coordinator.  More recently, Nick was a vagabond campaigner during the 2008 cycle who worked in 8 different states (NH, CO, TX, WY, PA, OR, MT, CA), first as a Regional Director and Youth Voter Outreach Coordinator for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, and then as the Deputy Director for Field Operations on Lt. Col. Charlie Brown’s campaign for Congress in CA-04.  While working for Lt. Col. Brown, Nick supervised what was considered to be the largest congressional field program in the nation during the 2008 cycle, making an average of 30K+ voter contacts per week.

Prior to 2008, Nick worked for President Bill Clinton as a personal aide and liaison, as well as short stints with the Boys and Girls Harbor of E. Harlem NYC and the Prague Society for International Cooperation.  He is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dan Mulligan- Base-building, Volunteer Management

Dan is a National Field Organizer for the Northeast region at Democracy for America. Dan started his political action work during his college years as the President of the SUNY Plattsburgh College Democrats / Progressives. Dan continued on after graduating and ended up going to work on the Eric Massa for Congress 2008 campaign in New York’s 29^th Congressional District. He worked point for volunteer and field operations in 4 counties in the southern tier of NY-29 in 2008. Dan helped to shore up record levels of democratic turnout in the heavily conservative southern tier which helped bring Eric Massa to victory in 2008.

After his work on the congressional race Dan went to work with the Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation AFL-CIO. Dan worked to organize AFL-CIO affiliate membership in the 11 country region they operated in. Soon thereafter Dan made the trip from Rochester, NY to Bangor, ME to work for Change that Works (SEIU). For several months Dan organized activists in north central Maine to put pressure on Maine Senators and Congressmen/ women to support health care reform. Dan is a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh in northern New York.

Training Presenters (cont.)

Matt Arnold– Field

Matthew “Mudcat” Arnold has developed sophisticated voter contact and volunteer engagement programs for Democratic candidates and progressive advocacy groups from coast to coast. In 2008 he designed and implemented the field program for Darcy Burner’s congressional campaign that made over half a million voter-contact attempts.  Prior to the Burner campaign he worked with the MoveOn.org election team to design the organization’s 2008 GOTV plan and innovative persuasion modeling program. He is currently a member of the core team at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a PAC that is recruiting and preparing progressive candidates to run for Congress. 

Selene Hofer-Shall- Finance

A former crisis counselor, Selene joined the Dean for America Operations Team in 2003, helping to compile the largest FEC reports in Presidential Campaign History. She was one of the 12 original staffers of Democracy for America, working as Operations Director and assistant to the Finance Director.  Since leaving DFA, Selene has worked on numerous successful campaigns from city councils to United States Congress.  As the Finance Director for Peter Welch (VT-AL) in his successful 2006 race for Congress, she broke all previous fundraising records for the district.  Following the 2006 election, she worked in San Antonio, TX as the Finance Director for Ciro Rodriguez in the TX-23 run-off election, raising over $600,000 in less than three weeks to successfully oust a 7-term Republican incumbent. Selene returned to work for Congressman Welch as the Political and Finance Director on his first re-election campaign, as part of a team that successfully warded off all Republican opposition and secured not only the Democratic but also the Republican nomination.  Selene is a managing partner of Theseus Advisors, LLC, a political consulting firm based in Burlington, VT. She specializes in political outreach, candidate messaging, fundraising and event planning.

Mary Rickles – Communications

As communications director, Mary spends her days writing about DFA and getting others to do the same. She has a unique background in both traditional and new media, having worked as a reporter and with agencies, non-profits, and corporate companies on projects ranging from brand development to community outreach. She also does communications and media for Netroots Nation. Mary grew up in Birmingham, AL—where she got first taste of politics by volunteering for Don Siegelman's gubernatorial campaign—and now splits time between San Francisco and Burlington, VT.  When she's not geeking out over politics, she enjoys singing and seeing live music.