Home » Overland Park Campaign Academy Agenda

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 and Volunteer Managment

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 MaineNew York State. to put pressure on Maine Senators and Congressmen/ women to support health care reform. Dan is a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh in northern

Jay Parmley- Finance

Jay Parmley is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Democratic Party.  Parmley initially joined the staff of the South Carolina Democratic Party as part of former DNC Chairman Governor Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy.  From 2005-2008,  Parmley worked for the Democratic National Committee, first in Mississippi and then in South Carolina.    In 2001, at the age of 30, Parmley was the elected as the fulltime Chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.  He served two terms and did not seek reelection in 2005.  At the time of his election he was the nation’s youngest chairman of a State Democratic Party. He is a past president of the Young Democrats of America, serving from 1999-2001. Parmley was appointed by Governor Dean as an At-Large member of the Democratic National Committee in 2005, and is a member of the DNC Budget and Finance Committee.

Ellery Gould- Communications

A campaign veteran before he finished college, Ellery has experience at virtually every level of politics and in every region of the country; from City Hall to the halls of Congress, Connecticut to Arizona.  A Tennessee native, he took his talents for winning "red states" to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 where he oversaw media campaigns for some of the toughest races in the nation and helped bring a Democratic majority to Congress for the first time since 1994.  Most recently, Ellery managed the U.S. Senate campaign of a little-known former state legislator in Georgia – a state that hasn’t seen a top-of-the-ticket Democratic win in over a decade – turning it into one of the most improbable and competitive races of 2008.

Bridget Dooley – Field

Bridget is a political consultant specializing in field work and a union organizer.  She has served as Field Director and Campaign Manager on a variety of Congressional and local races throughout the Midwest, taking on ruthless Republicans, timid Democrats, and the ChicagoIllinois on a strategic campaign to organize the employees of one of the largest healthcare systems in the Chicago area political machine. Bridget currently is works for AFSCME Council 31 in