Home » Santa Barbara Training Agenda

DFA Campaign Academy Agenda

Santa Barbara, CA       February 20-21

Saturday

Sunday      

Trainers

Matt Blizek – Field, Planning and Online Organizing
Matt was born and raised in rural Iowa and first got involved in politics at the University of Iowa.  In 2001 he managed my 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 three years Matt have 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.

 
Matt Arnold – Field Organizing & GOTV
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.

Andy Szekeres- Fundraising & Finance
Andy Szekeres is a nationally touted fundraiser in Progressive circles. Most recently, Andy served as the finance director for the No on 1 Protect Maine Equality Campaign where he raised over 4.9 Million dollars in less than 5 months. His impressive track record includes raising over $16 million dollars in the last three election cycles.

Andy has also served as a Statewide Field Director for both issue and candidate campaigns, giving him a unique perspective and political insight that are rare amongst Political Fundraisers.

His past candidates include No on 1 - Protect Maine Equality, Congressman Polis, Fawcett for Congress, Lamm for Congress, Yes of Referendum I, Vallas for Governor, Skinner for Senate and 23 other races.
 

Mary Rickles - Media & Communications
As communications director for Democracy for America and Netroots Nation, Mary Rickles spends her days writing about grassroots politics 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 grew up in Birmingham, AL, where she got first taste of politics by volunteering for Don Siegelman’s gubernatorial campaign, and now lives in beautiful San Francisco

Arshad Hasan- Volunteer Management & Development
Executive Director, Democracy for America; Arshad joined Democracy for America in early 2005 to develop and direct the DFA Training Academy. Before joining DFA, Arshad worked with MoveOn PAC during the 2004 Elections. Previous to his electoral experience, Arshad based his professional political career in environmental issue advocacy and organizing. His non-electoral experience includes work on legislative issue campaigns, corporate accountability campaigns, and grassroots fundraising. Arshad traces his Dean roots to February of 2003 when he founded one of the nation's first organized Dean groups, Philly For Dean. Whenever possible, Arshad likes to take off from DFA and work on campaigns with staffers he’s trained. In the 2006 general election, Arshad worked as the GOTV Director for Jerry McNerney for Congress. Arshad was born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota and went to college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dan Ancona - Using VoteBuilder
Dan Ancona was a software engineer, technologist and entrepreneur for 10 years prior to his current role as Project Director of California VoterConnect. He is the veteran of several technology startups (including, briefly, one of his own), and has volunteered and consulted for a number of local, state and national political campaigns and organizations. He served on the boards of SBCAN and the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee, and writes occasionally at Speak Out California!

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