About The Author
A screenwriter in Los Angeles, Gooltz was formerly a playwright in New York theatre where he was recruited into writing politics in Washington DC.
As a political speechwriter and communications strategist for US Senators, Gooltz's first work in politics was young voter mobilization. Just as the Wide Awakes organized the liberal youth vote of 1860, Gooltz worked with organizations that mobilized young voters beginning in 2004.
Very much like The Wide Awakes' strategic use of new telegraph lines and youth parades, Gooltz used new media tools like MySpace and happy hour meet-ups to grow a decentralized political network group called “Drinking Liberally” into a national phenomenon. Spurring young people into activism with social activities has worked since 1860. Gooltz’s efforts with this strategy includes work music-scene-centric “Music for America,” and with “Vote Mob,” which registered voters in college coffee shops.
So much of his early political work was powered by first-generation internet tools that Gooltz became a teaching fellow with Norman Lear's youth activism training center “Young People For.” Gooltz was under thirty teaching teens how to organize themselves politically. Campaigns for marriage equality and immigration reform were some of the first testing grounds for his online social networking strategies.
Buoyed by wins, Gooltz wrote young voter strategy articles for a community of fellow youth vote thought-leaders called “Future Majority” - which later resulted in a book called “Youth to Power.” As one of the original members of "Drinking Liberally," Gooltz worked on the club’s mission to spread their network into all 50 states before the 2006 midterm elections -- elections where young voters propelled the Democratic Party into Congressional majorities.
Gooltz was awarded an activist fellowship with “Credo Action” where he began working on phone and text-enabled voter mobilization techniques and technology. These innovations have been utilized effectively in every major election since 2008.
In addition to approaching Young Voter strategy precisely the way the heroes of The Wide Awakes did 140 years ago - creating easy entryways into progressive political involvement - Gooltz is also like The Wide Awake founders in that he grew up in a small New England town and he also set out to change the world.
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