State of the Union 2014 Session 1:
Midterm Elections
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State of the Union 2014 is kicking off with what promises to be a lively conversation on the upcoming mid-term elections.
Our guests for the evening are:
Joel Benenson
Joel Benenson, founder and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, has been the chief pollster and a senior strategist for President Barack Obama since the beginning of his 2008 campaign, and worked on President Bill Clinton’s polling team during the 1996 race. Since founding Benenson Strategy Group, Benenson has served as a strategist and consultant to heads of state, various domestic political leaders, Fortune 100 CEOs, and leaders of major advocacy and nonprofit institutions.
Mark McKinnon
For three decades, Mark McKinnon has been helping to solve complex strategic challenges for causes, companies, and candidates — including George W. Bush and John McCain. McKinnon is an award-winning media producer and communications strategist who has served as principal media advisor for hundreds of corporate and political campaigns around the world. He has helped engineer five winning presidential primary and general elections. McKinnon is co-founder of No Labels, a non-profit organization dedicated to bipartisanship, civil discourse, and problem solving in politics.
Steve Schmidt
Steve Schmidt is the former senior adviser to the presidential campaign of United States Senator John McCain. Over his career, he has worked on many significant campaigns including the 2004 Bush presidential campaign. He served as Deputy Assistant to George W. Bush and Counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney; he was also the White House strategist for the United States Supreme Court nominations of Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. Today, he serves as Vice Chairman, Public Affairs, for Edelman, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, and regularly provides counsel to Fortune 500 companies.
Ruth Marcus
Ruth Marcus is a columnist and editorial writer for The Washington Post, specializing in American politics and domestic policy. Marcus has been with The Post since 1984, covering campaign finance, the Justice Department, the Supreme Court and the White House. From 1999 through 2002, she served as deputy national editor, supervising reporters who covered money and politics, Congress, the Supreme Court, and other national issues. She joined the editorial board in 2003 and began writing a regular column in 2006. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2007.
How to Prepare
Suggested readings:
