Q & A: Martin Frost, America Votes
Q&A: Martin Frost, America Votes
Former Texas congressman leads coalition looking to reap progressive gains beyond presidential race.
WASHINGTON
BUREAU
Statesman.com
Sunday, July 20, 2008
WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, is the president of America Votes, a coalition of 48 activist groups out to increase voter turnout this year for progressive causes, from organized labor and expansion of minority rights to the protection of the environment and gun control.
As a nonpartisan organization, America Votes doesn't endorse specific candidates. Its interest groups, though, and the 35 million people they represent, are hoping to swing independent voters over to the positions largely represented by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Those interest groups include politically influential organizations such as MoveOn.org, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
America Votes is helping coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts in 14 political battleground states, including potentially pivotal Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Frost, 66, discussed those efforts in an interview:
American-Statesman: After winning election to Congress 13 times, you must have a pretty clear idea of what motivates voters. What's the biggest difference between people who make it to the polls and those who stay home?
Frost:Every election is different, and I always told my campaign staff, "Don't run the last election — think about what's going on this particular year." This year, there is a strong desire to see some change, certainly in Washington. There is great concern about the economy; there is continuing concern about our involvement in Iraq. I think voters are motivated because they want to see the country take a different path.
How will America Votes use those elements to try to tell its story to increase voter turnout?
Part of our job is to educate voters who are already motivated, who are already going to go to the polls, and make sure they understand issue differences. There may be people who are attracted to the election because of the presidential race but who don't know much about candidates down the ballot. And we want to make sure while they're at the polls that they don't just vote in the presidential race and then walk out, but that they have information about who's running for the state legislature in various states, who's running for Congress and also about ballot initiatives.
So, in that sense, you are trying to take full advantage of the turnout you anticipate because of the national mood and the candidates themselves?
That's correct. It'd be tragic if you had a large progressive turnout — and I believe you will — and many of the people who go to the polls don't bother to vote in state legislative contests, or in congressional contests, simply because they aren't familiar with the candidates. There are a lot of things at stake in this election, not just the presidential outcome.
As far as the presidential campaign goes, is there something America Votes offers that is beyond what the Obama campaign itself brings?
First of all, by law, we are not permitted to coordinate with federal candidates for the presidential campaign. The organizations that are members of our coalition obviously are interested in various races, and they're going to do their best to educate their members. We convene (meetings among) these organizations, trying to eliminate overlap, trying to encourage them to work together in a cooperative way, so that they, in the long run, save money — so that you don't have 10 different organizations sending 10 different pieces of mail to the same voter on the same day ... so that you kind of divide the universe of potential progressive voters and figure out which groups are the best messengers for those particular voters.
What's a realistic figure of how much money America Votes will raise this year?
We raised about $7.7 million during calendar year 2007. We certainly will raise and spend in excess of $10 million during 2008.
Some have used the term "shadow party" to describe the kind of activist efforts galvanized by America Votes. How would you characterize it?
It's not intended to be that at all. This is simply an effort to bring some order out of what, in the past, had been chaos. We want to try and harness the energies and the resources of some very good groups who all want to see progressive candidates elected at every level and to make sure that their money's spent well and their time is spent well.
In general, what kind of voter turnout are you expecting to see in November, and where would you expect to see the highest rates of turnout?
I think everyone agrees that we're going to have a very high turnout. My guess is that it will be across the board, although I think you'll have a much higher turnout than in the past among young people. You'll have a much
higher turnout among African Americans. But I think you'll have a high turnout among other groups, too. Everyone knows that this is an opportunity for real change. We can argue about the content of that change, but there's going to be a break with the past here, whoever is elected.
bobdeans@coxnews.com
http://www.statesman.com/insight/content/editorial/stories/insight/07/20/0720frost.html