Commission on Federal Election Reform
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The Commission on Federal Election Reform is co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker, III. It is a private, blue-ribbon, commission created by President Carter in the aftermath of the 2004 Election. It was obvious to Carter that there was still work left over from the Carter-Ford Commission in 2000. The twenty-one distinguished members of the Commission are leaders from the major political parties, academics and civic leaders from nonpartisan groups. The commision was established to spend the next six months examining the state of the electoral process in the United States and to offer recommendations on improving it.
Some of the most prominent commissioners include Lee Hamilton, former Congressman and 9/11 Commission vice-chair; Tom Daschle, former Senate minority leader; Bob Michel, former House Minority leader; and Betty Castor, former Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 2004 Democratic Senate nominee.
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[edit] Members
[edit] Co-Chairs
President Carter was the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and 83rd Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. In 1982 he founded the Carter Center as a forum for mediating conflicts and promoting democracy, health care, and human rights. He co-chaired with former President Gerald Ford the National Commission on Election Reform.
The Honorable James A. Baker, III
James A. Baker, III has served in senior government positions under three United States Presidents. He served as Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, and White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts and Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
[edit] Executive Director
Dr. Robert Pastor
Dr. Robert Pastor is the Director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management and Vice President of International Affairs at American University. Before coming to AU in 2002, Pastor was Professor at Emory University and Founding Director of The Carter Center's Latin American and Democracy Programs, where he organized the monitoring of elections all over the world. He was Senior Advisor to the National Commission on Election Reform.
[edit] Other Members
Ms. Betty Castor
Betty Castor is the founder and President of the Campaign for Florida's Future. She was the 2004 Democratic Party nominee for the US Senate from Florida. Castor served as Florida Commissioner of Education from 1986-93 and was the president of the University of South Florida for six years after that. She served three terms as a state senator from the west coast of Florida, becoming the first female to hold the position of President Pro Tempore (1985-86).
Hon. Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle was elected and served as a U.S. Congressman (1978-86) and U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1986-2004). From 1994-2004, he was the Senate Democratic Leader. In 2005, Senator Daschle joined the Legislative and Public Policy Group of the law firm Alston & Bird, LLP.
Ms. Rita DiMartino
Rita DiMartino was the Vice President of Congressional Relations for AT&T. DiMartino was appointed in February 2002 as the Principal U.S. Delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women and also the Principal Representative to the Inter-American Children's Institute. She serves as Executive Vice-Chair of the New York Republican State Party, and on the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc., and the City University of New York.
Hon. Lee Hamilton
Lee Hamilton is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Prior to becoming director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1999, Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana's Ninth District. During his tenure, he served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission and co-chair with Senator Howard Baker of the Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos.
Ms. Kay Coles James
Kay Coles James was the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 2001 to 2005. James served as a Senior Fellow and Director of The Citizenship Project at the Heritage Foundation. Under President George H. W. Bush, James was an Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services.
Dr. Benjamin Ladner
Benjamin Ladner is the President of American University in Washington, D.C. As President since 1994, Dr. Ladner has led the transformation of AU into a distinctive, global university with a reputation as "a private university with a public responsibility." Dr. Ladner serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Consortium of fourteen Universities in the Washington Metropolitan area. Before coming to AU, he was President of the National Faculty, an association of university professors founded by Phi Beta Kappa.
Mr. David Leebron
David Leebron was appointed president of Rice University in Houston, Texas in 2004. Leebron joined Rice from Columbia Law School, where he was Dean since 1996 and a faculty member since 1989. Prior to that, he was a professor of law at New York University and director of NYU’s International Legal Studies Program.
Dr. Nelson Lund
Nelson Lund is the Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional Law and the Second Amendment at George Mason University in Virginia. Professor Lund served in the White House as associate counsel to the president from 1989 to 1992. He served as a law clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Dr. Shirley Malcom
Shirley Malcom is Head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a trustee of the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Malcom served on the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation from 1994-2001, and has served on the Boards of the Carnegie Corporation and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science.
Hon. Bob Michel
Bob Michel was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois from 1957 to 1993. He served as Minority Whip for the ninety-fourth through ninety-sixth Congresses and Minority Leader for the ninety seventh through one hundred third Congresses. He was Vice Chair of the Carter-Ford National Commission on Election Reform.
Hon. Susan Molinari
Susan Molinari is Chairman and CEO of the Washington Group, a government relations and lobbying firm, and the President of Ketchum Public Affairs. Molinari served in Congress from 1990 to 1997 representing Staten Island, NY. In 1994, she was elected to the Republican Majority Leadership, making her the highest ranking woman in Congress. Unanimously re-elected to the House Leadership in 1996, Molinari was also selected by GOP Presidential candidate Senator Robert Dole as Keynote Speaker at the Republican National Convention in San Diego.
Hon. Robert Mosbacher
Robert Mosbacher is chairman of Mosbacher Energy Company. He is the past chairman of the Republican National Committee and served as National Finance Chairman for the election campaigns of Presidents Ford and George H. W. Bush. He served as Secretary of Commerce under President Bush from 1989 to 1992.
Hon. Ralph Munro
Ralph Munro was the Secretary of State for Washington State from 1980 to 2001. Under Mr. Munro’s leadership, Washington State saw significant advancement in the efficiency of state election services including absentee voting, voter registration, election reporting and voter information.
Mr. Jack Nelson
Jack Nelson was the Washington Bureau Chief of the Los Angeles Times. He covered the past six presidents and every presidential campaign from 1968 through 1996. Since retiring in December, 2001, he has taught as a visiting professor of the University of Southern California’s School of Journalism. In 2002 he was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He was presented the Drew Pearson Award for Investigative Reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, and was named a Fellow by the National Society of Journalists.
Mr. Spencer Overton Spencer Overton is Associate Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School where his scholarly interests include voting rights, race, and campaign finance. Overton was Charles Hamilton Houston Fellow at Harvard Law School and serves as a director of the National Voting rights Institute and the Fannie Lou Hamer Project. He practiced law with Debevoise and Plimpton and is on the Board of Common Cause. [1]
Hon. Tom Phillips
Tom Phillips is the Spurgeon E. Bell Distinguished Visiting Professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston. Phillips was first appointed to the Texas Supreme Court as Chief Justice in 1988, and was subsequently elected and served until 2004. Justice Phillips worked as an attorney with Baker Botts from 1974-1981. From 1981-87, he was a district judge for Harris County. He was elected President of the National Conference of Chief Justices (1997-98), and was a member of the Committee on Federal-State Relations of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Ms. Sharon Priest
Sharon Priest was the first woman elected Arkansas Secretary of State in 1994 and was President of the National Association of Secretaries of State. She has chaired the Arkansas State Election Improvement Study Commission, the State Board of Election Commissioners, and currently chairs the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission. She has been elected to public office six times from 1986 to the present, including Little Rock Board of Directors (1986-90), Vice-Mayor of Little Rock (1989-90), and Mayor of Little Rock (1991-92).
Mr. Raul Yzaguirre
Raul Yzaguirre is presidential professor of practice in community development and civil rights at Arizona State University. From 1974 to 2004, Yzaguirre was president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s leading Hispanic advocacy organization and the largest constituency-based national Latino organization.
