Josh Silver (nonprofit director)

For the keyboardist, see Josh Silver.
Josh Silver
Born April 16, 1968
United States New York, New York, U.S.
Education University of Grenoble
The Evergreen State College
Occupation Nonprofit Director
Employer United Republic

Josh Silver (born April 16, 1968) is the co-founder and CEO of United Republic.[1] He is also the former CEO and president of Free Press, a nonprofit public policy organization he co-founded in 2003. He was previously campaign manager for the successful "Clean Elections in Arizona" ballot initiative; director of development for the cultural arm of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; and director of an international youth exchange program. He has published widely on media, telecommunications, campaign finance and other public policy issues. Silver has been profiled the Wall Street Journal[2] and featured in outlets including the New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Salon.com, C-SPAN, and NPR. He speaks regularly on media and technology issues and blogs at The Huffington Post.[3]

Background

Silver was born in New York, NY and moved to Shelburne, Massachusetts when he was four years old. He grew up on a former dairy farm in the foothills of the Berkshires. His mother, Genie Zeiger, a creative writing teacher, died in 2009. His father, Carl Silver, is a clinical psychologist in western Massachusetts. He has one sister. After high school, Silver lived in Europe for a year, mostly in France. The next two years he was a full-time "ski bum" in Colorado before starting college. He spent much of his 20s adventure traveling around the world . In 1995, Silver was on a river trip in Peru with a friend in which they were ambushed and shot. Silver was gravely wounded but survived; his friend did not.[4]

Education

He attended the University of Grenoble, France, and The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Media reform and activism

Prior to founding Represent.Us, Silver was involved in advocating for media reform. He co-founded Free Press, a nonprofit that advocates against media consolidation and for net neutrality.[5]

Views

Part of his focus is summarized in "Discovered: a cure for political corruption."[6] He divides reforms into three areas:

  1. Campaign financing and lobbying
  2. Election administration, including the Electoral College and options like instant-runoff voting.
  3. Congressional rules, including the filibuster and earmarks.

Efforts in campaign finance and lobbying are split between (a) proposed constitutional amendments and (b) legislation. Amendment efforts respond mostly to the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court and related decisions. Most of the current legislative proposals address only one element of campaign finance, lobbying and/or transparency. All of the legislative proposals currently in Congress would improve the system, but none provide a comprehensive fix and none currently have broad grassroots support. The most transformative of current legislative proposals is citizen-funded elections, with three primary variants:

  1. Fair Elections requiring a minimum number of small-dollar contributions to qualify for matching funds passed in some states but invalidated in part by court decisions.
  2. Matching funds like the system in New York City that provides a $5 match for each $1 contributed up to $250.[7]
  3. Vouchers or tax rebates up to a certain amount like $100 selected so "citizen funding" would be roughly double the private, large dollar contributions in the previous election.

Silver supports proposals that combines as many features as seem likely to obtain broad, transpartisan support.

National Conference for Media Reform

As executive director of Free Press, Silver played a large role in convening The National Conference for Media Reform.

References

  1. ↑ Joseph, Andrew (2012-01-03). "New Group Formed To Limit Political Money - Influence Alley". Influencealley.nationaljournal.com. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  2. ↑ "Non-Profit Takes on Big Media," Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2007.
  3. ↑ See "blog entries by Josh Silver," .
  4. ↑ "A Darkness on the River," Outside Magazine, November 1995
  5. ↑ Kang, Cecilia (28 March 2008). "Net Neutrality's Quiet Crusader: Free Press's Ben Scott Faces Down Titans, Regulators in Battle Over Internet Control". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  6. ↑ Silver, Josh (March 19, 2013). "Discovered: A Cure for Political Corruption". Huffington Post. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  7. ↑ Malbin, Michael J.; Brusoe, Peter W.; Glavin, Brendan (2012), "Small Donors, Big Democracy: New York City’s Matching Funds as a Model for the Nation and States", Election Law Journal 11 (1): 3–20, retrieved June 15, 2013

External links