Represent.Us is a fresh campaign to support the American Anti-Corruption Act: a law that would overhaul campaign finance, impose strict lobbying and conflict of interest laws, and end secret political money. We are mobilizing millions of Americans — conservatives and progressives, young and old, every issue group fighting K Street, online and offline — to join this campaign.
Represent.Us is not just building a movement in support of the Act, we’re going to use our collective power to stand against those who stand for corruption. If it becomes law, the Act will completely reshape American politics and policy-making and give people a voice.
Mr. Potter served as General Counsel to John McCain 2008 and 2000 presidential campaigns. He also served as Deputy General Counsel to the George H.W. Bush 1988 campaign. He is the founding President and General Counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit which focuses on campaign finance issues in the courts and before the FEC. Mr. Potter now represents Stephen Colbert and his SuperPAC and 501C-4. He advises Mr. Colbert on campaign finance issues on The Colbert Report.
Theodore Roosevelt IV is a prominent Republican conservationist, and the great-grandson of President Roosevelt, serving on the boards of the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Wilderness Society, and as a Trustee for the American Museum of Natural History, and the World Resources Institute. He is the chair of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Professor Lawrence Lessig is the director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University as well as a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Professor Lessig is the founder of Rootstrikers, an organization dedicated to ending corruption in government. Professor Lessig also sits on the advisory boards of the Sunlight Foundation and Americans Elect.
Professor Richard Painter is a Professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota. He served as the chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush. Professor Painter has also been active in law reform efforts aimed at deterring securities fraud and improving ethics of corporate managers and lawyers.
Cecelia Frontero is an active participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement with a focus on ending the undue influence of special interests in politics. She is an accomplished actor with credits that include numerous theatrical productions, television programs and audio book recordings.
Buddy Roemer (R-LA) is a former four-term U.S. Congressman and one-term Governor of Louisiana. He is the CEO and President of Business First Bank, and a former GOP candidate for U.S. President.
Tom Whitmore is the head of the D.C. Tea Party Patriots. Mr. Whitmore is a retired C.E.O. of three small businesses, and now works to create an environment that encourages new activists to step up and become involved in the electoral process.
Hadi Partovi is an entrepreneur and angel investor. As an entrepreneur, he was on the founding teams of Tellme and iLike. As an angel investor and startup advisor, Hadi’s portfolio includes Facebook, Zappos, Dropbox, OPOWER, Flixster, Bluekai, and many others. A graduate of Harvard University, Hadi is a strategic advisor to numerous startups including Facebook, Dropbox, OPOWER, and Bluekai, and serves on the board of TASER International. He is also an active angel investor with a wide range of investments.
Jack Cogan is a former chairman and managing partner of Hale and Dorr (now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP) and a former chairman of that firm's Corporate Department. Mr. Cogan remains active in the financial services industry as non-executive chairman of Pioneer Investment Management USA, Inc. and president of the Pioneer Family of Mutual Funds (USA). He is a vice president and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a life trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and chairman emeritus of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He served as trustee of Boston Medical Center and also was a former chairman of University Hospital (Boston).
Douglas E. Schoen is am influential campaign consultant with a client list that includes Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Evan Bayh, and AT&T. He was a founding partner and principle strategist for Penn, Schoen & Berland, and is widely recognized as one of the co-inventors of overnight polling. Holding a degree from Harvard Law School as well as a PhD from Oxford University, he has authored numerous books and is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and FOX News.
Todd Dipaola co-founded Vantage Media and served as its CFO and VP Strategy. Under his tenure, Vantage became #31 in the Inc 500 list. In addition to angel investing and new online ventures, he serves on several public interest boards. He graduated as a Regents Scholar from UC Berkeley. and completed a minor from the Goldman School.
For three decades, Mark McKinnon has been helping to solve complex strategic challenges for causes, companies and candidates, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong and Bono. McKinnon 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, and is co-chair of Arts+Labs. He currently serves on the boards of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Change Congress.
Dennis M. Kelleher is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Better Markets, Inc., a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit organization that promotes the public interest in the U.S. and global financial markets. He has held several senior staff positions in the United States Senate, most recently as the Chief Counsel and Senior Leadership Advisor to the Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
Jack Abramoff is a former Washington super-lobbyist who became a master of exploiting the lobbying system, and later served three years for breaking lobbying laws. Mr. Abramoff authored the book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist. Mr. Abramoff continues to make media appearances to educate citizens on the corrupt practices in government.
Nick Penniman is the executive director of Fund for the Republic, a catalyst fund bringing new resources to efforts to confront the undue influence of monied interests over U.S. politics. Prior to his work at Fund for the Republic, Mr. Penniman was the Executive Director of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. Mr. Penniman has worked as either a publisher or editor for several good-government magazines and newspapers, and blogs on the issue of money in politics for the Huffington Post.
David Levine is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC). ASBC is a growing coalition of business networks and businesses committed to advancing a new vision, framework and policies that support a vibrant, equitable and sustainable economy. Founded in 2009, ASBC and its organizational members represent more than 150,000 businesses and more than 300,000 individual entrepreneurs, owners, executives, investors and business professionals across the United States.
Susan McCue is a political strategist and President of Message Global LLC, a strategic public affairs firm founded to advance progressive campaigns, global non-profit advocacy, grassroots activism and corporate social responsibility. McCue served as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. McCue later became the founding President & CEO of The ONE Campaign and elevated ONE into a national force. GQ Magazine named McCue one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington and Washingtonian Magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful women in Washington.
Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm that specializes in internet/tech ventures. He has founded or co-founded five companies, an managed a broad range of technology projects.
Ethan Beard served until recently as Director of the Facebook Developer Network. He previously served as Director of Business Development at Facebook and led the team responsible for creating and managing strategic partnerships. Ethan joined Facebook from Google, where he served as Director of Social Media and Director of New Business Development. Prior to Google, he spent several years as Director of Business Development for MTV Online. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and an MBA from NYU Stern.
Joe is co-founder and CEO of Flixster. Before Flixster, Joe was part of the startup team and head of product management at Edusoft, which was bought by Houghton-Mifflin in 2003. Joe graduated with a degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelors in economics from the Wharton School.
Professor Haidt is a social psychologist whose research examines the foundations of morality. His most recent book is the New York Times bestseller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. The book helps explain the American culture war between left and right. Professor Haidt received a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.