The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power
Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of...
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Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing. DeMarco's unique strategic template, developed over two decades of serial campaigning, includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; unrelenting, skillful access to the media for engaging public support; coalitions of hundreds, even thousands, of faith, community, labor, public health, and business groups; and a hard press on candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they are comfortably in office. As an organizer/leader, Demarco also succeeds in his campaigns through force of personality: his unquenchable exuberance and idiosyncrasies delight and madden his opponents—sometimes his allies, too. Michael Pertschuk, himself a veteran advocate, here chronicles three of DeMarco's campaigns, each facing a different obstacle course. His deep analysis draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use.
Introduction 1\ Part I The Maryland Children's Initiative\ 1 Rescuing a Lost Cause 9\ 2 The DeMarco Campaign Template 29\ 3 Media Advocacy: "A Giant Telephone" 46\ 4 The 1998 State Elections: Bridgehead for Action 54\ 5 Politics without Partisanship 66\ 6 Victory and Accountability 80\ Part II Health Care for More: The Chameleon Campaign\ 7 An Impossible Dream? 91\ 8 Follow the Leaders, Lead the Leaders 112\ 9 Coming to Terms with a Governing Troika 129\ Part III A Leap of Faith Organizing\ 10 The Birth of Faith United Against Tobacco 143\ 11 Faith in Action 150\ Part IV Lessons in Strategies and Leadership\ 12 Before We Do Anything Else 169\ 13 Delivering the Messages 185\ 14 Organizing Plus 197\ 15 A Fistful of Campaign Leadership Roles 205\ Epilogue: What Would Vinny Do? 219\ Acknowledgments 221\ Index 225
\ From the Publisher\ "Michael Pertschuk has spent his life battling for ordinary Americans against the moneyed interests in Washington--and, along the way, has energized and mobilized countless numbers of ordinary Americans for that same battle. It's the only hope we have. Read this and don your armor."\ --Robert Reich\ "An essential guide for every citizen frustrated with the power of big lobbies to derail progressive laws that are supported by the vast majority of Americans. Vinny DeMarco is a conscientious legislator's dream. When you fight for a bill that Vinny has organized on, you know that the power of the special interests opposing you is shrinking away."\ --Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Chair, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\ "I've never met a more authentic person. There is no pretense; there is no put-on with Vinny. He's an extraordinarily compassionate, committed person, a very bright person, and one who knows how to get things done. The faith community in Maryland and across the country has benefited greatly from Vinny's uncanny ability to mobilize us behind life-saving public health policies." --Bishop Douglas I. Miles, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD)\ "I have known and worked with Vinny DeMarco for more than twenty-five years. In all that time he has been motivated by an unfailing passion for justice combined with an extraordinary ability to make others want to join him in action to achieve justice. They trust him because they know he's in it for the long haul, not just the day. He will do most of the work, then give them all the credit. His deep knowledge of history, which he never displays, guides him and helps make him a true leader. The lively campaign stories in this book capture the essence of that leadership."\ --Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Maryland Lieutenant Governor\ "The DeMarco Factor is the engrossing tale of a once powerless American building power for himself and others to curb entrenched hitherto undefeated commercial interests. This is a teaching, motivating book for all who aspire to shape a just and humane society, but do not know how."\ --Ralph Nader\ "When it comes to the science and art of media advocacy--approaching the media in ways that propel your issue forward--Vinny DeMarco has 'written the book.' Except that Vinny has shown us all how it's done, and Mike Pertschuk has written the book. From his varied and exquisitely sensitive uses of carefully wrought polling to gaining the trust and access to the media; from inventing newsworthy events to making certain that the coverage of those events broadcasts his core messages to legislators, Vinny, in the book, demonstrates how it's done right, and Mike Pertschuk wraps it up in a lively package that both delights and teaches us. No advocate who wants to make change happen can afford to miss The DeMarco Factor."\ --Celinda Lake, progressive pollster; President, Lake Research\ "Like that old Saturday Night Live routine about one person as invincible legend, Vinny DeMarco is the 'Ditka' of local grassroots organizing. My old adversary, the National Rifle Association, spends millions of dollars on slick campaigns and has lobbyists in $4,000 suits, but Vinny beats them with pocket change while wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh tie. Would-be advocates for the public interest and frustrated citizens who fear they don't have a voice will take heart from this book and learn not to fear the most powerful lobbies and beat them instead."\ --Sarah Brady\ "The DeMarco Factoris a must-read for these challenging times. It shows us how to bring people into the fold, rather than just folding."\ --Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Washington Post\ "In 2007, we in Maryland expanded health care coverage to over 100,000 Marylanders because Vinny DeMarco built a powerful grassroots coalition that made sure legislators knew that the people wanted expanded access to affordable, quality healthcare. Vinny built the same kind of coalitions to strengthen Maryland's gun laws and reduce teen smoking. As I have, all of us can learn from Vinny how to transform public will into political power." --Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley\ \ \
