The Committee to Get Walker Running, a group trying to kick start a Draft David Walker for President campaign, has 10 public supporters on the morning of April 21 2012. This count comes from a causes.com web page prominently linked to on the front page of draftwalker.com. On a subsidiary causes.com web page, visitors are urged to sign a “pledge to become an Americans Elect delegate and support David Walker.” A few other people have taken the pledge there.
Putting those two lists together generates a set of 12 people supporting the Committee to Get Walker Running:
9 out of the 12 public supporters of this Draft David Walker effort are either campus leaders in the Americans Elect organization, leaders in the Concord Coalition funded by Peter G. Peterson, or both.
Sources: link | link | link | link | link | link
Update, 11:09 AM: Blake Wright’s LinkedIn profile has been updated, showing an upgrade from Regional Campus Director to National Campus Director for Americans Elect. That’s a prominent leadership and paid staff position within Americans Elect.
Blake Wright has also pledged to support David Walker for President.
That’s a direct violation of the Americans Elect neutrality policy.
Well sleuthed, Jim.
It’s curious, to me, that Nick Troiano doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere at DraftWalker.com. A drop-down menu under the About tab includes a sub-tab for “The Committee,” which directs to a page listing Yoni Gruskin and Ryan Schoenike as the only two “co-chairs.” But, according to an email that I received yesterday from Solomon Kleinsmith:
This would seem to suggest — if there’s any committee structure at all — either that Troiano is the real Chair, with Gruskin and Schoenike as Vice-Chairs, or that Troiano is something like the President.
Either way: If, as Kleinsmith writes, Troiano is the one who “directs” the committee, then surely his name ought to be listed prominently on the site.
And who else is on this “Committee to Get Walker Running”? Kleinsmith? Lincoln Davidson? Others on the Causes.com lists above?
One of the FAQs at DraftWalker.com (accessible from the About menu) reads (emphases mine):
So who are these “several young people” — a group which, this answer implies, is large enough to include within it a subgroup of “[s]everal…organizers [who] were deeply involved in the ‘Do We Have a Deal Yet?’ initiative”?
And which, if any, of these people formally is on the Committee to Get Walker Running?
Hey, remember this? It’s over already!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133131/Has-Pinterest-bubble-burst-Figures-reveal-dramatic-drop-sites-active-users.html
That’s not precisely what the data show, Tom. The number of people signing up for Pinterest through Facebook has declined. It’s possible that more people are now signing up for Pinterest independently, which would be an indication of the social site’s independence and therefore strength.
To connect this to the subject of the article, I just looked up “David Walker” on Pinterest… the only pins up for “David Walker” are for an artist of the same name who has a thing for faces.
It is a little (but only a little) surprising how little effort Americans Elect has devoted to trying to decently hide the fact that the fix is in for David “Who?” Walker. Look for the organization to change its name soon to “Americans Elect Walker.”
Oh no they don’t….
By the way, Jim: congrats on your sleuthing which uncovered William Kelleher’s “Rapid Response Team” affiliation at Americans Elect. Now that his cover is blown we seem to be subjected to much less of his coy credulousness.
We can “follow the money” now more than ever in coming elections:
http://www.cjr.org/swing_states_project/best_campaign_finance_features.php
sorry – that was me above
Jim I found an interview you will like.
Democracy Now interview: NSA wistleblower says that domestic surveillance has become more expansive under President Obama than President George W. Bush and says NSA secretly has copies of most Americans emails
I believe it.