Clinton

Doug Sosnik

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Doug Sosnik

Policy & Political Expert

Doug Sosnick served as a senior advisor to President Clinton from 1994 to 2000, playing a key role in policy, strategy, political and communications decisions in the White House; his titles included Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy, White House Political Director and Deputy Legislative Director. Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Sosnik was the chief of staff for Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, and later worked with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.


Mr. Sosnik currently advises elected officials, corporations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and philanthropists on strategic planning and crisis management. Clients include the National Basketball Association, the Motion Picture Association of America and CNBC, as well as advised over 50 U.S. Senators and governors.


Doug co-authored a New York Times bestseller, Applebee’s America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community.


Sosnick joined TCG on September 30 for The First Presidential Debate Panel alongside John Avlon and Ed Rollins.

Sidney Blumenthal

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Sidney Blumenthal

Journalist, Activist, Writer & Political Aide

Sidney Stone Blumenthal is an American journalist, activist, writer, and political aide.

He is a former aide to President Bill Clinton; a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton, formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation; and a journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy. Blumenthal is also the author of a multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Two books of the planned four-volume series are available now: A Self-Made Man and Wrestling With His Angel. Subsequent volumes were planned for 2018 and 2019.

Blumenthal has written for several publications, including the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker, and was Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Salon.com, for which he has written over 1800 pieces online. He is a regular contributor to openDemocracy.net and was a regular columnist for The Guardian. After 2000, he published several essays critical of the administration of President George W. Bush.

Blumenthal was a key speaker at our The Rise of Lincoln & US Divisions discussion event with co-speaker John Avlon on September 24, 2019.

Jed Rakoff

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Jed Rakoff

U.S. Judge

Jed Rakoff served as law clerk to the late Honorable Abraham Freedman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then spent two years in private practice at Debevoise & Plimpton before spending seven years as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. For the last two of those years, he was Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Prosecutions Unit. He then returned to private practice where he was a partner first with Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander & Ferdon, and then with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He headed both firms’ criminal defense and civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) sections.

On October 11, 1995, Rakoff was nominated by President Bill Clinton to fill a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 29, 1995, appointed on January 4, 1996, and entered on duty on March 1, 1996. On December 31, 2010, he assumed senior status.

On April 13, 2013, Rakoff was on a list released by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) of Americans banned from entering the Russian Federation over their alleged human rights violations. The list was a direct response to the so-called Magnitsky list revealed by the United States the day before. On March 20, 2014, Rakoff was listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.

Rakoff received the American Spirit Award for Public Service from Richard Farley at The Common Good’s American Spirit Awards 2015.

Doug Schoen

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Doug Schoen

Political analyst

Douglas Schoen is an American political analyst, pollster, author, and commentator. He is currently a political analyst for Fox News. Schoen partnered with political strategist Mark Penn and Michael Berland in the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland.

Doug Schoen has been one of the most influential Democratic campaign consultants for over thirty years. A founding partner and principal strategist for Penn, Schoen & Berland, he is widely recognized as one of the co-inventors of overnight polling.

He has worked on the campaigns of many Democratic party candidates, including Ed Koch and Bill Clinton, as well as on behalf of corporate clients. He also worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and was a consultant for Jeff Greene in the 2010 Florida Senate election.

He is the author of multiple books, most recently publishing, The End of Democracy.  He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and various other newspaper and online publications. He is also a Fox News Contributor, making appearances on various news programs several times a week.

Schoen spoke at The Common Good in 2010: Election Insurrection: The Mid-Term Elections 2010.

Doug Schoen participated in Recap: Final Presidential Debate Panel on October 23, 2020. Schoen, Bitecofer and McFadden help unpacked what happened during the final Presidential debate. 

Twitter: @DouglasEShoen

Mike Lux

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Mike Lux

Co-founder and President of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C.

Mike Lux is the Co-Founder and President of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C., a political consulting firm focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PAC’s and progressive donors.

Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Political Action at People For the American Way (PFAW) and the PFAW Foundation, and served in the Clinton White House from January 1993 to mid-1995 as a Special Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. He also played a role in five different presidential campaign teams. In recent years, he co-founded the influential progressive blog OpenLeft.com, and served in a key liaison role to the progressive community upon being named to the transition team for Barack Obama.

Lux serves on the boards of several progressive organizations, including the Arca Foundation. In addition to serving on the board, he was a co-founder of Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, PoliticsTV, Progressive Majority, and Women’s Voices Women Vote. He also played a role in helping launch the Center for American Progress and Air America.

Twitter: @ProgressiveLux

Maurice Sonnenberg

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Maurice Sonnenberg

American intelligence and financial advisor

Maurice Sonnenberg is a board member of Chertoff Group’s board of advisers. He is currently Co-Chair of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, and a member of the Special Navy Advisory Panel to the Secretary of the Navy at the Department of Defense.

His professional experience includes being appointed to the U.S. Observer Team to observe Central American elections during the Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and Bill Clinton Administrations, as well as being appointed to the President’s Export Council and White House Task Force on International Trade during the Jimmy Carter administration.

Sonnenberg introduced Steny Hoyer at a Breakfast and Discussion at The Common Good in 2009.

Joe Klein

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Joe Klein

Political columnist

Joe Klein is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors, which portrays Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2003, he has been a contributor at the current affairs at Time news group. In April 2006, he published Politics Lost, a book on what he calls the “pollster-consultant industrial complex.” He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE and Rolling Stone.

Twitter: @JoeKleinTIME

Neera Tanden

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Neera Tanden

President of the Center for American Progress and Counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund

Neera Tanden is the President of the Center for American Progress and Counselor to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Tanden has served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations. Most recently, Tanden served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Center, where she oversaw strategic planning, operations, and fundraising.

Tanden previously served as senior advisor for health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, working on President Barack Obama’s health reform team in the White House.

Prior to serving as senior advisor, Tanden was the director of domestic policy for the Obama-Biden presidential campaign. Tanden also served as policy director for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

Tanden was also legislative director for Sen. Clinton, and served as associate director for domestic policy in the Clinton White House and senior policy advisor to the first lady.

Tanden was named one of the “Most Influential Women in Washington” by National Journal, was recently included on Elle magazine’s “Women in Washington Power List,” and was recognized as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Politics.”

Twitter: @Neera Tanden

Kay Koplovitz

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Kay Koplovitz

Founder of USA Networks, Founder and Chairman of Springboard Enterprises

Kay Koplovitz was the first woman to head a television network as the Founder of USA Network, and served as its Chief Executive officer from 1977 to 1998. Koplovitz was also appointed to chair the National Women’s Business Council by President Clinton. Since 2000, she has served as chairman of Springboard Enterprises, a non profit fostering investment in women-led high growth companies. She is also the author of Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning to Play the High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game.

Koplovitz participated in The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 on May 10, 2019. She spoke on the “Women & Power” panel alongside former Congresswoman Mia Love, Alessandra Stanley, and Sally Quinn, moderated by Juju Chang. She also serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.

Twitter: @KayKoplovitz

Morley Klausner

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Morley Klausner

Businesswoman

Morley Klausner, now retired, has been a businesswoman and entrepreneur with extensive experience in a wide range of business interests over a 35- year career from finance to retail, feature film, and executive search.

Klausner was principal/co-owner of a feature film distribution company and Vice-President of Business Affairs for two different film production companies where she negotiated the underlying rights, acquisition of books and screenplays, talent, financing and distribution of such films as Wall Street, Reversal Of Fortune, Plenty, Conan, Talk Radio, True Stories, among others.

She left the film business, and after exploring the legal search business, she subsequently established The Klausner Group, a legal search firm. The firm initially specialized in intellectual property attorneys and eventually expanded to most others areas of the law to become a national leader in the field.

She sold the company in 2004 allowing her to pursue her many interests in the arts, global affairs, and politics. In 2007 and 2015, she became very involved in Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaigns. She continues to stay involved in the issues of our day.

She has traveled widely and lived in both London and Switzerland for many years. She speaks fluent French. She holds a double major degree in Political Science and French from Western College for Women, which since merged into Miami University, and attended the MBA program at UCLA.