Linda Curtis is the leading spokesperson, analyst and tactician for the Texas independent political movement. For almost 30 years, Linda has worked with independent candidates, including Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Lenora Fulani and former Texas Comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn. She has worked to build coalitions of third parties and independent voters in 20 states. Linda was the state organizer for the now defunct Reform Party of Texas and was a national committee member to the Reform Party USA. In 2001, Linda co-founded Independent Texans. Curtis concluded that independent voters, "don't fit well into one political party. We like to shop the ballot".
In 2006, Curtis played a leading role in the "independent revolt" of 1.3 million Texans who voted for one of two independent candidates for Governor. She is working now to unify Texas independents for the 2008 presidential election and beyond.
Curtis's political commentary on independent politics have been published in The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman, The San Antonio Express News, the Waco Tribune, the El Paso Times, the Waxahatchie News and more. She has appeared as a political commentator on dozens of political talk radio programs around the state.
Fran Hanckel, ScD, Johns Hopkins, is recently retired from her senior manager position at a five hospital system in southern California, where she acted in a variety of capacities for the past 20 years. She has done political advocacy on behalf of patients and providers, and this work made clear to her the bankruptcy of much of the political process. She is now keenly interested in creating accountability for elected officials and believes the efforts of the independent movement are most likely to make it happen.
Bill Maggs is an Independent activist and longtime supporter of political organization and civil power management outside of the existing duopoly. He currently works in the software industry in Silicon Valley. His earlier experience includes working as a development economist and journalist in developing countries in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Jim Mangia has been a leader in the area of independent politics for over two decades. He was the founding national secretary of the Reform Party USA and was re-elected for three consecutive terms. Mangia was a national media spokesperson for the Ross Perot presidential campaign in 1996. He led the opposition to the takeover of the Reform Party by Pat Buchanan in 2000.
Mangia has spoken regularly on television and radio about the growth of the independent political movement. He has published op-ed articles in the Los Angeles Times and Daily News, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. He has been active in fighting for key democratic political reforms, including open primaries and redistricting reform.
Mangia is the President and CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, a network of nonprofit federally qualified health centers and school based clinics providing free medical, dental and mental health services to more than 85,000 children and adults in L.A.’s poorest neighborhoods. He has received the Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition and numerous commendations for this work by city, county and state legislative bodies.
Mr. Mangia currently resides in Los Angeles.
Fran Miller is an attorney specializing in trademark and copyright law, and is a grassroots organizer who’s been active in independent politics for 25 years. From 1988 to 1991 she acted as Counsel to the Rainbow Lobby in Washington, DC, a non-profit citizens lobby which lobbied Congress on human rights issues, including political reform and ending US support for the brutal dictator of the Congo, then known as Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. In 1992 she became Treasurer for the independent presidential campaign of Dr. Lenora Fulani, the first woman and first African American to be on the ballot in all 50 states as an independent. Over the next ten years she managed extensive field operations for independent electoral campaigns, and for a variety of initiatives designed to open up the political process and expand our democracy.
Most recently, Fran was a National Organizer at the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), leading an effort to create state-based organizations of independent voters in 35 states. In that capacity she worked closely with local activists, supporting their efforts in a variety of electoral campaigns and initiatives designed to break down the legal and practical barriers to more extensive participation in the political process for all Americans, and for independents in particular.
Ms. Miller currently maintains a law practice in New York City, and is supporting various efforts to build the independent movement.
Jason Olson, a 15-year independent organizer and activist, has helped lead the independent movement onto the Internet. His work includes development of the IndependentPrimary.Com campaign site that signed up 100,000 independents in two months, redevelopment and branding of IndependentVoice.Org, and numerous online action and fundraising campaigns.
Mr. Olson has been a political activist since age 17 when he was inspired by Ross Perot’s independent presidential campaign. He is a veteran of numerous political reform efforts, including ballot initiatives designed to open up the party primaries to independent voters, to reform redistricting, and to get big money out of politics. He is currently the Communications Director for IndependentVoice.Org.
Gary Phillips. A product of South Central L.A., Gary Phillips' baptism in community organizing was around issues of police abuse and accountability. He was also deeply involved in the anti-apartheid movement, taught incarcerated youth, been a union organizer, run a nonprofit begun after the '92 riots in Los Angeles to better race relations at the grassroots level and affect policy, worked in community-based electoral campaigns and for a "527."
His op-eds and articles on race, politics and pop culture have run in publications such as the then Los Angeles Times magazine, Baltimore Sun, American Prospect magazine, Black Scholar and the L.A. Weekly. Phillips has published several crime and mystery novels and various short stories. As editor he has an anthology out now from Verso called Politics Noir and is writing a weekly online thriller entitled Citizen Kang on thenation.com. For his writing he has been nominated for a Shamus, and won a Chester Himes and Brody awards.
Anita Stewart is a licensed medical professional, artist, freelance writer, blogger and photographer, independent publicist and New Media and Virtual Outreach expert. Anita was born in Detroit and grew up in a rock and roll radio station in Pennsylvania that her father owned, so news, media and music has always been an important part of her life. She is a USAF veteran, and received a degree in English with a minor in film and journalism from the University of Maryland.
Anita was one of the first organizers of Chapter 119, the Tampa Bay Veterans for Peace and of Code Pink Tampa Bay and the Tampa Bay Indymedia Collective. After volunteering on the Virtual Outreach team for the Kucinich for President 2008 Campaign, she became an official member of the campaign staff in July of 2007.
Currently she serves on the Board of Trustees for the Florida Green Party, volunteers for the Cynthia McKinney Presidential Campaign and with her work on Code Pink Tampa Bay, has developed an alliance with other local peace groups under the name 5YearsofWar. 5YearsofWar regularly organizes Peace Actions throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Anita is a strong believer in working to change the course of our country by reforming our media, by using the Internet to organize Independent voters and by actively supporting and electing Independents and Progressives for Congress and Senate that are not corporate "owned."
