Organizing Committee

Paul Jacob: Paul is president of the Liberty Initiative Fund, a national organization helping citizens place issues on state and local ballots, designed to protect individual liberty and hold government accountable. For more than a decade, Paul was the term limits movement’s leading voice, running U.S. Term Limits, the nation’s largest such group. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly called Jacob “the most hated man in Washington.” Paul won the “Courage Under Fire” award at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference. He serves on the boards of Citizens in Charge, Citizens in Charge Foundation, Great Communicators Foundation, and U.S. Term Limits.

Joe Mathews: Joe is a journalist whose work focuses on two subjects: California, and the rule and practice of democracy worldwide. He is co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, the world’s leading network of people whose work involves direct democracy, and serves on the board of Democracy International, a Germany-based NGO that supports democracy campaigners around the globe. He is California and Innovation editor at Zócalo Public Square, a Los Angeles-based media nonprofit; his weekly syndicated California column appears in more than 30 newspapers. Previously, Joe was Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a reporter for the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and Baltimore Sun. He is author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy, and co-author of The California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It.

Executive Director

Stephen Erickson: Stephen has spent much of his adult life working for political reform. He is the author of two books, including What Would Madison Do? The Political Journey Progressives and Conservatives Must Make Together, which, praised by leading voices on the Left and Right, tells the story of his campaign to unite leaders of all political persuasions to fix America’s broken political system. He completed coursework on a doctorate in Early American History, possesses significant political experience, has published various articles, won writing awards, and served as Resident Scholar at US Term Limits. He is the founder of the American Common Ground Alliance, an effort to open a broad dialogue between conservative and liberal leaders focused on America’s failing and dysfunctional institutions. Stephen can be reached at Stephen@CitizensRising.org