Background Podcast

Today’s show is going to be a little different. We have on Austin Cook, who is a student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is studying political science and communications and wants to work in politics as a career. Austin reached out through a mutual friend about how to get her start in a political career, so I invited her on today to guest host and ask some questions from a panel of very astute political professionals. 

Today’s panel features: 

Olivia Bergen, who has worked and managed numerous campaigns, particularly in New Hampshire. She is now living in Minnesota and managing the Aleta Borrud campaign for State Senate which is sure to be a top-tier state race here in Minnesota. 

Andrew Adamski is previous guest of the podcast a managing partner of New Guard Strategies, a full service political consulting firm. He has worked all over the United States at all levels of campaign operations and is currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Michael Rocket Richards is a veteran of dozens of campaigns at all levels. He is a little bit of an Illinois political legend and well known to most Democratic insiders in the state. He runs a consulting firm, Rocket Consulting while also working full time for Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Mike Cabonargi. Rocket lives on the north-side of Chicago with his wife and two baby boys. Full disclosure, Rocket was also my best man at my wedding.

Matt Duco graduated from the University of Illinois where he was active with the College Democrats and then went on to work for the Democratic Party of Illinois for a number of years before deciding to pursue a career in law. While in law school at Northern Illinois University, he volunteered with the Obama 2008 campaign and Bill Foster’s first campaign for Congress as well as his re-election. Since graduating law school and moving into private practice, Matt has primarily worked as a volunteer on campaigns and political organization but his main focus has been on election protection. He also ran for office himself in 2016, narrowly losing his election for County Recorder. Matt has spent most of his life in Illinois and is now living in Brooklyn, New York. 

Brian McDonagh is a Labour Party Counselor in Fingal County, Ireland. In addition to being an elected official he also works in politics in his day job as a Parliamentary Assistant to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD and was previously a regional organizer for the Irish Labour Party.

Labour Party: https://labour.ie

Cllr Brian McDonagh: https://labour.ie/people/brianmcdonagh

Brian’s Twitter: @brianmcdonagh

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD: https://labour.ie/people/aodhanoriordain

In today's episode we flip the script and have Andy Quarnstrom interviewing Scott Redenbaugh. Andy is the City of Champaign Township Supervisor in Champaign, IL and a former client of Scott Redenbaugh. Scott is the usual host of the Background Podcast. 

We get to hear how Scott got his start in politics, the reasons for starting the show, and his thoughts on the 2022 election. Check it out for a different type of show!backgroundpodcast.com

Scott Jamison is the Head of Press for the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. He has also previously served as a Senior Constituency Worker for the Northern Ireland Member of Parliament, Naomi Long. She is now the Alliance Party Leader and a member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly and the Alliance Party has seen a steady rise in the polls and in number of seats since Scott came on.Prior to working in politics, Scott was a journalist with articles published in the South Belfast Times, The Irish News, and the Irish Times. 

Wikipedia article on Norther Irish Politics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Northern_Ireland

Alliance Party Website: https://www.allianceparty.org/

Mark Leibow is a Doctor and Chair of the Senate District 26 DFL in Minnesota.

Mark is originally from Chicago and lives in Rochester, Minnesota with his wife, State Representative Tina Leibling and their family. His first campaign was for Abner Mikva’s Congressional campaign in 1974. He has continued his political activism in a volunteer capacity as Party Chair, member of the State DFL Party Affairs Committee, and was  an official Presidential Elector in the 2020 electoral college. 

Mark has an encyclopedic mind for politics and policy, which is incredibly impressive given his day job as a Doctor in Internal Medicine requires a lot of capacity in it’s own right

Andrew Adamski is a partner at New Guard Strategies, a political consulting firm providing direct mail, digital advertising, and general consulting. New Guard is primarily focused on state and local campaigns. 

Andrew graduated from Catholic University in Washington D.C. but has spent most of his career outside the beltway. He has worked on campaigns all over the United States including Bernie Sander’s 2016 campaign, Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the US Senate in Tennessee, and Mike Bloomberg’s campaign for President in 2020. These are just a few of the headline campaigns but the breadth of his career covers over a dozen campaigns since getting his start in 2008. 

Currently living in Missouri, Andrew is someone that I have always known to provide very informative and honest, sometimes blunt assessments on campaigns and politics. 

Books mention in the show:

Get Out the Vote: https://www.amazon.com/Get-Out-Vote-Increase-Turnout/dp/0815736932/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=green+and+gerber&qid=1636059666&s=books&sr=1-2

The Victory Lab: https://www.amazon.com/Victory-Lab-Science-Winning-Campaigns/dp/0307954803/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=victory+lab&qid=1636059712&s=books&sr=1-1

Jim is a jack-of-all-trades in Illinois public affairs. He has been an Illinois legislator, statewide candidate, state agency director, senior aide to three unindicted Governors, Campaign Manager for U.S. Senate and Presidential Candidates, Professor, Newspaper Publisher and Columnist.

Jim received his BA, MA and PhD degrees in political science, with minors in economics, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Whenever kicked out of government or politics, Jim has taken refuge as a senior fellow at the University’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He has also taught in the American politics field at the U. of I. in both Urbana and Chicago, Knox College and Northern Illinois University.

Jim has been a “foreign expert” (visiting professor) with the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, where he has taught courses in American politics on three different occasions in recent years. When in China, Jim has also been invited to give lectures at major universities throughout China, including at Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou and Northwestern (Xian) universities.

Jim is the author or co-author of seven books, including Illinois Politics (University of Illinois
Press, 2010) and Fixing Illinois (U. of I. Press, 2015). Jim recently completed a four-year term as member, then chair, of the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. 

For the past decade, Jim has written a periodic column on “Understanding Illinois” which is distributed to the 400 newspaper members of the Illinois Press Association.

Illinois Politics on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Illinois-Politics-Citizens-James-Nowlan/dp/0252077024/ref=sr_1_2?crid=UD9Z2IQ3DX45&dchild=1&keywords=james+nowlan&qid=1635950897&s=books&sprefix=james+nowlan%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-2

Fixing Illinois Politics on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Illinois-Politics-Policy-Prairie/dp/0252079965/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&qid=1635950918&refinements=p_27%3AJames+D.+Nowlan&s=books&sr=1-3&text=James+D.+Nowlan

Bill Houlihan recently retired as Illinois Senator Dick Durbin's Chief of Staff, where he served for 25 years. He has spent his life in public service and has more institutional knowledge of Illinois politics than anyone I have ever met. Learn about his prolific life and time working at the highest levels of politics.

Bill Houlihan's Campaign Site for the Illinois State Central Committee: https://www.billhoulihan18.com/about-bill

Sangamon County Democrats Webpage (Bill currently serves as Party Chair): https://www.sangamondemocrats.com/

Senator Dick Durbin's Government Page: https://www.durbin.senate.gov/

Senator Dick Durbin's Campaign Page: https://www.durbinforsenate.com/