Bridge Alliance is a left-leaning coalition of over one hundred member organizations. These organizations are expected to adhere to Bridge Alliance’s membership principles,^[1] which focus on bridging the divide in partisan politics in order to “transform the political process.” ^[2]

Bridge Alliance asserts that “An organization’s membership in the Bridge Alliance is an endorsement of the Four Principles and a statement of intent to uphold them. It does not constitute an endorsement of the activities of any individual member organization by the Bridge Alliance or its other members.” ^[3] These four principles are “collaboration,” “citizen voice,” “solutions-focused,” and “open-mindedness.” ^[4]

Member Organizations

Bridge Alliance supports a number of left-of-center approaches to election policy and campaign speech regulation, and a number of its members involved in the “Addressing money and corruption in politics” and “strengthening integrity in voting campaigns and elections” efforts take left-wing approaches to these issues. Member organizations^[5] involved in these campaigns include Stand Up Republic, a supposedly conservative organization substantially funded by liberal eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar;^[6] major liberal campaign speech restriction groups Issue One and Represent.Us; FairVote, which campaigns for liberal-backed voting procedure changes; Election Reformers Network, a voter reform advocacy group pushing for electoral system changes ^[7]; Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group aligned with liberal organizations like the Open Society Foundations;^[8] and Young Invincibles, a liberal group involved in selling the Obamacare health insurance law to young people. ^[9]

Other notable liberal groups that are members of Bridge Alliance include the Student PIRGs network of left-wing campus advocacy groups, the liberal business group American Sustainable Business Council, and Coffee Party USA; other ostensibly right-leaning groups that have supported liberal policies include R Street Institute, which has supported liberal environmentalist priorities, and Take Back Our Republic, which supports liberal-backed campaign speech restrictions. ^[10]

Unite America, a left-of-center PAC that advocates for changes to America’s congressional redistricting process, ranked choice voting, open primaries, and expanded vote-by-mail systems, is a member of the Bridge Alliance. ^[11][12] The PAC claims to support candidates in both parties and non-partisan legislative campaigns. ^[13]

Education Fund

The Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the non-profit 501(c)(3) arm of Bridge Alliance, makes grants to Bridge Alliance members, including AllSides, Essential Partners, and the Listen First Project. ^[14] The Fund is also a major donor to The Fulcrum, a digital news organization that claims to be bi-partisan, despite receiving other major funding from liberal organizations such as the Hewlett Foundation, Arnold Ventures, the Gaia Fund, and the Lizzie and Jonathan M. Tisch Foundation. ^[15]

People

Brian Clancy is an Investor and Strategic Advisor at Bridge Alliance. Clancy is the founder and CEO of Big Tent Nation, and a co-founder of the Center for Financial Inclusion. ^[16]

Caroline Klibanoff works in Digital Strategy, and formerly worked for the left-leaning Pew Research Center, the FrameWorks Institute, and Big Tent Nation. ^[17]

David Nevins is the President and co-founder of Bridge Alliance. He is a fellow at the Aspen Institute and founder of the Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. ^[18]

Debilyn Molineaux is the Executive Director and co-founder of Bridge Alliance. Molineaux is a managing partner of Living Room Conversations and is the former President and Executive Director of Coffee Party USA. ^[19]

Jeremy Garson serves as Legal Counsel and Director of Operations. Garson formerly served as a labor union attorney, working for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and the United Auto Workers (UAW). ^[20]

Board of Directors

Carolyn Lukensmeyer is a former Democratic Party operative and the executive director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and the founder and former president of the now defunct AmericaSpeaks. Lukensmeyer is a former consultant to Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste (D) and to the White House Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House. ^[21][22]

Doug Nickle serves as Director of Development, is the founder and past president of Make California Count, an organization pushing for changes to the Electoral College, and is the founder and former Executive Director of Dare To Be United. ^[23] A former professional baseball pitcher, Nickle has also worked with Take Back Our Republic as part of its campaign finance reform team. ^[24]

Joan Blades is a founding partner of Living Room Conversations, and co-founder of the liberal groups MomsRising.org, and MoveOn.org. ^[25]

John Pudner is the Executive Director of Take Back Our Republic. Pudner has managed political campaigns for nearly thirty years, and gave testimony that influenced the Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision that gives voters the right to know who finances political ads on Facebook. ^[26]

John Steiner is a consultant for Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, and was a founding member of Threshold Foundation, Social Venture Network, and Search for Common Ground. Steiner serves on the board of Mediators Foundation. ^[27]

Other members of the board include Bill Shireman, Brian Clancy, and Rev. F. Willis Johnson.

Strategic Partners

Bridge Alliance partners with the following groups to increase its impact, as most of these groups come with their own built-in network of organizations. It is worth noting that these organizations do not meet the requirements to become actual members of Bridge Alliance. ^[28]

• Alliance for Peacebuilding
• Congressional Management Foundation
• National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers (NANR)
• Tisch College Of Civic Life At Tufts University