Clark for President Oklahoma Leadership
Oklahoma City Headquarters: 816 N. Broadway
Tulsa Headquarters: 1422 S. Peoria
| Oklahoma
State Director |
Jessica Vanden Berg |
Served as Iowa State
Director
of the Bob Graham for President campaign from May 2003 until Graham
quit
the race in October. Vanden Berg came to the Graham campaign from
her position as caucus director for the Iowa Democratic Party. In
2002 she worked as the deputy director of the IDP's 2002 Coordinated
Campaign.
She served as Rep. Leonard Boswell's communications director after
managing
his successful re-election campaign in 2000. From Pella,
Iowa.
She graduated from Central College with a degree in Political Science.
| Deputy
State Director |
Mike Bocchini |
Immediately before
coming to
Oklahoma, Bocchini worked for Sen. Bob Graham’s presidential campaign
in
Iowa. In 2002, he worked Iowa’s 4th Congressional District for
the
Iowa Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign and later organized for
Mary
Landrieu in the U.S. Senate runoff in Louisiana. Bocchini
organized
for the 2001 Virginia Coordinated Campaign in Richmond. In 2000,
he was a finance staffer for Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), as well as a
volunteer
in New Hampshire for Bill Bradley. Bocchini grew up in
Connecticut
and graduated from George Washington University.
| Political
Director |
Austin Bond |
During the 2000
presidential
election, Bond was a member of Vice President Al Gore's Advance and
Traveling
staff. He has also worked in the U.S. Senate. Bond is a
Tulsa
native who graduated from Bishop Kelley High School and earned a BA in
Philosophy and Russian from the University of Oklahoma. His
parents
are Patterson Bond, a labor and employment attorney, and Dr. Leslie
Bond,
a clinical psychologist.
| Field
Director |
Elizabeth Goltry |
Prior to working for
the Clark
campaign, Goltry worked for the Virginia Groundforce Project, Bob
Graham
for President, the League of Conservation Voters, the National
Association
of Letter Carriers, and the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association.
She is a former board member of WIN (Women's Information Network) in
Washington,
DC. Goltry's Oklahoma roots date back to 1900. The town of
Goltry (Alfalfa County), founded in 1903, was named in honor of the
family.
Her late grandmother, Mary Virginia Scott Goltry was born in Ft. Cobb
(Caddo
County), grew up near Verden (Grady County), and was a graduate of the
Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha. Her late grandfather,
H.J.
Goltry, was born in Marietta (Love County) and grew up near Amber
(Grady
County). Goltry grew up in Wichita, Kan., and graduated from the
College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Regional Coordinator, 1st
Congressional
District – Gerry Kappers
Kappers is active in
community
outreach in the Tulsa area and has worked in Information Technology for
a local non-profit. She graduated from Oral Roberts University with a
BS
in Management Information Systems.
Regional coordinator, 2nd
Congressional
District – Daniel Nichols
Before officially
joining the
campaign Nichols worked to build a base of support for the Draft Clark
Movement in San Antonio. He also worked for the San Antonio
Democratic
Party. Nichols graduated high school in San Antonio and played
football
for Texas Christian University his first two years of college. He
later transferred to the University of Texas and graduated with a BA in
Economics and History. Nichols' family has roots in Oklahoma. His
family has held a land grant in Caddo, Okla., since the early
1900s.
His great-great-grandparents are Frank Pitchlynn Semple and Helen
Hibbard.
Helen attended the Presbyterian School for Boys and Girls (later to be
merged into the Oklahoma Presbyterian College for Girls) in
Durant.
Frank was a successful banker, farmer, and merchant. Frank and Helen's
eldest daughter Alta was born in Caddo and educated at the Oklahoma
Presbyterian
College for Girls. Frank's brother Will was chief of the Choctaw
from 1918-22.
Regional Coordinator, 3rd
Congressional
District – Brian Andrews
Andrews was a
management consultant
before joining the campaign. In 2000 he worked on Sen. Bill
Bradley's
presidential campaign, and in 2003 he worked on the Coordinated
Campaign
in New Jersey to return control of the State Senate to Democrats.
Andrews grew up in rural New Jersey. He received his college
degree
from Pomona College in California where he majored in Politics,
Philosophy
and Economics with a minor in U.S. History.
Regional Coordinator, 4th
Congressional
District – Matt Helfant
Immediately prior to
joining
the Clark campaign in Oklahoma, Helfant was a field organizer in Iowa
for
Sen. Bob Graham’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Helfant
also worked on local political issues in Washington, D.C. Helfant grew
up in South Florida and earned a BA in History and Political Science
from
the University of Central Florida.
Regional Coordinator, 5th
Congressional
District – Basil Tilmon
Prior to joining the
campaign,
Tilmon worked in his native Louisiana for the state Democratic Party in
the recently completed Coordinated Campaign where the Democratic Party
swept all but one state-wide office and elected the first female
Governor
of Louisiana Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. Tilmon graduated
valedictorian
in from Queen City High School, Queen City, Tex., and earned a BA in
Government
from the University of Texas.
| Communications
Director |
Heather Ann Hope |
Before joining the
campaign,
Hope spent 10 years as a print and broadcast journalist in Washington,
D.C., and New York City. She is a former board member of the
National
Press Club in Washington. She has also done non-profit and
political
marketing/communications consulting. Hope is a Tulsa native who
graduated
from Bishop Kelley High School and earned a BA in Journalism from the
University
of Oklahoma. Her parents are retired American Airlines avionics
engineer
Martin R. Hope and local writer Margaret Hope.
| Minority
Outreach Coordinator |
Larry Freeman |
Freeman is a
long-time political
operative who has experience on campaigns for national and local
political
office as well as issue advocacy. He has done grassroots
organizing
in Arkansas, Georgia and Washington, DC. Freeman holds a BA in
Criminal
Justice and Regulatory Science from the University of Arkansas, Pine
Bluff
and an MA in Political Science, American Politics and International
Policy
from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
| Oklahoma
City Volunteer
Contact Coordinator |
Yunetta Hedgepeth |
Hedgepeth is an
Oklahoma City
native who spent her career in Washington, D.C., working for the
General
Services Administration in an office next door to the White House. She
has been traveling since her 1995 retirement.
| Tulsa
Headquarters Office
Manager |
Patti Basnett |
Basnett was the
Volunteer Director
in 2002 for Doug Dodd's campaigns (special election and general
election)
to represent the 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House.
Basnett
grew up in the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandle and later lived in Illinois
were
she graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill.
After
moving to Tulsa, Basnett earned her law degree from the University of
Tulsa.
Basnett represented the poor and elderly through Legal Services of
Eastern
Oklahoma for 17 years and has been in private practice since 1996.
| Tulsa
Volunteer Contact
Coordinator |
David Soloway |
Soloway worked for
Rep. Jose
Serrano, D-N.Y., in his Washington, D.C., office. He has also worked
for
former President Bill Clinton in his New York City office.
Soloway
grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Columbia University with a
degree
in English and Economics.
-Susan
Vineyard served as volunteer webmaster of the Oklahomans for Clark
website.
-Former
State Senate Majority Leader Darryl Roberts, a Vietnam veteran, headed
Clark's efforts to turn out the veterans' vote.
Endorsements
On January 7, 2004 the campaign announced 11
initial
endorsements:
Sen. Penny Williams
- District
39, central and north Tulsa
Sen. Jim Maddox -
District
32, Lawton and the Army Base at Ft. Sill.
Rep. James E. Covey,
District
51, Custer City
Rep. Danny Morgan,
District
32, Prague
Tulsa County
Commissioner
Wilber Collins
Oklahoma County
Commissioner
Jim Roth
Fmr. Rep. Don
McCorkle,
Tulsa
Fmr. Rep. and Corp.
Commissioner
Jim Townsend, Shawnee
Fmr. Corporation
Commissioner
John Orr, Oklahoma City
Fmr. Gubernatorial
Candidate
Vince Orza, Oklahoma City
Fmr. 1st U.S.
Congressional
District Nominee Kurt Glasco, Tulsa
Also
Native
American Times (12/30/03)
"the
largest independently owned Native American Newspaper in the United
States"
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Norman
Transcript (02/01/04)
Lawton
Constitution (02/01/04)
McAlester
News-Capital & Democrat (02/02/04)
Six-day
per week, 10,500 daily ...a Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
paper.
Muskogee
Daily Phoenix
...a Gannett paper.
|