WEBVTT - Inside the States Project with Daniel Squadron and Melissa Walker 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:05.440 This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:10.840 Thing from iHeart Radio. My guests today are a former 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:15.000 New York state senator and a former journalist who now 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:19.919 work together on a civic engagement initiative called The States Project. 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:25.760 Daniel's Squadron previously represented New York's twenty fifth and twenty 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.880 sixth districts as a state senator from two thousand and 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:33.559 eight to twenty seventeen. After nine years in public service, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:38.360 Squadron resigned his office and helped launch the political initiative 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.240 future now currently known as the States Project, with entrepreneur 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.920 Adam Pritzker. Melissa Walker was formerly a magazine editor and journalist, 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.239 published in countless magazines ranging from teen Vogue to The 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:58.440 New York Observer. She has also authored ten young adult novels. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.959 Walker currently served as the principal strategist for the States Projects, 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:09.000 giving circles. Being New Yorkers who are immersed in democratic politics, 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.560 I was eager to hear their reactions to the recent 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.199 mayoral election here in New York City. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.559 So I do think that a mayor's race that more 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.920 New Yorker's participated in than any time since John Lindsay 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.280 is good news. I am partial to state lawmakers being 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.440 elected to high and important offices. So this idea that 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.479 mom Dannie has never had a real job is incorrect. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.840 State Assembly member is a real job. No one has 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.760 had a job that prepares them for mayor. I don't 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:42.800 know if you know what Borough presidents do nowadays, but 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.440 like you know or public advocates which I ran for, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.320 you know, these are not jobs of enormous managerial complexity. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.960 I think, as someone who loves New York, being optimistic 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.800 and hoping for and trying to support his success is 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.080 what we should all do. He has a vision that 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.120 is responsive to the thing that is killing New York, 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:09.440 which is affordability and liveability, and we should be all 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:14.880 hands on deck for him to overperform the skeptics and 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.160 deliver the most ambitious possible parts of what he can. 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.000 I really leaned into what my younger self would think. 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.760 I thought about myself in my twenties, and I thought 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:27.720 about all these people who were out in the streets. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.400 I got canvassed three times in Brooklyn by people in 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:37.080 their twenties, and seeing that made me feel energized, and 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.239 I leaned into the kind of hope I would have 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:40.760 had in my twenties, and I know I would have 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.480 been out there canvassing, and that kind of helped me 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.960 get over some of my own skepticism and get into 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.560 that place of energized excitement. 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.160 I wonder what you think about that one percent thing, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.320 whether more of them are going to leave the one 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.600 percent that's paying the forty percent of the tax base 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.560 in New York? Is that? Where were you when New 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.000 York are strapped for cash? Now? 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.600 I think the race to the bottom on public financing 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.040 over the last forty years is a real problem. You know, 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.440 where you have these states that are basically using low 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:15.240 taxes and bad services as a recruitment tool. And in 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.680 New York, we need to be bringing young professionals, young 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.440 artists in and then having them choose to stay for 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:29.160 forty six years four forty six years ago, housing schools, liveability. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.799 And if New York has that engine, despite the fact 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.560 that people can now work remotely, New York does great. 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.680 If New York is a place where a tiny portion 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.520 of the one percent or choosing whether or not to 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.600 move to Florida, and that's the only chance for its 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.320 vibrancy and success New York's done anyway. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.120 You worked in the legislature for ten years, and when 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.840 you left you questioned that you had your quote I 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.720 have here about the corruption. I believe in state government's potential. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.920 I still do, but over the years I have seen 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.880 thwarted by a sliver of heavily invested special interests. In 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.720 the State Senate, for example, Democrats have repeatedly been denied 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.800 control of the chamber by cynical political deals despite winning 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.480 an electoral majority. How is that? How were they repeatedly 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:15.800 didn't what denied it to them? 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:17.679 And the political nature. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.400 Speaking of misdemeanors and felonies, I would consider this one 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:25.080 a political felony, obviously not criminal. But a group of Democrats, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.920 starting in twenty ten, announcing on the same day as 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.320 Andrew Cuomo's first State of the State address, left the 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.800 Democratic Party group of Democrats and gave Republicans the majority. Now, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.559 in twenty ten, Republicans already had a majority by one seat. 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.600 But what they did is they gave them a cushion. 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.520 In twenty twelve, they gave them the majority, and they 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.560 stayed with them year in and year out. 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.080 What was the name of those Democrats again? 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:53.120 Independent Democratic Conference, which was missnomer on every one of 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.480 those words. Nothing independent. They were with the Republicans. They 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.440 weren't Democrats, they were the Republicans. They weren't a conference. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.120 They were just a people, a lot of conferring. And 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.680 the really shocking thing, though, is this was done with 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.719 no political accountability. For eight years, from twenty ten to 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:11.520 twenty eighteen, this was happening. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.000 And Cuomo did nothing to dissuade them. 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.920 Well, there's certainly speculation that he did things to influence them. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.919 I'd say this, Andrew Cuomo is known to care about control. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.360 And they announced on the day of his first date 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.080 of the State address, and they lived to tell the tale. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:30.440 But he never did anything publicly to change them. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:30.880 Right. 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.880 I only asked that because when the Moralmit Commission came 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:38.039 and went, I was flabbergasted, because I remember that the 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.800 Brennan Center at NYU Law School they would do a 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.359 report every year, and one year the report they there 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.800 was an evaluation of the fifty state legislatures in the 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.000 United States, and New York was forty ninth, just above 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.880 Louisiana in terms of its transparency and effectiveness and integrity. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.320 So I mean I'm someone who's grown up in New York, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:57.720 my whole life in New York State. I grew up 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.400 on Long Island. I've been in the city since seventy nine. 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:05.400 And you know you have a tough, jolegist view of Obany. 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:06.599 Well, this is why I ran. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.919 You know, I'd say tough, but not cynical. You know, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:11.920 it was right just a couple years after that report 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.159 that I ran. I ran against a thirty year incumbent, 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.400 a guy who had been the leader of the Democrats. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.719 He'd been ousted by David Patterson on his way to 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.239 become governor. I was twenty eight years old at the time, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:23.800 and you know, everyone said to me, this is the 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.240 worst place in politics, and I said, that's exactly what's. 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.000 Appealing about it. A couple things. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.720 One, you can't underperform expectations, sort of the opposite of 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.440 what our mayor elect has. He's got very high expectations 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:39.359 to perform against. But secondly, if you can just improve 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 it nominally, the impact in the state and people's lives 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.800 will be so dramatic. And you know, we saw that 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.240 the moments of greatest competence were unbelievable. My first years 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.719 in office, two thousand and nine and ten, there's a 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:55.960 huge amount of stimulus money to deal with the financial 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.200 crisis from the federal government, and I chaired the Social 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:01.839 Service Committee, were able to create a billion dollars in 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.800 new social services programs, all of which were tested for 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.920 their effectiveness and some of which still continue today. And 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:13.120 Riquomo deserves credit for in twenty elevens, for six months, 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.920 you know, pulling a political rabbit out of the hat 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.040 and getting marriage equality passed in New York with Republicans 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.360 having the Numerican majority and the additional majority with those 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:29.920 turncoat Democrats. When state government rises above its most dysfunctional instincts, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:31.800 the outcomes are unbelievable. 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.720 Now, you had a long career in magazines and publishing, 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:38.720 I did, yes, and you did that for how many 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.160 years were you in that business? Twenty oh No, probably 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:43.200 more like ten. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.120 I started my career in magazines at Rosy Magazine, Rosi 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:48.120 o'donald's magazine. 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.560 How was that? Someone? Was it? That was formerly McCalls. 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:51.880 It was formerly McCalls. 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.480 How does Rosi o'donald take over McCall's. What does that work? Well? 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.240 Oprah magazine launched with Hurst and then Gruner and Yar, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.760 which was the publisher company that owned McCall's, was kind 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.640 of looking for a way to jazz it up a bit, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:06.920 and Rosie O'Donnell on the cover had sold the most 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.880 issues anytime she was on the cover. It was just phenomenal. 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.520 Her talk show was on, and so eventually they made 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:15.440 a deal with her to take over the magazine and 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.360 make it hers, and then she was on every cover 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.000 after that, And that was where I had my first job. 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.680 And when you just started to leave the public, I 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:29.640 just this is great as written for publications such as Seventeen, Glamour, Teen, Vogue, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:35.720 Self More, Cosmo, Girl, Red Book, Family Circle, Fitness, Parenting, Brides, 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.360 The New York Observer, New York Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.240 Life and Style. I'm like, what base didn't you touch 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.160 going around the bags there? What's the difference. What's the 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.120 difference running for women's magazine on men's magazine in terms 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:49.560 of your writing skills? 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.560 You know, I think I wrote a lot about lifestyle things, 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.760 and I wrote a lot about psychology. I mean, I 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.160 was really mining my own experiences women in their twenties, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.280 and honestly, back then, magazines really didn't write about women 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.520 much older than their twenties and thirties. I remember asking 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:10.920 my colleagues like, where do all the forty year olds go? 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.520 Because it felt like there wasn't a voice for them 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.760 until there were some older women's magazines created, like More. 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.120 But back then, it really was what experiences were we living. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.320 It was dating, it was psychology, it was all the 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.120 things that we were experiencing. First jobs, job changing, all 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.640 that stuff. But I really found my voice in teen magazines. 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:31.200 I don't know why. 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:32.079 Well, I don't know. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.079 If my internal dialogue was always set somewhere around seventeen, 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.280 but when I started working at a teen magazine, that's 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.200 when I started realizing, like, oh, this is my audience, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:42.920 this is who I want to talk to. I think 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.160 it's partly because teenagers are fans. They're just fans of 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.160 what they're reading, about, what they're into. They're so enthusiastic 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:50.959 about life. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:52.200 When they like something, they. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.199 Like it absolutely. I loved that energy, and that's really 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.320 why I started writing young adult novels too, because there's 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.160 such a universal experience when you're a teenager, and the 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.000 irony is that every teenager thinks no one has ever 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:07.200 felt this way before. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.640 I alone, I don't know this. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.200 And feel this way. And the truth is everybody's felt 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.560 that way before. So there's a lot to write about 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.920 and a lot to mine, and a lot of deep 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:19.560 caring among that audience. 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.560 Now, what happened? What year are we talking about when 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.320 you transition. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.160 Over to politics as well? Really, in the fall of 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.800 twenty sixteen, you know, something happened. Donald Trump was elected 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.880 for the first time. And back then I was just 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.120 writing young adult novels and middle grade novels, so getting 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.200 even younger with my writing. And I realized that I 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.080 hadn't been involved in the democracy and that something had 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.319 happened that I couldn't believe. And so I spent the 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.920 month after Donald Trump was elected kind of looking for 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.839 ways to plug in and do something that was meaningful, 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.240 and I couldn't find any. I was casting about, I 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.600 was sending you know, I was making those five calls 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.160 a day, I was sending notes to Schumer. I was 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.640 doing all these things, but I couldn't figure out no. No, 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.400 I was just writing as a constituent. I was saying, 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.880 please help with this, How can I do this? Whare 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:14.679 well the form letters? 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:15.040 You know? 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.280 But it all felt a little bit like you know, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.200 peering in windows at rooms I couldn't quite see, and 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.160 I could not figure out how to insert myself into 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.840 the democracy in a way that would help until I 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.600 went to a publishing holiday party in December of twenty 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.320 sixteen in Brooklyn Heights and I heard Daniel speak. 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.720 So he was the bait. The ideas were the bait. 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.520 Yeah, the ideas and a little bit of a challenge 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.319 which he is wont to throw around. I think sometimes, 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.520 you know, he really He started talking about state governments. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.440 He started talking about how everything we care about is 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:51.400 decided in state capitals, not in Washington, d C. He 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.920 was talking about education, funding, environmental policy, healthcare, civil rights, 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.520 voting rights, abortion even back then, jerrymandering, all of those things. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.520 And he connected the dots for a bunch of things 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.320 that hadn't made sense to me from the Obama years, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.000 like the bathroom bills passing all over the country, starting 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.839 with Raleigh, and the standard ground gun laws starting in Tallahassee, 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.120 letting Traymon Martin's murder go free, then starting a spreading 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.880 to twenty six states. I started to realize, like, these 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.760 things are happening in state capitals. I don't know the 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.120 names of those lawmakers. There are fifty many congresses around 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.520 this country, and I haven't been paying attention to any 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.160 of them, not even my own. The night after I 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.720 heard him speak, I googled who is my state Senator 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:34.720 on the way home and figured out that I had 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.040 never heard of my state senator. I'd had no eyes 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.200 on Albany at all. But I thought of myself as 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.760 a pretty well informed person, so I realized this was 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:43.280 a place I could plug. 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.320 In going to this meeting with him. You went to 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.320 a meeting of future now. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.920 No, you know what it was. It was a publishing 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.800 holiday party. It was a party that happened every year. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:54.360 It was like one of the best parties of the year, 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.040 this big brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. And I thought I 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.200 was just going to the party, but we were all 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.120 feeling pretty down because, yes, because of Trump, the. 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:05.439 State project hadn't been launched. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:05.640 I was. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.040 I was just the local state senator at that time 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.760 who had been invited to speak at a holiday party. 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.120 Then won't you speak about what? 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.040 Well? That was a good question. 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:16.800 That was what they wanted, because you know, I was 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.880 in office nine years and no other point was ever 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.880 invited to anyone's holiday party as the politician to speak. 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:24.439 There were times I was asked not to come to 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.199 people's holiday parties for fear I would speak about politics 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.320 and so the But you know, the invitation actually happened 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.280 to be my son's third birthday. Was my wife's friend's 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.520 friend who invited me, who's actually a wonderfully successful novelist. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.200 And I didn't really want to go at eight o'clock 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.440 after putting my three year old to bed on his birthday. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.959 But I also figured, you know, I'm a stage senator. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.400 Beggars can't be choosers here. They want to hear me. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.920 I'm going to go. I'm going to do my thing. 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.160 No one's going to listen. And so I went, and 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.880 I basically said, you know, if you feel like you're 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.000 not meeting the moment, that's correct. If you feel like 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.760 you're an observer to the destruction of the democracy, that's right. 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:07.520 There is a thing you. 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:09.400 Could do good with a cheery holiday message. 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.960 And if the people in this room committed themselves for 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.240 a year to changing the direction of a state, they could. 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.760 It often costs less to change power in a state 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.720 legislature than a single congressional district. And then I said, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.320 you know, and you know, I hope you'll do it. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.120 If you really, we can save this country. You are 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.000 a part of it, but you need to choose to 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.720 be strategic and to look where your impact will be, 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.840 not where your glamour is. Then I stopped speaking. There's 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.160 a jazz Era microphone there. The jazz band starts coming up, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.320 and I figured I'll do one loop around the room. 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.240 Maybe there's some constituents here, maybe someone will thank me 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.960 for the recent traffic light. And Melissa and another young 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.880 adult author stop me, and her friend Gail Foreman, says. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:52.560 We can do it. 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:53.640 What can you do? 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.520 I kind of try to move away. Melissa blocks the 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.280 other side and say no, we're going to raise one 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.120 hundred thousand dollars and what do we do next? And 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.560 I said, you know what, here's my email. Email me 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.400 if you're still interested in this. On Monday, and I 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.040 decided not to do a walk through of the party, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.120 I turned around and went home. I actually went home, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.520 turned on Saturday Night Live and you were the cold 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.720 open playing Donald Trump doing a social media I just 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.440 got to eat doing a social media gambit, And I 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.640 thought to myself. I actually remember, I thought to myself, like, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.200 now that's how people engage politics, this state legislative thing. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.440 Never Yeah, Now describe for me. I'll ask you this question, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.160 and we're both of you, but you first, Melissa, and 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.640 that is so future. Now describe what that was and 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.560 over what period of time does it morph into states? 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.640 Honestly from my journey, you know, I started what we 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.680 started to call a giving circle with a bunch of 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.600 other children's book authors and we decided that we would 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.560 try to focus on a state, just like Daniel had 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.520 said we wouldn't do. And when we had amassed a 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.880 bunch of pledges together, we called them back and said 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.960 we're ready to do this. We've got pledges, we just 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:57.760 need your guidance on where to go and how to 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.600 do this. And he said, okay, well not a minute, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.280 and a bunch of other things happened too, including you 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.760 met Adam Pritzker, and that summer Daniel resigned from the 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.560 State Senate to start Future Now, which is now the 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:15.200 State's Project, and start focusing on state legislatures, and we 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.400 became the first giving circle to support the electoral work 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.240 of the States Project. So that was fall twenty seventeen 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:23.239 was giving. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.640 Circle for my listeners is just it's just fundraising. 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.960 Yeah, it's a group of people coming together. It's actually fundraising, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.800 but it's also a lot of learning. None of us 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.600 had any idea about state legislatures grams you can learn. Yeah, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.480 once we started getting together and learning about, you know, 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.360 how much power they had and how you know, from 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.000 twenty ten to twenty sixteen, Democrats had lost nearly a 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.560 thousand state legislative seats as Carl Rove and Project Red 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.680 Map got into action and flipped all those seats and 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.400 then took over state houses and state senates and really 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.320 made people's lives bad. Defunded education, put in right to 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.160 work laws, gutted environmental protections, and most people blame what 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.920 they can see and the spotlight stays on Washington, DC, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.919 the President and maybe Congress. So once people started seeing that, 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:09.959 light bulbs went off in their heads and they were 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.359 ready to say, yeah, i'll give an annual donation for this. 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.080 This seems like something I can actually impact. And that's 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.879 how we started our giving circle, learning together and giving together. 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:20.879 How about you when you started future Now, what was 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:21.280 the goal? 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.360 So I can't tell you how surprised I was that 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.040 they took me up on the challenge. I wasn't being cute. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.639 I really thought no one had. Probably I'd made a 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.320 similar speech one hundred times before, and it really changed me. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.080 I could not stop talking about it. In this moment 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.679 with Trump, maybe people will finally be willing to be 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.159 strategic and focused till everyone I knew about it. Adam 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.720 Pritzker was selling his first business. He knew two people 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:49.280 in New York politics, and they both said, well, you 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.560 want to do something really interesting. He's a very interesting thinker, 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:53.560 wander something interesting. You should meet this guy who's got 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.399 this strange obsession with giving circles for state legislatures and 0:17:57.560 --> 0:17:59.360 kind of want to do something in Virginia this year. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.280 Virginia's your elections. So Adam and I met, and to 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.440 my shock, he said, this is great. Like I don't 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.119 want to go just do something. I said, you know 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.199 you're not going to get credit for it because it's 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:09.880 state legislators. 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:10.440 Said I know, but. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.720 It's really this is he was seed money. 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.680 Lots smart. He said, let's do it together. I'll make 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.040 it possible. I'll see it. You have to resign to 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.200 do it full time, and let's partner up and let's 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:21.720 see how we can. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.080 Prime to resign by then. Any Way, according to your 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.160 remarks about Albany. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.480 Look, I was certainly extremely frustrated with how much a 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:34.640 single politician could do to change the system, especially as 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.400 it felt like the democracy was starting to crumble. Now, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.720 my district was the greatest district on earth. It was 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.560 Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. You know, I had 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.680 the Statue of Liberty Allis Island, both sides of the 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.159 Brooklyn Bridge World Trade Center site. You tight in New 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.239 York City into a map, it Pushban came down right 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.440 in the middle of that district. I was never tired 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.439 of that district. But there are two things. As an 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.520 elected official, your best job is to take what comes 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.560 and try to make good decisions, try to improve it 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.040 on the margins, or to serve your constituents and what 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.080 they need. That was an incredible way to spend ten years. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.560 But this is a systems problem. This lack of attention 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.280 to state legislature is their potential to either be a 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.840 source to destroy the democracy or improve it. And when 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.800 Adam and Melissa and her first giving circle together made 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.520 it possible to do something that really also wasn't partisan. 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:22.879 The other thing that was important to Adam is this 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.040 is not about party. Obviously, you need to choose in 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.679 a two party system in each election who's better. But 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.640 it's about these outcomes in the world that you talk 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.439 about that when you really look at it on paper, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.560 States can deliver and no one's trying except for the 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.360 radical right, who was, by the way, doing a damn 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:42.080 good job of it. 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:50.160 Daniel's Squadron and Melissa Walker of the States Project. If 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.240 you enjoy conversations about New York City history and preservation, 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.720 check out my episode with Rob Snyder of The Island 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.000 Institute and Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:03.480 Historic Preservation. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.320