• Leftist think tank and advocacy organization
• Says that "conservatives in Washington" aim to promote a "governing agenda" that has "taken a sharp turn to the reckless right
• Endorses the Global Poverty Act
• Says that Democrats must reach out to Hispanis, a key and rapidly growing demographic

Founded by Democrat Party operative Simon Rosenberg, the New Democrat Network (NDN) describes itself as a "progressive think tank and advocacy organization."

According to NDN, "conservatives in Washington" aim to promote a "governing agenda" that has "taken a sharp turn to the reckless right, offering an economic strategy ill-suited for the challenges we face, a foreign policy too belligerent and too ineffective, and a style of governing too arrogant and corrupt for our proud democracy." To counter that agenda, NDN seeks to:

• "restore … genuine progressivity in the tax code" by imposing higher tax rates on higher income-earners;
  
  
• "enact a new national energy strategy" that will feature a "low-carbon economy" emphasizing "the rollout of solar energy" as an alternative to petroleum;
  
  
• raise the minimum wage;
  
  
• "implement a comprehensive homeland security strategy" while "fight[ing] to protect the civil liberties [of] all Americans";
  
  
• "improve[e] the nation's [public] schools" by means of "additional resources";
  
  
• increase government funding for college tuition;
  
  
• "increase access to quality and affordable healthcare" by placing the federal government in charge of the American healthcare system;
  
  
• "increase investment in infrastructure"; and
  
  
• "combat global warming"

NDN also endorses the Global Poverty Act (GPA), which, if signed into law, would compel the U.S. to develop "and implement" a policy to "cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief," and other means. According to a February 2008 report by Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid, the adoption of the GPA could "result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States" and would make levels "of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations." Kincaid stated that the legislation would earmark some 0.7 percent of America's gross national product to foreign aid, which over a 13-year period would amount to roughly $845 billion "over and above what the U.S. already spends."

To educate the American public on economic issues of import, NDN periodically sponsors events called Bernard Schwartz Forums on Economic Policy, named after a lifelong Democrat and one of the party's leading donors. In May 2008, one such forum featured Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, speaking about the U.S. economy.

In NDN's calculus, the long-term success of the Democratic Party will depend on the party's ability to "master the new media and technology tools that are changing the way we all communicate and advocate." Toward this end, NDN has devised "a groundbreaking plan to ensure that all American workers have real opportunities to build the skills necessary to operate one of the most important technologies of our time, computers." "Congress," says NDN, "could provide every worker in America access to [Internet Technology] training for about $125 million a year." NDN's plan would consist of "federal grants to U.S. community colleges to provide all American workers free access to Internet and computer training."

Another key to Democrat success, says NDN, will be the party's ability to "understand and speak to the radically new demographic make-up of today's America." Specifically, NDN notes the rise of Hispanics as the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. "The emergence of a new, highly energized and pro-Democratic Hispanic electorate could have an enormous impact" on future political elections in the U.S., says NDN, especially "in key battleground states."

NDN pragmatically advises Democrats to curry favor with Hispanics by supporting policies that would provide a "path to citizenship" for all illegal aliens currently residing in the United States. This course of action, NDN explains, would be consistent with the wishes of most Americans. A December 2007 NDN report claimed that according to polling data, "A majority of Americans are willing to grant citizenship to the 11-12 [million]undocumenteds [sic] already here."

NDN minimizes the significance of illegal immigration as an issue of concern to the American people: "Immigration, while an important issue, ranks far below other more pressing concerns -- health care, the war, the economy, sometimes education."

Above all, NDN exhorts Democrats to distance themselves from what it calls the Republican Party's "harsh rhetoric" and "demonization of immigrants," by which the party supposedly has "alienate[d] the fastest growing part of the American electorate" and "driven many Hispanics to the Democrats."

NDN President Simon Rosenberg contends that immigration's influence on U.S. politics will be augmented further in the immediate future "by the extraordinary level of political participation of Millennials [people born between 1977 and 1995], the largest generation in American history, whose life experiences and values are much more Obama than Nixon." Rosenberg points out that Millennials tend, significantly more than their elders, to hold opinions that are consistent with those of the Democratic Party. Predicting "a permanent shift in the ideological orientation of the country," Rosenberg says: "The election of 2006 may well have marked the end of the conservative ascendancy that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980."

NDN is closely affiliated with the New Politics Institute, a leftist think tank dedicated to studying changes in voter demographics and the technologies by which potential voters may be recruited and influenced.

Some of NDN's key officials include:

• Joseph J. Andrew (Chairman of the NDN Legal Board): Mr. Andrew is a corporate attorney who served as National Chair of the Democratic National Committee from February 1999 to February 2001.
  
  
• Dr. Robert J. Shapiro (Chair of the NDN Globalization Initiative): In 1991-92, Shapiro was the principal economic advisor to then-Governor Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Shapiro went on to become U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in the Clinton administration, from 1997 to 2001. He would also serve as senior economic advisor to Al Gore and John Kerry in their presidential campaigns of 2000 and 2004, respectively. Moreover, Shapiro's resume includes stints as Legislative Director for former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Associate Editor of U.S. News & World Report, economic columnist for Slate, Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute and the Progressive Foundation (both of which he co-founded).
  
  
• Andres Ramirez (Vice President of NDN's Hispanic Programs): The former Outreach Director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, Ramirez served as a political organizer (to mobilize Latino voters) in U.S. Senator Harry Reid's 1998 re-election campaign.
  
  
• Melissa Merz (NDN's Vice President of Communications): A 1989 graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Merz has worked for several Democratic elected officials, including Illinois State Sen. Lisa Madigan and U.S. Reps. George Crockett (D-MI), Jim Jontz (D-IN), Frank McCloskey (D-IN), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
  
  
• Michael Moynihan (Fellow and Director of NDN's Green Project): A William Bowen Merit Fellow at Princeton University and a faculty member at New York University's Real Estate Institute, Moynihan served in the Clinton administration as Senior Advisor for Electronic Commerce from 1996-99.