Washington, DC (EFEUSA) – Yesterday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the members of the DNC’s Democratic Victory Task Force, including political strategist and communications expert, Maria Cardona and Colorado Democratic Party Chair, Rick Palacio.
“We are proud to announce the members of the Democratic Victory Task Force, and are eager to work with them to build on what we’ve done that works, identify and prioritize challenges and ultimately improve our party’s performance in future elections,” said DNC Chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Wassernan Shultz also stated that, “This diverse group of Democratic Party officials, strategists and advocates will each bring with them expertise from their fields to collaborate on a holistic review of the Party’s past performance and present actionable areas for improvement moving forward.”
The task force’s objective is to improve the party, which lost the midterm elections just a month ago, Wasserman Schultz appointed Maria Cardona to the task force, a former Senior Advisor and spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign during the 2008 Democratic primary election.
When Clinton lost, Cardona became a key surrogate for the Obama for America campaign, a role she reprised during President Obama’s successful 2012 reelection campaign.
In a tweet yesterday, Cardona said she was, “Honored to be on the Democratic Victory Task Force with amazing colleagues like Teddy Goff, Rick Palacio, Naomi Aberly, Marc Elias, Maneesh Goyal and Lee Saunders.”
With more than two decades of experience, Cardona currently leads the Multicultural and Public Affairs divisions of the Dewey Square Group (DSG) and is the founder of DSG’s Latino Strategies practice, Latinovations. DSG is a group that advises democrats on politics, communications, government relations and new media.
Cardona is a frequent political contributor on CNN and CNN en Espanol and is highly regarded within the Latino community. She served as the Communications Director of the Democratic National Committee and went on to serve as the Vice President for Media Relations of the New Democrat Network (NDN), a think tank that promotes progressive Democratic candidates.
During the Clinton Administration, she was the director of communications for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and later served as the Press Secretary of the Department of Commerce for five years.
Another strong appointee to the Democratic Victory Task Force is Rick Palacio, head of the Colorado Democratic Party since 2011.
Currently, Palacio is serving his second term as the Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party. Palacio also sits on the DNC’s Executive Committee and serves as the Western Regional Vice President of the Association of State Democratic Party Chairs.
Prior to serving as chair of Colorado’s Democratic Party, Palacio was the chief aide to the former Colorado House Majority Leader and then as the Regional Director of the Colorado Democratic Party’s 2006 Coordinated Campaign.
The son a steel worker and homemaker, Palacio served as a senior leadership aid in the office of former U.S. House Majority Leader, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer from 2008 through 2011.
Wassmerman Schultz also nominated activist Naomi Aberly; former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, political science professor Donna Brazile; campaign expert Marc Elias; advisors Teddy Goff , Maneesh Goyal, Lee Saunders and Eric Schmidt.
Preliminary findings of the Democratic Victory Task Force will be presented at the DNC’s Winter Meeting in February 2015. The task force will produce final recommendations by mid-2015, prior to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
These changes come just a month after the midterm elections on November 4th where Democrats lost control of the Senate, leaving Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress.
This piece originally appeared in Spanish, EFE.
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