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Meet the change leaders: Scott Klug

Scott Klug
www.foley.com
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsOct 04, 2024
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as co-publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
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Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

After a 14-year career as an Emmy-winning reporter, Scott Klug upset a 32-year Democratic House member from Wisconsin in 1990. Despite winning four elections with an average of 63 percent of the vote, he stayed true to his term limit pledge and retired in January 1999.

But during his time in office, Klug says, he had the third most independent voting record of any member of Congress from Wisconsin in the last 50 years.

Klug now works at the law firm Foley & Lardner, where he is a public affairs director and co-chair of the firm’s federal public affairs practice. He represents a broad array of the firm’s clients in Washington and several state capitals. He is also able to draw on his time as a television reporter to help clients craft proactive media strategies, particularly when faced with crisis management challenges.

In 2013, he authored “The Alliance,” a mystery novel about religion and antiquities.

Klug has returned to the public eye to represent “Lost in the Middle” voices in a regular podcast he produces.

He is a resident of Madison, Wis., where he lives with his wife, Theresa Summers Klug. The couple has three children.

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I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Klug for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of his democracy reform work:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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Ken Powley
Team Democracy

Meet the change leaders: Ken Powley

Nevins is co-publisher ofThe Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of theBridge Alliance Education Fund.

Ken Powley and Chris Newlon founded Team Democracy in early 2021. Its signature initiative is the nonpartisan Safe and Fair Election Pledge. The pledge is designed to create an important piece of common ground where Americans — including their elected representatives — can join together from opposite sides of the aisle in committing themselves to protecting the most essential guardrails of American democracy: safe and fair elections, and the peaceful transfer of power.

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Meet the change leaders: Pearce Godwin
Listen First Project

Meet the change leaders: Pearce Godwin

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Pearce Godwin is founder of the Listen First Project and the #ListenFirst Coalition of 500 organizations bringing Americans together across differences to listen, understand each other and discover common interests.

He catalyzes the movement to save America from toxic polarization by shifting social norms from division, distrust, contempt and violence toward connection, understanding and belonging. Pearce manages large-scale, co-created endeavors such as Meeting of America and the annual National Week of Conversation to engage as many Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs as possible to turn down the heat and find a way forward together.

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Tim Walz speaking at a rally

The Dignity Index scored politicians, such as Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, on their language.

Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images

Bipartisan citizens panel issues new Dignity Index scores

UNITE, a nonprofit created to ease the country's political divisions, on Sept. 20 released the second round of scores from its national citizen's panel analyzing political speech. The latest results offer support for founder Tim Shriver's idea of a political "dignity strategy."

"When our political parties use the contempt strategy — demonizing their opponents to energize their supporters — it has an unintended effect," said Shriver, who founded UNITE in 2018. "It turns away the voters they need to win. The candidate that can treat the other side with dignity has a better chance of winning the swing voters who may decide this election."

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Donald Trump and Kamala Harris debating

"The contempt strategy demands that you look down on the other side, make fun of them, call them names, question their motives, attack their character and mock their values," writes Shriver, who argues that It's time to try something different.

Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The contempt strategy can change

Shriver is the chairman of Special Olympics, founder and CEO of UNITE, and co-creator of the Dignity Index.

On Sept. 17, I went on Fox News to talk about a “dignity strategy” that I designed with my Dignity Index co-creator, Tom Rosshirt. We think it could make a difference for any candidate willing to take it up. What do you think?

It is a late-game strategy that could help either candidate win the White House, but it’s something neither has tried before because it’s the absolute opposite of the typical political playbook.

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Bridge over a river

The Edmond Pettus Bridge is a symbol of the civil right movement, and it can be a symbol for rebuilding our divide.

Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Selma can lead us across the bridge again today

Harwood is president and founder of The Harwood Institute. This is the latest entry in his series based on the "Enough. Time to Build.” campaign, which calls on community leaders and active citizens to step forward and build together.

Just recently, I was in Selma, Ala., giving a keynote address at the local NAACP’s annual banquet in honor of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge are iconic in American history.

The Voting Rights Act, whose seeds were firmly planted in Selma, remains one of the most important pieces of legislation in our history. It’s a declaration that community is for all of us, not just some of us. That when we vote, we all get an equal say. That we are on a journey together.

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