MEET THE TEAM

Steve Rosenthal, Co-Founder

For over 20 years, Steve Rosenthal has been at the center of Democratic politics and policy, having served as the CEO of America Coming Together, political director of the AFL-CIO, and communications director for one of America’s largest labor unions, among his many positions. Steve has been described by the New York Times as one of the Democratic Party’s “smartest and most influential strategists” and by the Washington Post as, “one of the party’s best-known voter turnout specialists.”

In 2005, Steve co-founded The Organizing Group Inc. (TOG). Since that time, Steve has, along with Mary Beth Cahill and Michael Whouley, founded the Atlas Project, a client of TOG that provides clients with customized, in-depth strategic roadmaps to victory in 15 battleground states.  These roadmaps represent the collaboration of the best strategic thinkers at the state and national level.  In addition, the Atlas Project has been tasked with building the institutional memory of the Democratic Party.  The Atlas Project has collected, catalogued, and analyzed campaign plans, budgets, polls and other key documents gathered from political operatives and institutions around the country.  Steve also launched They Work for Us, a separate client organization whose mission is to hold members of Congress accountable to the populist vision at the heart of the Democratic Party.  This 501 (c) (4) works to ensure that Congress will use its power to serve the interests of workers and consumers by monitoring members’ voting behavior on issues such as trade, living standrads, worker rights, health care, bankruptcy, energy and class action issues.

Prior to founding the Organizing Group, Steve was one of the founders and Chief Executive Officer of America Coming Together (ACT), an organization aimed at empowering and mobilizing progressive voters. Under his direction, ACT spent over $142 million and built the largest voter mobilization campaign in Democratic history. ACT launched year-long state, county and precinct-level organizing campaigns in 12 battleground states in support of progressive candidates. ACT’s integration of leading-edge technology, research, and targeting methodologies set a new standard for future campaigns and helped achieve the largest Democratic turnout in history. In January 2005, independent political analyst Charlie Cook described ACT’s work in the National Journal:

“Democrats, chiefly through America Coming Together, mounted what was not only the most sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation in the party’s history, but it was probably the best field work by a factor of at least 10.”

Steve also served for seven years as political director of the AFL-CIO, where he oversaw budgets ranging from $32 to $50 million per election cycle. He designed and directed Labor ‘96, Labor ‘98, Labor 2000 and Labor 2002 which were the Labor Movement’s unified, grassroots mobilizations that helped put working families back at the center of the national debate. Business Week described him in 1996 as “Newt Gingrich’s worst nightmare,” and when he left the AFL-CIO the New York Times reported that, “Many union leaders give Mr. Rosenthal credit for transforming organized labor’s feeble, forgettable campaign operation into one that many political analysts say is the most effective in the nation.” In an article entitled “The Democrats’ Mr. Results” Time Magazine said, “Few in Democratic politics have shown the kind of results that Rosenthal did as head of the AFL-CIO’s political operation from ‘96 to ‘02.”
During the first three years of the Clinton Administration, Steve served as Associate Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor where he acted as former-Secretary Robert Reich’s chief advisor on policy and legislation related to union matters. Before that he was Deputy Political Director for the Democratic National Committee under Chairman Ron Brown and Political Director Paul Tully.

Steve worked for the Communications Workers of America for twelve years—six in New Jersey and six at the national headquarters in Washington, D.C. He served as the union’s Communications Director, as well as Assistant to former CWA President Morton Bahr.

Prior to his tenure at CWA Steve managed and consulted with congressional, state and local campaigns in his home state of New York and also worked for the New York State Legislature. Steve has worked in every Democratic presidential effort since 1972.

Melissa Roy, Senior Associate

Prior to her role as Senior Associate to TOG, Melissa worked at America Coming Together (ACT) – the largest progressive voter mobilization organization in history.  At ACT, Melissa had two positions: Deputy Political Director (3/04-12/04) and Chief of Staff to ACT’s Chief Executive Officer (1/05-7/05). As Deputy Political Director, Melissa was responsible for working with state directors, national political staff, and administrative staff to plan, coordinates, and implement political programs in the battleground states. As Chief of Staff to the CEO, Melissa worked with existing staff and consultants on a quantitative and qualitative review of ACT’s impact on the 2004 Election.

Melissa has worked with Senator Clinton’s senior political staff at Friends of Hillary and Hillpac to perform intensive, systematic state-by-state outreach as the Director of Outreach in 2003-2003. Prior to this, Melissa served for four years at the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), serving as the committee’s liaison to national political committees, gubernatorial campaigns, and governors’ offices. She provided strategic support to the Political Director and Director of Campaigns and Elections during 2002, when the Democratic governors’ were the only national Democrats to make gains.

In addition to serving as Senior Associate to TOG, Melissa is the Executive Director for the Atlas Project.  Melissa was responsible for assembling a top-notch staff, hiring the best and brightest state-based consultants for each targeted state, and making sure that everyone met demanding deadlines. 

Melissa, a native of Waterville, Maine, was a founding member of Democratic GAIN, and currently serves as the Treasurer. She holds a double B.A. in Women Studies and Theology from Georgetown University.

Matt Schneider

Matt co-founded Field Strategies Inc. in 1997, and is today its managing partner. Based in Washington, DC, the firm specializes in computer-aided targeting and message delivery coordinated with door-to-door voter contact and GOTV. With 15 years of campaign experience, Matt has worked on campaigns from New Jersey to California at the local, state, and federal levels. In the 2003-2004 election cycle, Matt established voter registration programs in Missouri and Florida for Act and Vip which registered over 240,000 new voters before taking over as the ACT – Oregon State Director in June 2004. He recently finished organizing a 15,000 person election day operation for newly elected Governor Corzine. His clients have included U.S. Senator and Governor Jon Corzine, The New Jersey Democratic Party, Governor McGreevey, Congressman Bob Menendez, The Maryland Democratic Party, Voting is Power and Washington, DC Mayor Anthony Williams.

Jenna Papadopoulos, Political Assistant to Steve Rosenthal

Jenna joined The Organizing Group in May 2007 as a political assistant to Steve Rosenthal. Primarily, she manages day-to-day operations for TOG and provides support to the political department.

Previously, Jenna worked as a Finance Intern for two Washington-based Democratic fundraising firms. At Christensen & Associates, she coordinated events and managed donor databases for the congressional campaigns of Reps. Zach Space (OH-18) and Jerry McNerney (CA-11). At the Arum Group, LLC, Jenna organized events, wrote direct mail pieces, and assisted numerous members of Congress with large donor fundraising. In particular, she worked closely with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Leadership PAC. She has also interned for several Democratic state legislative campaigns in Virginia.

Jenna is a native of South Jersey and a dedicated Philadelphia Phillies Fan.  She graduated Magna Cum Laude from American University with a degree in Political Science. She is also a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society. 

Jessica Matthews, Political Assistant

Jessica joined The Organizing Group in May 2008 as a political assistant to Melissa Roy. 

Jessica’s political career began during the 2007 legislative session of the Virginia General Assembly, where she provided administrative support to Delegates Adam Ebbin and David Englin.  She also got her first taste of grassroots politics on the campaign trail in 2007 working as a field organizer for the Virginia Coordinated Campaign.

From there she traveled to Des Moines to become the field operative for House District 59 in the John Edwards for President Iowa caucus effort.  Jessica later returned to her home state as the Field Director for Delegate Albert Pollard’s resoundingly successful special election campaign in Virginia’s 99th House District. There, Jessica devised and implemented a rural field plan as well as coordinating field staff, volunteers, and managing the voter file.

Before entering the world of politics, Jessica dabbled in show business working as a casting assistant on the HBO miniseries “John Adams”. Jessica graduated with honors from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006 with a degree in International Studies and a minor in Political Science.