Creating Job Opportunities
Written by Jonathan Young
Former chair of the National Council on Disability
In the fall of 2008, a group of disability community leaders held the first-ever disability-community sponsored fundraiser for a presidential campaign. While at the law firm of FoxKiser, I helped raise over $100,000 for Barack Obama’s campaign. Though small compared to the $750 million Obama raised for his campaign, it was a historic first for the disability community and kicked off what became a recurring commitment by the disability community in subsequent presidential campaigns.
It also led to the first-ever Disability Power & Pride Inaugural Ball, an event held on January 18, 2009 at the National Press Club. The event was organized by a group of cross-disability leaders working in their individual capacities as the Committee on Disability Power & Pride, led by Chairman Tony Coelho and myself. The ball was successful not just for bringing recognition to the potential political power of people with disabilities but also in raising funds that could be used for a sustained political presence as a 501(c)(4) organization, akin to the Human Rights Campaign arm affiliated with the HRC Foundation for the LGBTQ+ community.
During the planning of the Inaugural Ball, the Committee made inroads with the Obama Transition team, with a priority focus on ensuring that people with disabilities were meaningfully represented in the Obama administration.
A key milestone was appointment of former EEOC Commissioner Paul Steven Miller on the Obama transition team. But Miller’s presence alone didn’t broad-based receptivity to the disability community. A tense transition team meeting where Tony Coelho raised his voice and banged the table with his fist for dramatic effect helped secure a meeting with eventual head of presidential personnel Don Gips.
Simultaneous with the planning for the Inaugural Ball, the Committee undertook broad-based effort to solicit resumes from across the disability community—not just from well-known community leaders and disability policy experts but also from people with disabilities from around the country in non-disability-related careers who had the necessary skill sets and backgrounds that the White House wanted.
One of the first key appointments was Paul Miller as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel. A meeting with Don Gips, along with Paul Miller and Mark Perriello, from presidential personnel, attended by Tony Coelho and myself, laid the foundation for regular coordination between the Committee’s presidential personnel effort and the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Paul Miller and Mark Perriello helped guide the Committee about how the types of candidates who were most in need as well as how best to present information to the White House to maximize potential for positive response.
The Committee subsequently worked for many months to identify, filter and present candidates to the White House, leading to the greatest number of people with disabilities ever appointed in a presidential administration.
Coelho went on to create similar but larger efforts during the presidential campaigns of 2016 with Sec. Clinton, and in 2020 with former Vice President, Joe Biden. Each of which proved to be highly productive for the disability community.