ANDREW KREIG: Two Potential Democratic VP Nominees Come Out Swinging

VP potential nominees for both candidates make themselves known    

JUSTICE INTEGRITY PROJECT
By Andrew Kreig
06/26/2016

Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey delivered hard-hitting speeches at the National Press Club last week that showed why each is regarded as a top option as the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Perez, born in Buffalo, NY and shown in our photo at right, described how his family’s immigrant roots in the Dominican Republic helps inspire his implementation of the Obama administration’s policies, including a presidential order enabling estimated 4.2 million workers to qualify for overtime.

Booker, shown below in a file photo, spoke on “The Search for Equal Justice.” 

He was reared in a prosperous New Jersey suburb that his parents desegregated, and after a stint as mayor of the 95 percent minority nearby city of Newark won election to the U.S. senate in 2013.

Cory Booker

Each spoke on June 22 at the press club, which is located in downtown Washington, DC. This editor attended both talks as part of our ongoing understanding of the 2016 election campaign and other national issues. We focus both on mainstream and little-reported issues in the contest between prospective Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

The Labor Secretary's talk was entitled, Building the Best America, with quotations below from the prepared text, which closely paralleled his talk as delivered.

“A few weeks ago,” Perez began, “the New York Times asked, “When did optimism become uncool?” I must confess that – as a chronic, relentless optimist – I took it a little personally. I know my teenage kids think I’m uncool. I get that.

"But the Times hit on something darker within our politics – the fact that some politicians find it expedient to exploit people’s worst fears… to accentuate the negative and eliminate the positive… to turn people against each other instead of toward each other."

Continue reading Andrew Kreig's report HERE.

Andrew Kreig

Andrew Kreig, Esq.

Andrew Kreig is Justice Integrity Project Executive Director and co-founder with over two decades experience as an attorney and non-profit executive in Washington, DC.

An author and longtime investigative reporter, his primary focus since 2008 has been exploring allegations of official corruption and other misconduct in federal agencies. He has been a consultant and volunteer leader in advising several non-profit groups fostering cutting-edge applications within the communications industries.

  

As president and CEO of the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) from 1996 until 2008, Kreig led its worldwide advocacy that helped create the broadband wireless industry. Previously, he was WCAI vice president and general counsel, an associate at Latham & Watkins, law clerk to a federal judge, author of the book Spiked about the newspaper business and a longtime reporter for the Hartford Courant.

Listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World from the mid-1990s and currently, he holds law degrees from the University of Chicago School of Law and from Yale Law School. Reared in New York City, his undergraduate degree in history is from Cornell University, where he was a student newspaper editor, rowing team member, and Golden Gloves boxer.

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