The Web and Politics

John Heilemann is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, where he writes The Power Grid column on national politics, business, and their intersection. He is the author of “Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and End of the Microsoft Era” and a National Magazine Award finalist for his reporting on the Microsoft antitrust case. He is currently at work on a book about the 2008 presidential campaign.

A former staff writer for The Economist, The New Yorker, and Wired, his work has appeared as well in Vanity Fair, GQ, Time, and Business 2.0. He appears regularly on The Chris Matthews Show, Charlie Rose, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and other national television programs. His four-part documentary on the rise of the Web appeared last winter on the Discovery Channel.

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of eleven books. She is also co-host of “Left, Right & Center,” public radio’s popular political roundtable program.

In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that has quickly become one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet.

In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.

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Gavin Newsom, 40, is the youngest San Francisco mayor in over a century. Newsom, the son of William and Tessa Newsom, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship, graduating in 1989 with a B.A. in political science.

After college, Newsom sold orthotics and worked as an assistant at a real estate firm. In 1991, Newsom recruited investors and founded PlumpJack, a wine shop, which he grew into a thriving enterprise of 15 businesses including wineries, restaurants, and hotels.

In 1996, Newsom was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to the city’s parking and traffic commission. Soon he was elected president of the commission. In 1997, Brown appointed him to the city’s board of supervisors. Voters elected Newsom to the board in 1998 and re-elected him in 2000 and 2002.

As a supervisor, Newsom focused on combating homelessness. His initiative, Care Not Cash, provided homeless individuals services instead of welfare. Although the city’s political establishment opposed Care Not Cash, the voters approved it in November, 2002. One year later, after a fiercely-contested race, Newsom was elected mayor.

After only 36 days as mayor, Newsom gained worldwide attention when he granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples. This bold move set the tone for Newsom’s first term. Under his energetic leadership, the economy grew and jobs were created. The city became a center for biotech and clean tech. He initiated a plan to bring universal health care to all of the city’s uninsured residents. And Newsom aggressively pursued local solutions to global climate change.

In 2007, Newsom was re-elected with over 73% of the vote. Since then he has built upon the successes of his first term, launching new environmental initiatives and a comprehensive strategy to transform one of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods into a life sciences, digital media, and clean tech center.

Newsom’s commitment to combating homelessness has never waned. As mayor, he has moved 7,000 homeless individuals off the street, and his volunteer initiative, Project Homeless Connect – now imitated in over 130 cities – has attracted over 20,000 San Franciscans who give their time to help the homeless.

Newsom is married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Joe Trippi worked on his first presidential campaign for Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1980. His work in presidential politics continued with the campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Howard Dean and, most recently, John Edwards. He heads up Trippi and Associates a multimedia consulting firm. Trippi appears regularly on CBS as an election analyst and commentator. He is the author of, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything. The father of three, he lives with his wife, Kathleen, on the eastern shore of Maryland.