Looking Beyond the Ballot

The midterm elections are over — now comes the analysis. Tulane University will be the stage for the Bipartisan Policy Center's second annual political summit on Tuesday (Nov. 9), bringing together some of the nation's most prominent Republican and Democractic strategists to talk about the issues.

New Orleans transplants and veteran politicos James Carville and Mary Matalin will host the day-long summit, “Beyond the Ballot: Making Washington Work,” in the Kendall Cram Lecture Hall of the Lavin-Bernick Center on the uptown campus.

Three panel discussions are open to the public, free of charge, but registration is requested.

Kicking off the first session at 10:15 a.m. is the release of a bipartisan poll by Democracy Corp. and Resurgent Republic analyzing Tuesday's (Nov. 2) election results and examining what those results mean for the 2012 election. A panel discussion, “Taking Stock: What the Election Means for Bipartisanship,” follows at 11:15 a.m.

Other panels are “Blurring the Line: Is it Journalism or Entertainment?” at 1 p.m. and “The Politics of Crisis” at 3:15 p.m.

Guest panelists include Whit Ayres, Dan Bartlett, Paul Begala, Lanny Davis, Matthew Dowd, Ed Gillespie, Stan Greenberg, Walter Isaacson, Kathleen Koch, Joe Lockhart, Mark McKinnon, Kiki McLean, Steve McMahon, Todd Harris and Hilary Rosen. NBC's Betsy Fischer, Politico's Jonathan Martin and the New York Times' Kate Zernike also will participate.

“We are excited to be returning to Tulane for our Second Annual Summit,” said BPC president Jason Grumet. “Amidst the rancor in Congress and hard-fought midterm elections, much of the country will be wondering if Washington can solve tough problems. By bringing together many of the nation's leading political strategists, we hope to explore how the parties can shift from campaigning to governing.”

The 2009 summit at Tulane was titled, “Taking the Poison Out of Partisanship.”