Michael Fedor

Name:	Michael Fedor
Location:	Duncannon, PA

My personal volunteering highlight:

The fight to build the just green economy sums up so much about my own personal journey. I watched as my hometown rotted in the shadow of empty steel mills in Western Pennsylvania. I listened as family and friends relished the days of industrial might, but I knew even then that I would have to leave home to find the economic opportunities I wanted for my life. After attending Penn State University, I went to work in a public high school classroom and there I found myself on the front lines of the Bush culture war on education. Students were told they were "failing" despite their most intense efforts. I knew then I had to leave the classroom to really join the fight for meaningful progressive reform in America.

Since that time, I've worked on numerous local campaigns including my own in 2007, when I was successfully elected to Borough Council in my conservative small town of 1,600 in Central Pennsylvania. For several years I have been working through various efforts and organizations (including the United Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO) to build a green economy in Pennsylvania to serve as the economic manufacturing catalyst to put people back to work in good paying, family sustaining jobs in my once-great-industrial state.

I recently accepted the position of state director for Repower America in Pennsylvania. In this position I will be contributing directly to building a grassroots movement to build the green economy in America, and a major piece of my strategy will be engaging new media as key organizing tool. I will be focused on bringing organized labor, small business, and young people to the field in this fight. The decentralization of energy generation through distributed renewable power, smart grids, and green collar jobs is my passion and I hope to make a major impact on the Pennsylvania landscape through my work with Repower.

Ultimately, I hope all this "networking and building" provides me with the sound footing and backing to pursue a successful campaign for Congress. I believe Pennsylvania could use a few more Representatives who brag about their membership in the Progressive Caucus instead of the "Blue Dogs."

More about my volunteering with DFA:

I was most active in 2004. My activity in DFA has receded as I have lent my time and energy to other local efforts such as the AFL-CIO, HCAN, LCV, and now Repower America.

More about my volunteering with progressive organizations:

I do community organizing for the AFL-CIO, including events, political campaigns, membership mobilization and coordination. I am on leave from the AFL-CIO to serve as state director for Repower America where I am coordinating a state staff of 11 organizers to build grassroots change in the energy economy. I am also the secretary of my county Democratic committee and a committeeman for my borough. I am an elected member of Duncannon Borough Council, where I serve as Chairman of Public Works and Vice President of the Municipal Authority. I am a faculty coach for the Center for Progressive Leadership in Pennsylvania and am currently being recruited to serve on the board of Keystone Progress.

More about my work on current campaigns and issues:

Repower America - passage of HB 2454, the American Climate and Energy Security Act.
AFL-CIO - working for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
I am a faculty advisor to a CPL fellow seeking the office of Prothonotary in Berks County. His name is Charles Corbit.

What motivates me:

If I give up and don't fight for reform of the system as someone who believes so deeply in the potential good of government and her citizens, then who will? Who among us - if not the most committed - will take up the cause for real progressive change? I must fight. I must be active because it is who I am and why I am here.

How I try to motivate others:

I motivate others by being a strong leader and organizer. I do this by remaining positive, even when it's easier not to be. I do this by remaining committed, even when it seems hopeless to be. I do this by lifting others up, even when it seems everyone is trying to hold us down.

Where I see myself in five years:

In 2014,I hope to be raising money and volunteers for my own campaign for Congress . I believe Congress can provide me a strong enough platform to use my talents and vision to champion real reforms to protect the privacy of people in the digital "online" age; to guarantee medical care is a right for everyone in this country; to reform trade laws and treaties so American can make things again; to democratize energy in America, and to once and for all eradicate poverty in the richest nation on earth by lifting people up, not by lowering standards further.

My suggested bumper sticker slogan for the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign:

It's my body, not a car. Guarantee care, not premiums. Health Care Reform Now