Anthony Thigpenn, president of California Calls, participated in a Netroots Nation panel on Saturday, June 22 in San Jose, California. Netroots Nation is the largest progressive convening in the country and it attracts progressive political activists, bloggers and political journalists from around the country.

The panel, “The California Comeback: How Progressives Stopped California’s Decline,” spoke to how just a couple of short years ago our state was thought to be ungovernable, declining rapidly and with the worst bond rating in the country. That all changed when community and labor groups, including California Calls, united to pass some groundbreaking reforms, i.e. Proposition 30, a Homeowner Bill of Rights, same-day voter registration and electing a Democratic supermajority in the Legislature. Thigpenn talked about how California Calls contributed to these successes and how other organizations can apply those same lessons in their states.