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At the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, we bring together top Republicans and Democrats to transcend partisan divisions and explore solutions to our most pressing national and global challenges. Join veteran strategists Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy along with other Center staff and major voices in the Bully Pulpit for fun conversations that advance civil dialogue and practical politics. When President Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase bully pulpit, bully meant “wonderful”; and Roosevelt, according to the Oxford Dictionary, was envisioning “an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.” Hear from famous people who’ve known success and setbacks, whether they worked for Donald Trump or Barack Obama, G.W. Bush or Bill Clinton, the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. The conversations go behind the curtain with elected officials, campaign staff, journalists, academics, pundits, and political operatives. Every exchange is guided by standards central to the Center’s mission: Respect each other and respect the truth. Opponents are adversaries, not enemies. And if you lose, don’t burn down the stadium. The Bully Pulpit was formerly called Election R&D.

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  2. Election R&D Dialogues: Special Guest John Chiang

Election R&D Dialogues: Special Guest John Chiang

Jul 24, 2020

John Chiang, former California State Treasurer and Fall 2020 Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, joins co-directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy to discuss his career in politics, the pandemic’s lasting economic impact on California, and its implications for the November election and beyond.

Chiang served as California’s 33rd State Treasurer until 2019. As the state’s banker, he oversaw trillions of dollars in annual transactions, managed a $75 billion investment portfolio, and was the nation’s largest issuer of municipal bonds.

As State Controller during the Great Recession, his cash management decisions were instrumental in keeping California’s credit rating from plunging into junk status, and his actions saved taxpayers millions of dollars. Chiang aggressively used his audit programs to identify more than $9.5 billion of fraud, waste and abuse in government programs, the most by any Controller in California’s history.

He serves on several boards and will be teaching a course in the fall titled, “From Financial Crisis to COVID-19: California Policy Responses to the Financial Fallout” with the USC Center for the Political Future.