Craig Brown created NewsCenter in May of 1997 and has served as Editor since then. He is the Executive Director of Common Dreams - a non-profit founded in 1996 to develop use of the internet as a progressive political organizing tool.

A carpenter- turned social worker - turned political consultant, Brown is a native of Massachusetts. Brown began his career in progressive politics when he served as Chair and then Executive Director of the Maine Public Interest Research Group from 1973-1977. In 1976, Brown was a co-organizer of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance - and spent time in New Hampshire jails for sitting in front of bulldozers at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant construction site.

Brown has managed dozens of state, local, Congressional and US Senate campaigns over the past 25 years. He has managed and worked for many environmental, anti-nuclear and human rights referendum campaigns. He has worked on campaigns for Common Cause, Maine Audubon Society, Freeze Voter '84,  the High-Level Nuclear Waste Project and Americans for Medical Rights. Brown worked for the Citizen's Party on ecologist Barry Commoner's 1980 presidential campaign. He later served on the presidential campaign staffs of former US Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) and former US Senator Paul Simon (D-IL).

In 1990, Brown managed the successful upset primary and general Congressional campaigns of  then-Democratic Maine State Senator Tom Andrews.  Brown went on to serve as Chief-of-Staff to Congressman Tom Andrews in Washington for Andrews' two-terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In 1994, Congressional Quarterly rated Andrews as the most progressive member of Congress - a designation Andrews was proud of.  Columnist Jack Anderson called Andrews 'the most courageous member of Congress'. Ralph Nader called him 'the most principled politician I have ever met'. Tom Andrews is currently the National Director of the Win Without War coalition.

In the 1994 Newt Gingrich-led rightwing sweep, Andrews lost to Maine's other House member, Republican Olympia Snowe, in his bid to succeed Senator George Mitchell in the U.S. Senate.

In 1995 and 1996, as Political Advisor to the President of People for the American Way, Brown created and led PFAW's national Expose the Right! campaign which successfully exposed the powerful influence right-wing forces played in the 1996 Republican presidential nomination process.

In 1999, Brown managed the successful Maine citizens initiative which legalized the medical use of marijuana in Maine - winning with a 61% - 39% margin.

E-Mail:
editor (at) commondreams.org