Sacramento, CA -- The New America Foundation announced today that Blair Bobier has joined the Political Reform Program as its Deputy Director for northern California.  Mr. Bobier is based in the Bay Area and will work to promote electoral reforms designed to empower voters and foster more representative and accountable government.

Mr. Bobier is a lawyer with a long history as an advocate of political reform. He is the founder of the Civics Education League, and has testified before numerous charter review commissions. He has written widely on politics and reform and has been published in a variety of publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Oregonian. He is a contributing author of the book Counting Votes:  Lessons from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida and has lectured at college campuses across the country. Mr. Bobier has appeared on National Public Radio and many other radio, television, satellite and internet broadcasts. He is an award-winning environmental activist and graduated with honors from the Lewis & Clark Law School.

Steven Hill, Director of the Political Reform Program said, "We are delighted to have Blair joining our team. He brings enthusiasm, intelligence and broad experience to his efforts, and will complement our program in many ways."

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.  In California, the Political Reform Program promotes political reforms-including instant runoff voting, proportional representation, public financing of campaigns, free media for political candidates and universal voter registration-which stimulate and broaden participatory democracy.