About Common Cause Maryland
Common Cause Maryland is the state's leading good government and democracy reform group aiming to:
- Strengthen public participation and public faith in our institutions of government;
- Ensure that government and the political process serve the public interest, rather than special interests;
- Curb the excessive influence of money on government decisions and elections;
- Promote fair and honest elections and high ethical standards for elected officials; and
- Protect the civil rights and civil liberties of all Marylanders.
See more about What We Do
Staff and Leadership
Ryan O'Donnell, Executive Director
As executive director, Ryan is responsible for the day to day operations of Common Cause Maryland.
Previously, Ryan served as communications director for FairVote in Takoma Park, where he was instrumental in passing the National Popular Vote bill in Maryland, which became the first state in the country to adopt the plan. Ryan drafted a substantial portion of the Association of State Democratic Chairs "Priorities for Election Reform" recommendations in 2007, and served as an international policy fellow for the Electoral Reform Society in London during Britain's 2005 general election.
Ryan has been interviewed in outlets ranging from National Public Radio to The National Journal's "Insider Interviews" series. His commentaries on politics have appeared in The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, Sacramento Bee, Philadelphia Inquirer, Rocky Mountain News, TomPaine.com and others.
You can reach Ryan at 413.335.9824 (cell) or rodonnell (at) commoncause (dot) org.
Gary Magnuson, Board President
Gary Magnuson has been a member of Common Cause Maryland since 2003, and elected its President in 2007. He has also served as Vice President.
Gary has held senior staff aide positions for a California Congressman and for the Governor of California, was Director of a representative association for the governors of the 35 coastal states and territories, and Senior Vice President for a major ocean conservation group. Since 1995, he has been employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and currently serves as its senior policy advisor for marine transportation.
He is a resident of Columbia, Maryland (Howard County), a trained facilitator and certified association executive. He is past President of the Columbia Democratic Club and a member of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee.
Gus Lewis, Treasurer
Edwin (Gus) Lewis retired recently after teaching physics for 25 years at Gilman School in Baltimore.
In his two years on the Board, he has been most active in working with the Maryland Election Integrity Coalition (which includes Common Cause Maryland) to bring about the switch from electronic touch-screen to optical scan voting technology, in order to have a verifiable paper record of voting.
Gus is a board member and Vice President of The Samaritan Community, a social service organization based in Bolton Hill, and he assisted recently in developing the science curriculum for the new Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.
Mary Boyle, Secretary
As national Common Cause’s vice president for communications, Mary is responsible for developing and executing a wide range of communications plans, including free and earned media strategies in support of public education and issue advocacy campaigns. She works with print, broadcast, and online news outlets to generate coverage of Common Cause’s work and collaborates with other senior staff to produce reports, op-eds, web content, and advertisements.
Before joining Common Cause in 2002, Mary covered politics and public policy for the Denver and Washington bureaus of The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was a general assignment reporter for The Associated Press in Baltimore and Denver.
She started her journalism career as a staff writer for The Sun of Lowell, Massachusetts. Mary has a bachelor’s degree in English from Holy Cross College and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
State Board Members
Frank Baitman
Frank Baitman is an entrepreneur with experience in information and communications technologies. Most recently, he was President of Petards, Inc., a security and surveillance software vendor that makes enterprise-grade solutions.
Frank has also worked with emerging technologies in mobile communications, information security and the life sciences. Previously, Frank was a Director with the Institute for the Future, a Palo Alto-based think tank and Director of Corporate Strategy for IBM Corporation. Frank began his career in public policy; he has consulted for US Government agencies on policy matters including national security, nuclear nonproliferation and arms control verification measures.
He is a strong advocate for individual privacy rights, is regularly quoted, and has written opinion pieces in support for a new privacy framework that responds to emerging technologies.
Christopher Carroll
Christopher Carroll is Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and an NBER Research Associate in the programs on Monetary Economics and Economic Fluctuations and Growth.
Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, he received his A.B. in Economics from Harvard University in 1986 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. After graduating from M.I.T., he worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, where his responsibilities included preparation of the forecast for consumer expenditure. After moving to the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, he spent 1997-98 working at the Council of Economic Advisors in Washington, where his responsibilities included analysis of Social Security reform proposals, tax and pension policy, and bankruptcy reform.
Professor Carroll’s research has primarily focused on consumption and saving behavior, with an emphasis on reconciling the empirical evidence from both microeconomic and macroeconomic sources with theoretical models. In addition to articles in economics journals, he is the author of Encyclopedia Britannica articles on consumption related topics. He was the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan foundation early career fellowship and of the TIAA-CREF/Samuelson Certificate of Excellence for his work on precatuionary saving behavior over the life cycle. He is an associate editor at the Review of Economics and Statistics, (ReStat) the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, (JBES) and the Berkeley Electronic Journal of Macroeconomics (BEJM). His recent research has focused on the dynamics of expectations formation, particularly on how expectations reflect households’ learning from each other and from experts. This focus flows from a career-long interest in consumer sentiment and its determinants.
He lives in Columbia Maryland with his wife, Jennifer Manning. His interest in economics dates from early life: His father recently retired from a career as Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee, where he taught Industrial Organization for many years.
Jerry Cayford
Jerry Cayford has a PhD in philosophy and worked five years for Resources for the Future, where he co-authored (with Tom Beierle) "Democracy in Practice: Public Participation in Environmental Decisions."
Currently, he manages Cassatt Design LLC, a small architectural design company, and has long been concerned about the structural elements that make our democracy work (or fail to work).
Dwight Cramer
Dwight Cramer was born in Hastings Nebraska in 1926. He graduated from Hastings College in 1946 and from the University of Chicago with an MA in political science in 1951. He entered the State Department in 1952 and served overseas as a Foreign Service Officer for 13 years. After 29 years, he retired but continued to work for the State Department doing Freedom of Information work for 23 more years.
Dwight joined Common Cause in 1974 while serving in Taiwan. In 1981 he became a volunteer at headquarters, a function he continues today. He served on the Board of CC Maryland for ten years, and was president in 1990 and 1991. He rejoined the CCMD Board in January, 2006.
He has been an active member of the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, serving as Board chair in 1980-81. He supports Hand Gun control, Southern Poverty Law Center, People for the American Way, Americans United For Separation of Church and State, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NRDC, Environmental Defense, and is now a reader for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.
Victor Dates
Sam Hopkins
Sam Hopkins has been a CCMD Board member since 2000, and currently works as an attorney specializing in financial counselling as well as a consultant on technology for the law practice.
Sam is also a dedicated activist with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) activist. He also serves as the Chair to the MD Sierra Club Population Committee.
Susan Schreiber
Susan Schreiber is associate vice president of foundation grant for national Common Cause. She works to identify, cultivate and develop new foundation funding, and collaborates with program staff in the national office and the states on foundation funding proposals on behalf of Common Cause and the Common Cause Education Fund.
Susan joined Common Cause's development department in spring 2005, bringing thirty years of nonprofit experience in planning, staff and board development and volunteer training as well as fundraising. She has been vice president for exhibitions and public programs of the City Museum of Washington, D.C., director of interpretation and education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, assistant director of the American Association of Museums, and program officer for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She began her career teaching high school on the edge of a New England thread mill town.