Conventional politics in the United States focuses on elections, while left activists typically argue that political change comes not from electing better politicians but building movements strong enough to force politicians to accept progressive change.

Our guest on Newsmakers was Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He gives the House Progressives’ perspective on what’s next for deficit reduction, federal spending and legislative priorities overall, after the deficit "Super Committee" failed to come to an agreement. The Progressive Caucus said this week it will present its own plan for deficit reduction and jobs.

Rep. Donna Edwards appears to be in solid shape to win re-election four and a half months before the Maryland Democratic primary, according to an internal poll from her campaign.

Rep. Jim McGovern, representing Massachusetts’ Third Congressional District, has been a stalwart opponent of the Iraq and Afhanistan Wars. He has served in Congress since 1997, and is a senior member of the Rules Committee. He is also a member of the PDA Advisory Board.

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Rep. Donna Edwards represents Maryland’s Fourth Congressional District. She is the first African American woman from Maryland to serve in Congress.

The Native American community has a long, troubled history with mining interests, and today that history is catching up with us in Arizona. From a new push for uranium mining at the Grand Canyon to the ongoing battle over Resolution Copper, it’s not too much to say my home state tribes are under siege.

Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor’s emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians.

The June 2012 primary is still seven months away. But that does not mean that the race among Democrat candidates for the newly drawn 2nd U.S. Congressional District is not heating up. On the contrary, the lines are being drawn between the contenders. The North Coast promises to be the linchpin to the nomination. As reported earlier, there are those who believe that the stands on issues between the two principle candidates for the nomination (Jared Huffman and Norman Solomon) are all but indistinguishable.