Bill Zimmerman

Bill Zimmerman is an American political consultant and author who was an anti-war activist during the Vietnam War.

Life Bill Zimmerman worked briefly for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi in 1963, then joined the civil rights and antiwar movements while being trained as a research scientist at the University of Chicago. He received a Ph.D. in 1967 and taught at Brooklyn College (1967–69) and the University of Chicago (1970–71).

Zimmerman left academia when he learned that his research might have military applications. and produced advertising for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. and Zimmerman & Markman (1991-2016). Both served Democratic candidates, progressive ballot initiatives, and public interest organizations.

Political activism While a student at the University of Chicago, Zimmerman marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and joined antiwar demonstrations, including the seizure of the university’s administration building in 1966. helped lead a student/faculty strike, organized students and faculty for the March on the Pentagon,

Leaving science to protest weapons research, He led militant protests at the annual conventions of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago in 1970 and in Philadelphia in 1971.

Zimmerman was a coordinator of the 1971 Mayday protests in Washington DC. part of which was broadcast by CBS News on Sixty Minutes. Following the bombing of Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, Zimmerman led the US effort to rebuild the facility.

When armed American Indian Movement protesters took over Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in early 1973, and FBI agents and US Marshals laid siege to the village, Zimmerman organized an airborne food drop. Three airplanes flying in formation, with Zimmerman piloting the lead aircraft, parachuted 1,500 pounds of food into the village.

Political consulting In 1977, after managing Tom Hayden’s California U.S. Senate campaign, In 1980, he managed Barry Commoner’s Citizens Party campaign for the presidency.

In 1981, Zimmerman joined Sidney Galanty and Jack Fiman to form the political consulting and media firm, Zimmerman, Galanty & Fiman, joined in 1984 by Daniel Dixon. Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, Governor Toney Anaya of New Mexico, Sen. Gary Hart in the 1984 California presidential primary, and many other candidates. In 1986, Zimmerman briefly managed California Chief Justice Rose Bird’s ill-fated attempt to remain in office. In 1987, his firm joined Countdown ’87, a public education and lobbying campaign that helped cut off Congressional funding for the Contra War in Nicaragua.

Zimmerman managed the successful Proposition 103 campaign in 1988, the California ballot initiative that lowered auto insurance rates and regulated the state’s property-casualty industry.

With Pacy Markman, he formed Zimmerman & Markman in 1991. Their company helped pass a 1994 ballot initiative that established physician-assisted suicide in Oregon. With Zimmerman managing and the firm providing advertising, Zimmerman & Markman first passed California Proposition 215 in 1996 to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, then won similar victories in 1998 in Alaska, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon. In 2000, the company played the same role in passing California Proposition 36, which prevents the incarceration of minor drug possession offenders and mandates state-sponsored drug treatment instead.

In 2003, Zimmerman & Markman became media consultants to the still fledgling on-line organization, MoveOn.org, and over the next five years helped increase their membership from a few hundred thousand to over 3 million by producing some 50 TV commercials that were critical of the Iraq War, President George W. Bush, and Republicans in Congress.

Books

Zimmerman, Bill (1998). Is Marijuana The Right Medicine For You? New Canaan CT: Keats Publishing. ISBN 0-87983 906-6. Zimmerman, Bill (1976). Airlift to Wounded Knee. Chicago: Swallow Press. ISBN 0-8040-0691-1

Articles

Zimmerman, Bill (1997-10-24). "Nobel Cause: Land-mine activist is from the old school." LA Weekly. Johnson, Michael, Tobias, Andrew, and Zimmerman, Bill (1995-6-5). "A New, No-Fault Road Map to Auto Insurance Reform." The Los Angeles Times. Zimmerman, Bill and Markman, Pacy (1994-8-24). "Getting a Jump on Health Care." The Los Angeles Times. Zimmerman, Bill (1990-11-14). "From Either Side of the Aisle, Prop. 140 Stands for Profound Change." The Los Angeles Times. Zimmerman, Bill (1989-3-15). "California's Proposition 103 went against pundit tide." In These Times. Zimmerman, Bill (1988-11-15). "Right Message--From Left--Beats Negative Ads." The Los Angeles Times. Zimmerman, Bill (1988-11-7). "$60 Million War in California." The Nation. Zimmerman, William (1986-11-13). "On Negative Ads." The New York Times. Zimmerman, Bill (1986-11-9). "The Campaign That Couldn't Win: When Rose Bird Ran Her Own Defeat." The Los Angeles Times.