About Fox&Hounds
Fox&Hounds Daily is a website designed to discuss and explain the confluence of politics and business in California.
There are websites specific to California industries and business and numerous political blogs. But, there is little that combines the news of business and politics and links them in such a way to inform and persuade politically-interested business-people and professionals. To fill this void, Fox&Hounds Daily will create a new and different voice in the blogosphere on California issues, not based on ideology, but on the principle that an economically healthy California is a boon for all citizens.
The website, delivered free daily to subscribers, business people, opinion leaders, elected officials and journalists will educate readers on public policy and political issues. It will help businesses make decisions based on political trends, while at the same time helping policy makers and journalists to understand the issues facing the business community.
The site will provide news and commentary on California politics and business and offer a full roster of leading political and business insiders providing original content on important issues.
Fox&Hounds Daily‘s mission is to influence the political debate from a different perspective – one that’s concerned with a vibrant economy and economic growth in the Golden State.
About The Founders
Joel Fox
Joel Fox operates Joel Fox Consulting, a public affairs/political consulting firm. Fox also currently serves as president of the Small Business Action Committee, founded in 2003 to battle for small business on important political issues. Prior to starting his own firm in January 1999, Fox worked for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association for 19 years, serving as the association’s president from 1986 to 1998.
Fox has authored hundreds of opinion articles which have been published in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union, Sacramento Bee, Indianapolis Star, National Review Online, and Manchester (NH) Union-Leader, as well as other newspapers. He also wrote a piece for National Public Radio and had an essay published in a Time Warner-Baseball Hall of Fame sponsored book, What Baseball Means to Me. Fox’s book, The Legend of Proposition 13, was published in May 2003.
Fox served as a commissioner on the California Performance Review Commission (2004) appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the Assembly Speaker’s Commission on the California Initiative Process (2000-2001) appointed by Speaker Bob Hertzberg. Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Fox a commissioner on the California Assembly Speaker’s Commission on State and Local Finance (1999-2000). Governor Pete Wilson appointed Fox to both the California Citizens’ Commission on Ballot Initiatives (1993), and the California Constitution Revision Commission (1996). Fox also served on the California Commission on Transportation Investment (1995); was Vice Chairman of the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Budget Task Force (1996) appointed by Supervisor Mike Antonovich; and in the early 1990s was a trustee of LEARN, the Los Angeles school reform project.
Fox served as a Senior Research Associate at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College; was on the Advisory Council of the Public Policy Institute of California; and is a member of the Board of Advisors at the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. He is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University.
Tom Ross
With more than 15 years of combined legislative, political and public relations experience, Tom has transformed his status as a skilled political operative into one of California’s leading political strategists. He specializes in coalition building, campaign and issue management, creative development and strategic planning.
Prior to becoming a partner at Meridian Pacific, Tom ran his own successful political consulting firm that helped steer a statewide voting modernization bond to victory as well as defeat an anti-business ballot measure in San Francisco. Simultaneously, he successfully managed several local and regional campaigns.
While at Meridian Pacific, he’s been responsible for major statewide coalition building efforts for numerous propositions, developing winning strategies for local ballot measures and coordinating message development for pro-business issues. He continues to work with federal, state and local candidates.
Tom is a graduate of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He and his wife Shannon live in Sacramento with their two daughters, Fiona and Amelia.
Bryan Merica
Bryan co-founded Activate Direct with the single idea of creating the most effective digital tools available
for
political and public affairs professionals. Today, Activate Direct is the most comprehensive platform for integrated management of data-driven web, email and social media campaigns. With offices in Sacramento, Oakland and New York, Activate Direct serves hundreds of candidate, initiative, advocacy and public affairs campaigns each year.
Before starting Activate Direct, Bryan was a Senior Strategist at the enterprise software firm, PeopleSoft. Bryan started his career in management consulting, working with international consulting powerhouses Deloitte & Touche (San Francisco) and Price Waterhouse (Los Angeles). Bryan graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the Pacific.
Bryan and his wife, Jennifer, split their time between Sacramento and the San Francisco bay area. Bryan also serves on the board of WEAVE, a non-profit provider of crisis intervention services for
survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.