Who We Are

Rose Kapolczynski, Partner

Rose Kapolczynski has three decades of experience working for elected officials, political campaigns and nonprofit organizations. She specializes in strategic planning, message development and general consulting for campaigns.

In recent years, Rose led four successful ballot initiative campaigns in the Pacific Northwest--three in Washington State and one in Oregon. In Washington, PSP served as general consultant for Approve 67 (insurance fairness), Yes on 937 (clean energy) and No on 330 (medical malpractice). In Oregon, we led the No on 43 effort (parental notification). The American Association of Political Consultants named Rose the Public Affairs Professional of the Year in recognition of her exceptional work on the Approve 67 campaign in 2007.

Prior to founding Progressive Strategy Partners, Rose directed all three of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s winning campaigns as Campaign Manager. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of those multi-million dollar campaigns in California, she led the strategy and message development team of consultants.

After Senator Boxer’s upset victory in 1992, Rose became State Director in the Senate office, managing the California operation and staff in six offices in one of the most diverse states in the country. During Boxer’s first two terms in the Senate, Rose served as a member of the senior management team, participating in the development of legislative and communications strategy and serving as an on-the-record spokesperson.

Before moving to California, Rose lived in Washington, D.C. for five years, leading the Sierra Club’s election efforts as Political Director and then serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Tim Wirth of Colorado.

In the Pacific Northwest, Rose managed several political campaigns, including the Mike Lowry for Senate campaign in 1988 and the Charles Royer for Mayor of Seattle campaign in 1985. After Mayor Royer’s victory in his bid for an unprecedented third term, she became the Mayor’s communications director and spokesperson as well as a senior member of his City Hall team.

During the 1984 presidential campaign, Rose worked for the Gary Hart for President campaign in the national headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in key states. Starting as a national constituency group organizer, she went on to run the victorious Washington State caucus operation on Super Tuesday and later worked for Hart in Oregon, Wisconsin and California.

Rose started her career as an environmental advocate, organizing and lobbying for the Sierra Club, the Colorado Open Space Council and the University of Colorado Wilderness Study Group.

Yvette Martinez, Partner

Over the course of her career, Yvette has worked at the local, state and federal levels, from school board races to national presidential campaigns. She is especially proud of how many talented Latinos she has helped elect, and is renowned throughout California as a spokesperson for this community, with a special expertise in how to effectively organize, engage, and mobilize Latino voters.

For instance, Yvette consulted for both Mónica García’s and Nury Martinez’s elections to the Los Angeles School Board, where García now serves as the LAUSD Board President. Yvette also led the successful campaign to elect former Los Angeles City Councilmember Alex Padilla to the State Senate, which was widely regarded as one of the most competitive legislative races of 2006. Back in 2000, Yvette advised State Senator Hilda Solis’ successful campaign to unseat a congressional incumbent. She then served as Congresswoman Solis’ District Chief of Staff, where she spearheaded outreach efforts on various environmental projects and helped raise community awareness on environmental justice and open space issues in the San Gabriel Valley.

This year, Yvette is delighted to once again be providing valuable guidance to Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election campaign, having served as Political Director on the Senator’s last campaign in 2004, where she worked with labor unions, election officials, progressive organizations, and opinion leaders throughout the state to secure key campaign endorsements. Yvette was Boxer’s Scheduler during the 1992 primary and general election campaigns and then worked in the official Senate office in Washington, D.C.

In addition to political campaigns, Yvette also contributes her experience and skills to various non-profit organizations. For instance, Yvette is currently working with Para Los Niños on a cutting-edge project to help break the cycle of poverty in one of the most challenged neighborhoods of Los Angeles. In addition, Yvette recently managed statewide outreach efforts for Preschool California, an organization funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to expand access to quality preschool for the children who need it most.

Prior to founding PSP, Yvette served as the Political Director for Clinton/Gore ’96 in California, where she coordinated a sophisticated “rapid response” team of surrogate speakers for the national campaign. In 1994, she was an Associate with the Campaign Design Group, a general consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where she wrote campaign plans for 20 targeted legislative campaigns in marginal districts in Florida and oversaw all aspects of their implementation.

Yvette earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was appointed to the national Clean Water Fund Board of Directors in 2007 and the Coalition for Clean Air Board of Directors in 2009. Yvette is the proud mother of boy/girl twins who are now in first grade. In 2008, Sacramento’s Capitol Weekly named Yvette Martinez as one of California’s “Ones to Watch” for her campaign work and expertise with developing Spanish language outreach programs.

Javier Angulo, Senior Associate

Javier Angulo has over ten years experience in political advocacy, program development and supervision, fundraising, and in managing key relationships with government, corporate and community stakeholders.

Javier specializes in political and constituency communications and outreach to win public support for candidates and issues. He is currently responsible for building constituency support for Senator Barbara Boxer’s 2010 re-election campaign. In early 2009, Javier served as Campaign Manager for the Nury Martinez for Los Angeles Unified School District Board campaign.

In late 2008, he served as the Deputy Political Director for the No on Proposition 8 campaign, a ballot initiative that eliminated the rights of same sex couples to marry in California. Javier was responsible for constituency and political outreach with an emphasis in Latino communities. His tasks included: serving as the campaign’s primary Spanish-language spokesperson; organizing press and community events; media outreach; producing language and culturally appropriate signage and collateral; and establishing a satellite campaign office for Spanish-language outreach.

Prior to joining Progressive Strategy Partners, Javier served as the National Director of Civic Education for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund. He directed the organization’s national civic engagement and community participation program and was responsible for the day-to-day operations in the organization’s Los Angeles, New York and Houston program offices.

Before NALEO, Javier served as the Associate Director of Development for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) where he was responsible for raising $2.5 million annually by managing the organization’s corporate giving and special events programs. Javier prepared and implemented strategies to increase corporate giving, streamlined the organization’s gifts management system, implemented an online giving strategy, and managed MALDEF’s annual fundraising events held across the country.

Javier began his career in advocacy and civic participation as a fellow for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) in Washington, D.C., where he served as a Hispanic community liaison to the former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Before CHCI, Javier directed youth programs for Girls Incorporated of Santa Barbara.

Javier is an advocate for equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. He is a founder and Vice President of HONOR Political Action Committee, which advocates for the political empowerment of the Latino LGBT community. Javier also co-founded the Latino Equality Alliance in Los Angeles to align Latino and LGBT organizations to advocate for liberty, equality, and justice for both communities. In 2009, the Los Angeles City Council formally recognized Javier as one of the “New Faces of the LGBT Movement,” and Frontiers In L.A. magazine named Javier as one of the top 25 LGBT leaders in Los Angeles.

Javier earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He currently resides in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles.

Nicole Ward, Vice President Strategic Campaigns

Nicole Ward is one of California’s leading political operatives, working to win policy and political campaigns for nearly twenty years. She has extensive experience working in successful candidate, ballot initiative and independent expenditure campaigns, with special expertise in local campaign management and constituency coalition building. Her many years of work with organized labor give her a deep understanding of policy and politics in California.

Prior to joining PSP, Nicole was the Political Director for the SEIU’s United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW) local, where she designed and implemented the statewide political and legislative agenda. ULTCW is one of the nation’s largest local unions, representing over 200,000 long-term care workers in California.

Nicole oversaw millions of dollars of independent expenditures and member communications for targeted races. She also provided strategic guidance to organizing campaigns. During her tenure, union membership more than doubled.

Among Nicole’s accomplishments at ULTCW, she created and implemented an aggressive statewide member-driven campaign to influence the state budget for in-home care. As many programs were sustaining cuts, Nicole’s leadership successfully prevented state budget cuts for in-home care.

To sustain action over the long term, she created the Long-Term Care Action Team, which trained members to lobby elected officials, educate on political events, learn campaign skills and learn the budget and legislative process.

Prior to her work in labor, Nicole was an Account Executive at Stoorza, Zieguas and Metzger Public Affairs where she managed client accounts, providing public relations and strategic advice. She also served as the campaign manger for Proposition CC, the L.A. Zoo Bond, which set a record for public support of any citywide bond in Los Angeles.

In the mid-1990s, Nicole provided campaign consulting services for a variety of political campaigns in Northern California. Her political experience includes serving as campaign manager, field director and development director for several State Assembly races, local ballot measures and municipal races in the Bay Area. Nicole also worked for Hanson & Associates, providing fundraising consulting services for a variety of political campaigns and nonprofit organizations.

Nicole began her political career at the California Democratic Party in 1991, where she served as the Deputy Press Secretary after finishing an internship at the State Capitol with then Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr.