Basic Info
| First Name | Mitchell |
| Last Name | Colbert |
| Username | MRColbert |
Additional Contact Information
| Pronouns | My name is preferred or He/Him to keep it simple is fine. |
| Website |
Progressive Profile
| Current Employer | Full Spectrum Strategy |
| Current Occupation | Political consulting, lobbying, and technical writing |
| Tagline | Working Every Day to Create a Better World. |
| Bio | My first campaign was knocking doors and making calls for Barack Obama in 2008. Two years later, I was a regional director for California’s Prop 19 campaign, which came 4% away from legalizing cannabis in California. Early in the 2012 election cycle I worked as a regional director for two failed ballot initiatives, George Lakoff’s initiative to re-establish the simple majority vote for raising taxes in California and another cannabis legalization effort. After those initiatives both failed to qualify for the ballot, I worked with a union-affiliated 501c4 to successfully pass California’s Millionaire’s Tax that same cycle. My next campaign was knocking doors and making calls for Bernie Sanders, both in 2016 and 2020. Most recently, in 2024 I was a special advisor on cannabis issues for Thomas Witkop’s campaign to unseat Brian Mast in Florida’s 21st District. Aside from formal campaign experience, as a lobbyist I have successfully led campaigns to legalize the recycling of cannabis waste in Colorado, California, and New York. |
| Impact | There are four main areas of progressive politics I have impacted in the past: transgender rights, school funding, drug policy reform, and sustainability. While a student at San Jose State University I created an art installation at a school event which drew attention to the school health center’s discriminatory policy against transgender students as part of a larger effort I helped organize with transgender friends on campus. Our efforts led to a reversal of school policy. I lobbied locally and in Sacramento with Students for Quality Education (a student group affiliated with the California Faculty Association) and helped build a movement demanding increased school funding. After graduation, I worked with another union group to help pass the California Millionaire’s Tax, which has brought in billions of dollars in school funding since it was passed in 2012. In addition to helping legalize cannabis in California, I have successfully amended cannabis regulations and statute in California, Colorado, and New York to legalize the recycling of cannabis waste. As a big focus of my work has focused on vape waste, I have a deep knowledge of the ecigarette market as well. I have sat on working groups and participated on the implementation process both for cannabis regulations, and for SB 54, a first in the nation plastic packaging waste extended producer responsibility law. After several years working on cannabis and waste regulations, last year the ASTM International published my first-of-its-kind peer reviewed study comparing the volume of cannabis packaging waste created in California to other household hazardous waste. I found that the total of cannabis waste was much higher than paint, oil, and even batteries. Now that we have data, there are clear solutions that can be implemented by regulators, businesses, and consumers. As a journalist, I have profiled cannabis legalization efforts around the globe, written on Republicans support for cannabis (while secretly working to profit off it), and otherwise used my pen for progressive change in a number of ways. |
| Mission | As my tagline both here and on LinkedIn says, I am working every day to create a better world. Since I was a child my goal for my career has been to leave this planet in a better place than when I found it, and it’s my view that if everyone had that goal this planet would be a lot better off. Unfortunately, many people are myopically focused on the next fiscal quarter, the next shareholder meeting, or the next campaign cycle, rather than how to build something that lasts longer than their lifetime. As someone who has lived paycheck to paycheck, I understand the survival needs of working class people to focus on what they need to do to make ends meet, but political elites who drive movements fall victim to substituting short-term tactical thinking for actual long-term strategies. I want to collaborate with like-minded people to refocus our politics in the progressive movement and in the US on longterm movement building, like past progressives did to achieve the wins of the labor movement and civil rights era. The rightwing currently has us on the defense because they have been building unconventional political movements on the periphery (i.e. militias, natalists, Qanon, etc), and now those various fringe movements are organized into a plurality of the electorate. We need to engage in the same type of long-term movement building. |
Work History
| Employer | Full Spectrum Strategy |
| Occupation | Founder, CEO, Technical Writer, and Head Lobbyist |
| Start Date | October 1, 2022 |
| Employer | ASTM International Committee D37 on Cannabis Standards |
| Occupation | Member |
| Start Date | April 1, 2023 |
| Employer | Oaksterdam University |
| Occupation | Lecturer, Technical Writer, and Coach |
| Start Date | June 1, 2019 |
| Employer | Ethical Data Alliance/Green Aid |
| Occupation | Executive Director |
| Start Date | January 1, 2020 |
| End Date | March 1, 2024 |
| Employer | Vessel (Flora Growth) |
| Occupation | Head of Social and Environmental Impact |
| Start Date | June 1, 2021 |
| End Date | April 1, 2023 |
| Employer | Full Spectrum Strategy |
| Occupation | Founder, CEO, Technical Writer, and Head Lobbyist |
| Start Date | October 1, 2018 |
| End Date | February 1, 2021 |
| Employer | Pistil + Stigma |
| Occupation | Communications Lead and Senior Consultant |
| Start Date | April 1, 2017 |
| End Date | May 1, 2018 |