With the 2010-midterm elections over, Republicans now hold majority in the House of Representatives, and Democrats hold majority in the senate. This may make bipartisan politics more important than ever.

Tulane University will house the second annual national political summit, hosted by James Carville, Mary Matalin and the Bipartisan Policy Center. The title and theme of this year’s conference is “Beyond the Ballot: Making Washington Work.”

“The thought behind it is basically to gather some of the nation’s top Republican and Democratic political consultants and bring them together one week after the midterms to talk about how we can move from campaigning to governing,” said Eileen McMenamin, vice president of communications for the BPC.

The event will feature speakers from both Democratic and Republican parties including political strategists James Carville, Mary Matalin, Steve Schmidt and Kiki McLean among many others.

The conference will be split into three panels.

The first panel, entitled, “Taking Stock: What the Election Means for Bipartisanship,” will focus on the 2010-midterm election results and the need for bipartisanship in the house and senate, according to McMenamin.

“I think any observer of Washington, recently at least, would say that there has been some partisanship that is gumming up the works,” McMenamin said.

The second panel, entitled “Blurring the Line: Is it Journalism or Entertainment?” will look at the rise of new media and more partisan media outlets and the effect they are having on government and campaigning.

“In the age of Facebook, Twitter and blogs, obviously it’s completely changed the way that campaigns are done and the way that, frankly, politicians run their offices in Washington,” McMenamin said. “Most senators and representatives now have twitter accounts.”

The third panel is called “The Politics of Crisis.” It will focus on the politics and bipartisanship that took place after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf oil spill.

The panel looks to explore the theme of how politicians should set politics aside at times of crisis in order to do what is right for the country, McMenamin said.

The BPC will also launch the “Democracy Project” during the summit. The “Democracy Project” is an effort to bring high level republicans and Democrats together to focus on civility in governing.

“We’re not focusing on civility for civility’s sake,” McMenamin said.

“We want to focus on promoting civility to encourage things to get done in D.C.”

“Beyond the Ballot: Making Washington Work” will be held Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Lavin-Bernick Center on the Tulane University campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Sam Winstrom can be reached at [email protected]