


Dick Morris
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Probably the most prominent American political consultant, Dick Morris is almost universally credited with piloting Bill Clinton to a stunning comeback re-election victory in 1996 after the president lost Congress to the Republican two years before. Called "the most influential private citizen in America" by Time Magazine Morris helped steer Clinton to the center and away from the liberal policies he had pursued in his first two years in office. Morris is also credited with advising Clinton to sign the welfare reform bill of 1996 and getting him to back a balanced budget, both key centrist positions.
Morris began his relationship with Clinton in 1977 when he handled the Arkansas Attorney General's successful campaign to become the youngest Governor in the nation. Morris did not work on Clinton's defeat for re-election in 1980 but did oversee his comeback victory in 1982 as well as his Arkansas re -election victories in 1984, 86, and 1990.
In addition to Clinton, Morris has handled the winning campaigns for more than 30 Senators or Governors.
In recent years, Morris has turned to foreign campaigns and served as chief strategist for Mexico's reformer Vicente Fox in his upset victory in July, 2000 over the PRI after the party had ruled the nation for 71 years. He also was the strategist behind Felipe Calderon’s victory in Mexico in 2006. He was the chief strategist for the winning campaigns for the Presidents or Prime Ministers in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Taiwan, Japan, Romania, and Ukraine.
In the United States, Morris has become a familiar figure as a commentator for the Fox News Channel. He is well known for hard hitting, nonpartisan, objective commentary about the U.S. political scene. He writes a weekly column for the New York Post and another for the Hill Magazine in Washington DC.
He has written twelve books including eight New York Times bestsellers. His most recent best seller, written with his wife, Eileen McGann, Catastrophe, debuted on the New York Times best seller list as number one. The other best sellers are: Behind the Oval Office (his memoir about the Clinton years), Off With Their Heads (about the war on terror), Rewriting History (a biography of Hillary Clinton he wrote with his wife, Eileen McGann), Because He Could (about Bill Clinton also with Eileen), and Condi vs. Hillary (promoting Condoleezza Rice for president written with Eileen) and Outrage (essays about rip-offs in America with Eileen), and Fleeced (which warned of the disaster Obama would bring). His other books are: Power Plays, Vote.com, The New Prince, and Bum Rap on American Cities which he wrote in the 70s.
He lives with his wife of 33 years, Eileen McGann in Florida.
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Phyllis Schlafly
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Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum, a national organization of citizens who participate as volunteers in the public policymaking process. It maintains offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and in Alton, Illinois. She is also the founder and president of Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, a think-tank which has its national headquarters at the Eagle Forum Education Center in St. Louis. In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. An articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement, she appears in debate on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies' Home Journal. Mrs. Schlafly's monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report is now in its 42nd year. Her syndicated column appears in 100 newspapers, her radio commentaries are heard daily on 500 stations, and her radio talk show on education called "Eagle Forum Live" is heard weekly on 75 stations. Mrs. Schlafly is a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Reagan. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues. Mrs. Schlafly is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her J.D. from Washington University Law School, and received her Master's in Political Science from Harvard University. In 2008 Washington University - St. Louis awarded Phyllis an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
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Pat Toomey,
U.S. Senate candidate
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Pat Toomey, 45, was the President and CEO of the Club for Growth, America's leading limited-government, free-enterprise advocacy group.
Before joining the Club for Growth, Mr. Toomey served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, from Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district, for three terms, from January 1999 through January 2005. Mr. Toomey distinguished himself as one of Congress's leading advocates for limited government and personal freedom. He served on the Budget Committee, the Financial Services Committee and the Small Business Committee.
In 2005, Mr. Toomey co-founded Team Capital Bank, now operating in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. He co-chairs the Board of Directors.
Mr. Toomey also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Bradley Foundation is devoted to strengthening American democratic capitalism and the institutions, principles, and values that sustain and nurture it. Mr. Toomey also serves on the Board of Directors of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Prior to his service in Congress, Mr. Toomey co-founded, owned and operated four very successful, original-concept restaurants and bars in Allentown and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
His first career was in investment banking from 1984 through 1991. He helped develop and manage a $21 billion derivatives trading operation for Morgan Grenfell Finance, Inc. in New York, supervising sales and trading operations in New York, London and Tokyo.
Mr. Toomey attended La Salle Academy in Providence, RI and graduated from Harvard University, cum laude, with a degree in government.
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Kellyanne Conway
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Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway is CEO and President of the polling company™, inc. a privately-held, woman-owned corporation founded in 1995. The firm is headquartered in Washington, DC and maintains an office in New York City. Mrs. Conway is one of the most quoted and noted pollsters on the national scene.
Among her accomplishments, she was recognized as the most accurate predictor of the 2004 elections and received The Washington Post's "Crystal Ball" award and co-author of WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live (Free Press, 2005). The book has met with critical acclaim for its ability to distill complex data into memorable message points, acronyms, and phrases.
Throughout her 20-year qualitative and quantitative research career, Kellyanne has provided primary research and advice for clients in 46 of the 50 states and has directed hundreds of demographic and attitudinal survey projects for statewide and congressional political races, trade associations, and Fortune 100 companies. A professionally trained moderator, Kellyanne has personally directed more than 300 focus groups and other qualitative discussions. Clients have included Lifetime Television, The Heritage Foundation, Major League Baseball, The Federalist Society, Coalition of Community Pharmacists Association, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Mass Connections, American Express, ABC News, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
A "fully-recovered" attorney, Kellyanne is admitted to practice law in four jurisdictions (Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia). She has practiced law, clerked for a judge in Washington, DC and for four years, was an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law Center. Kellyanne is a magna cum laude graduate of Trinity College, Washington, D.C., where she earned a B.A. in Political Science, studied at Oxford University, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She holds a law degree, with honors, from George Washington University Law Center.
Kellyanne has provided commentary on over 1,200 television shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, HBO, Comedy Central, MTV and the Fox News Channel, and countless radio shows and print stories. Kellyanne has been profiled in over a dozen magazines, newspapers, and television programs. Her polling data and op-eds have been published by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, National Review, Human Events, Investors' Business Daily, and Campaigns and Elections.
She is the Editor and Publisher of WomanTrends Online, a web-based publication that provides the latest news on a multitude of current and prospective lifestyle, financial, health, ethnic, work, entertainment, green, technological, and generational trends, which are influencing and influenced by consumer attitudes and behaviors. WomanTrend, a division of the polling company, inc., analyzes over 50 national and international publications and compiles the findings into WomanTrends Online.
She is a board member of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, the National Journalism Center, the National Women's History Museum, and Men Against Breast Cancer and past member of the University of San Francisco School of Business Advisory Council. Mrs. Conway retains memberships in the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA).
Kellyanne (formerly "Fitzpatrick") is a native of South Jersey. She is married to George T. Conway III and they have four children.
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John Gizzi,
Human Events
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With his daily access to the White House as a correspondent, Mr. Gizzi offers readers the inside scoop in his weekly politics column and Gizz-ette blog. The man who knows everyone in Washington got his start at Human Events in 1979 after graduating from Fairfield University in Connecticut and then working for the Travis County (Tex.) Tax Assessor.
Mr. Gizzi has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including those on C-SPAN, America's Voice, and Talk America, and is also a frequent contributor to the BBC. He is a past president of the Georgetown Kiwanis Club, past member of the St. Matthew's Cathedral's Parish Council, and secretary of the West End Friends of the Library. He is a recipient of the William A. Rusher Award for Journalistic Excellence and was named Journalist of the Year by the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2002.
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Tim Phillips,
Americans for Prosperity
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Tim Phillips is president of Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has enjoyed rapid growth, going from nine state chapters in January of 2006 to 25 state chapters today, with 980,000 grassroots activists who are fighting for free-market principles at the state, national and local levels. During 2009 AFP held over 300 "hands off my health care" bus rallies and town hall meetings as part of their effort to defeat the health care takeover. AFP's "Cost of hot air" tours have executed 82 events as part of a national effort to defeat cap-and-trade legislation.
Tim is a veteran political strategist and one of the nation’s premier grassroots organizers with 24 years of experience, including presidential, gubernatorial and congressional races, as well as state legislative, local and issue-advocacy campaigns. In 1992, Tim managed U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) first congressional campaign and later served as Rep. Goodlatte’s chief of staff on Capitol Hill for four years. In 1997, Tim helped found Century Strategies, one of the nation’s leading public affairs, political consulting and public relations firms. He was named a "Rising Star in Politics" in 1998 by Campaigns and Elections magazine. Tim and his wife, Julia, have been married for 25 years, and are the proud parents of four children.
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Dick Thornburgh
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Identified by Washingtonian magazine recently as one of "ten legendary Washington lawyers who will forever leave their mark on the District's legal landscape," Dick Thornburgh is currently counsel to the international law firm of K&L Gates LLP, resident in its Washington, D.C. office. He previously served as Governor of Pennsylvania, Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, during a public career which spanned over 25 years.
Elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978 and re-elected in 1982, Thornburgh was the first Republican ever to serve two successive terms in that office. He served as Chair of the Republican Governors Association and was named by his fellow governors as one of the nation's most effective big-state governors in a 1986 Newsweek poll.
During his service as Governor, Thornburgh balanced state budgets for eight consecutive years, reduced both personal and business tax rates, cut the state's record-high indebtedness and left a surplus of $350 million. Under his leadership, 15,000 unnecessary positions were eliminated from the swollen state bureaucracy that he inherited and widely recognized economic development, education and welfare reform programs were implemented. Pennsylvania's unemployment rate, among the ten highest in the nation when he was elected, was among the ten lowest when he left office as 50,000 new businesses and 500,000 new jobs were created during his tenure.
Following the unprecedented Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, Governor Thornburgh was described by observers as "one of the few authentic heroes of that episode as a calm voice against panic."
After his unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate, Thornburgh served three years as Attorney General of the United States (1988-1991) in the cabinets of Presidents Reagan and Bush. He mounted a vigorous attack on white-collar crime as the Department of Justice obtained a record number of convictions of savings and loan and securities officials, defense contractors and corrupt public officials. Thornburgh established strong ties with law enforcement agencies around the world to help combat drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism and international white-collar crime. During his tenure as Attorney General, he twice argued and won cases before the United States Supreme Court.
All told, Thornburgh served in the Justice Department under five Presidents, beginning as United States Attorney in Pittsburgh (1969-1975) and Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division (1975-1977), emphasizing efforts against major drug traffickers, organized crime and corrupt public officials. In August 2002, he was appointed Examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy proceedings, then the largest ever filed, to report on wrongdoing and malfeasance that led to the company's downfall. He was also chosen in 2004 by CBS to co-chair an independent investigation into the "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard and has conducted numerous other internal investigations for leading enterprises.
During his service as Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations (1992-1993), Thornburgh was in charge of personnel, budget and finance matters. His report to the Secretary-General on reform, restructuring and streamlining efforts designed to make the United Nations peacekeeping, humanitarian and development programs more efficient and cost-effective was widely praised. He also has served as a consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on efforts to battle fraud and corruption.
Throughout his career, he has traveled widely, visiting over 40 countries and meeting with leaders from Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, India, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand and Central and South America. He served as an observer to the Russian Federation's first legislative (1993) and presidential (1996) elections.
A native of Pittsburgh, Thornburgh was educated at Yale University, where he obtained an engineering degree, and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He has been awarded honorary degrees by 32 other colleges and universities. Thornburgh served as Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government (1987-1988) and has lectured on over 125 other campuses, (including Moscow State University), debated at the Oxford Union and has frequently appeared as a guest commentator on network news and talk shows.
Thornburgh was an elected Delegate to Pennsylvania's historic Constitutional Convention (1967-1968) where he spearheaded efforts at judicial and local government reform. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives (1966) and the United States Senate (1991).
Thornburgh, born July 16, 1932, is married to Ginny Judson Thornburgh, a former schoolteacher from New York, who holds degrees from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She presently serves as Director of the Interfaith Initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities, based in Washington, D.C., and has co-authored and edited That All May Worship, an award-winning handbook for religious congregations working to include people with all types of disabilities. She received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in April, 2005.
The Thornburghs have four sons and six grandchildren. As parents of a son with physical and intellectual disability, they have taken a special interest in the needs of persons with disabilities and, with their son, Peter, were named "Family of the Year" in 1985 by the Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens. Both Ginny and Dick Thornburgh were featured speakers at the Vatican Conference on Disabilities held in Rome in November, 1992 and were co-recipients in 2003 of the Henry B. Betts Award, the proceeds from which were used to establish the Thornburgh Family Lecture Series on Disability Law and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dick Thornburgh's autobiography, "Where the Evidence Leads" was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in September 2003. Further details on his career are available online at www.library.pitt.edu/thornburgh.
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Mike Turzai
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Mike Turzai hit the ground running strong as soon as he was elected State Representative for the 28th district, representing communities in the North Hills of Allegheny County, in 2001. He quickly emerged as a commonsense, principled leader promoting fiscal responsibility, economic competitiveness and professional integrity. Mike was elected by the House Republican Caucus to serve as the Republican Whip for the 2009-2010 session.
Rep. Turzai has pushed hard to control government spending so we can reduce taxes on families. He has been out front in calling for a reduction in the personal income tax, a cut in the consumer electric tax and has fought for tax incentives for college savings.
Rep. Turzai has pushed for job retention and creation by advocating measures to lower overhead costs for employers, thereby incenting them to stay and expand here or start up and relocate here. He has lead efforts to provide real business tax relief. Mike has advocated for lawsuit abuse reform and a fair and balanced workers' compensation and unemployment compensation system.
Mike and his wife, Lidia and their three sons, Andrew, Stephen and Matthew, live in Bradford Woods and are involved in many community activities.
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Sam Rohrer
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Since his remarkable election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1992, Sam Rohrer has been one of the leading voices for state government reform and family-affirming public policies. His outspoken support for constitutional principles has been the hallmark of his public service. More than opposing negative public policies, Sam has been a champion for consensus-building public policy alternatives and solutions.
The son of a union steelworker, Sam strongly advocates issues that impact working families. By promoting the role of parents in their children’s education, opposing tax increases on employees and workers, and crafting landmark legislation to eliminate school property taxes, Sam continues to build broad bipartisan coalitions on a range of important issues.
During his tenure on the House Education Committee, Sam authored the historic Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) scholarship. To date, some 33,000 Pennsylvania students have been empowered to attend private or enhanced public school programs because of the initiative.
Sam and his family’s love of the outdoors fuels a passion to improve the stewardship of Pennsylvania’s natural resources. As the Republican chairman of the Game and Fisheries Committee, he was an outspoken proponent of commonsense conservation policies that respect private property and protects the rights of tens of thousands of hunters and anglers. Because of his uncompromising support for Second Amendment freedoms he has earned the consistent backing of sportsmen and gun owners.
In 2007, Sam was appointed to the Speaker’s Commission on Government Reform, which brought new levels of transparency and accountability to the state legislature. In his current role as Republican chairman of the House Finance Committee, he continues to argue for strong, structural limits on state government taxes and spending.
In recent months, Sam has been leading opposition to the explosive growth of federal spending, regulations and unconstitutional mandates in Pennsylvania. This year, he led an effort to pass the “10th Amendment Resolution,” challenging the expanded reach of the federal government in areas ranging from healthcare to education.
Sam and his wife Ruth Ann are the parents of six children and three grandchildren. The Rohrer family considers their commitment to faith and family as their highest priorities.
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Tom Corbett
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In 2004, Tom Corbett was elected to serve as Pennsylvania's chief law enforcement officer, the Attorney General. In November 2008 he won reelection in a decisive fashion, drawing strong bipartisan support for the office's ongoing mission to make this Commonwealth a safer better place for families to live, work and raise a family.
When first running for the office, Corbett identified four pressing problems threatening Pennsylvania's communities. Once elected, General Corbett quickly addressed these issues by developing and creating the following programs: 1.) a Child Predator Unit to capture Internet predators before they have a chance to prey on our children, with 244 convicted to date; 2.) an Elder Abuse Unit to protect our senior citizens from fraud and abuse; 3.) a Public Corruption Unit to protect citizens from abuse of power and government corruption; and 4.) a dedicated commitment to fight the war on illegal drugs and gangs in our neighborhoods and to halt drug trafficking in our communities.
Tom Corbett's experience as a criminal prosecutor began in Allegheny County as Assistant.
District Attorney. President Ronald Reagan appointed Corbett to be Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of PA and named him one of the first members of President Reagan's National Drug Task Force. Following several years of private law practice, President George H. W. Bush appointed Corbett to become the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. In 1995, Governor Tom Ridge selected Tom Corbett to fill the vacancy in the Attorney General's office for the duration of the term. It was not until 2004 that Corbett ran statewide for Attorney General and won both highly contested primary and general election races.
Recognized as a national leader on his balanced approach to business, General Corbett has been featured on the cover of CFO magazine. Corbett was a leader of the northeast Attorneys General through his association with the National Association of Attorneys General. He served as Chairman of the Republican Association of Attorneys General and sits on the Attorney General of the United States' Executive Working Group, an elite group of law enforcement officials from throughout the nation.
General Corbett served his country as a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard 28th Infantry Division, rising in rank from private to captain. Corbett received his undergraduate degree from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania; and earned his law degree at St. Mary's University Law School in San Antonio, Texas.
A life-long Pennsylvania resident, Tom married his college sweetheart, Susan. They are the proud parents of two children: Tom, a video game producer and Katherine, a prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's office.
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Taking Back our State and Nation
April 16-17, 2010
Four Points by Sheraton, Harrisburg
HOLD THE DATE ! ! !
2011 PA Leadership Conference
April 8-9, 2011
Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center
Camp Hill, PA
Scott Adams will be performing his original song
"Sacred Honor"
at this year’s Pennsylvania Leadership Conference.



Past PLC Keynote Speakers included:
Michael Reagan (2009), Michelle Malkin (2008), Laura Ingraham (2007),
Joe Scarborough (2006), Ann Coulter (2005), David Horowitz (2001), Walter Williams (1999),
Robert Walker (1996), Rick Santorum (1995), Armstrong Williams (1994), Lynn Cheney (1993),
Robert Novak (1992), William Bennett (1991), M. Stanton Evans (1990) and Newt Gingrich (1989).