Political strategist Karl Rove, former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, will be the keynote speaker for Washington and Lee University’s Mock Convention Spring Kickoff event on Saturday, May 7, 2011, at 5:00 p.m.
        The public is invited to attend the event, which will be held on the Front Lawn in front of Lee Chapel. (In the event of inclement weather, the event will move inside the chapel).
        Mock Convention’s Spring Kickoff will also feature panels of distinguished journalists, politicians and political scientists. The event marks the beginning of the countdown to the University’s 2012 Republican Mock Convention in February 2012.

Events during the Kickoff include:

• A performance by the satirical comedy troupe The Capitol Steps on Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. in the Keller Theater. Tickets are available through the Lenfest Center at (540) 458-8000 or online at http://www.wlu.edu/x19050.xml
  
• Presidential Issue Panel featuring political experts Larry Sabato, Rhodes Cook, Mike Allen and Kellyanne Conway, moderated by William Connelly, on Thursday, May 5, at 7 p.m. in Lee Chapel.

• Larry Sabato is one of the nation’s leading political analysts and one of the most accurate predictors of both Congressional and Presidential elections. He is the founder and lead author of the Crystal Ball Project, has authored more than 24 books, is a professor at the University of Virginia and is director for the U.Va.’s Center for Politics.
• Rhodes Cook is one of today’s leading political analysts. He runs a successful website (rhodescook.com), serves as a free-lance contributor for the Washington Post, and has authored several books on the election process. He has previously served as senior writer for Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report and makes frequent appearances on ABC News and CSPAN.
• Mike Allen, a W&L alumnus, currently serves as the chief political correspondent for Politico, one of the nation’s leading political news sites. As a student at W&L, Allen served as the Southern Regional Chair in the 1984 Mock Convention.
• Kellyanne Conway is the founder and president of the polling company Inc./WomanTrend and is one of the most trusted and noted pollsters on the national scene.

• Keynote address by Karl Rove on Saturday, May 7, at 5 p.m. in front of Lee Chapel.

        Rove, who was widely credited with winning two presidential elections for George W. Bush, is currently a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, and is a contributor to Fox News. He recently released his first book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight,” which is a New York Times bestseller.
         W&L’s Mock Convention is a quadrennial tradition where students pick the presidential nominee for the party out of power. Nearly the entire student body at W&L works for two years, researching potential candidates, following the polls, and gathering on-the-ground data. With only two incorrect predictions since 1948, and an overall accuracy rate of over 75 percent, Mock Con has been called “the most realistic” exercise of its kind by Newsweek magazine.
        After incorrectly selecting Hillary Clinton as the 2008 Democratic nominee, the students are eager to prove their skills in this next convention. Speakers of Mr. Rove’s caliber solidify the convention’s credibility and should ensure that in 2012 W&L will reaffirm its place as “the biggest and boomingest” of student political organizations (TIME Magazine).

Media Contacts:
Kali McFarland ’12 mcfarlandk12@mail.wlu.edu (757) 404-1214
Katy Stewart ’13 stewartk13@mail.wlu.edu (704) 560-2120
Jeff Hanna jhanna@wlu.edu (540) 458-8459