Student political organizations present Santorum, McAuliffe

The initiative of student political groups at Bates College has drawn to campus national figures from both ends of the ideological spectrum during a single week in March.

Rick Santorum, a Republican who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House and Senate, addresses the topic of Islamic extremism at Bates at 7 p.m. Monday, March 14, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the Bates College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation, the talk is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact mcocciar@bates.edu.

Terry McAuliffe, who served as chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, offers the keynote speech at the Maine College Democrats Convention at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 18, also in the Muskie Archives. This talk, too, is open to the public at no cost.

The convention resumes with workshops and panel discussions at 8:30 a.m. the following day in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk). For more information, please contact dkempner@bates.edu.

Santorum, who served in the U.S. House from 1990 to 1995 and the Senate from 1995 through 2007, was known as one of his party’s most effective members in Congress. He was one of the House “Gang of Seven” that exposed the House banking and House post office scandals. He was also the author of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.

Santorum wrote the 2005 New York Times best-seller It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good (Intercollegiate Studies Institute). He is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Friday host of Bill Bennett’s national radio program “Morning in America” and a columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

McAuliffe is a longtime leader of and political adviser to the Democratic Party. As chair of the DNC, he raised $578 million, bringing the party out of debt for the first time in its history. In that role, he is also credited with creating a computer database of more than 170 million potential voters, and launching initiatives to educate and mobilize women voters, to mobilize younger voters and to protect voting rights.

He served as co-chair of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and chaired Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. McAuliffe unsuccessfully ran for the 2009 Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nomination. A longtime Virginia businessman, he is a founder and the chairman of GreenTech Automotive, which manufactures electric and hybrid vehicles.