Karl Rove, whose name has been synonymous with Republican Party national political strategy most of this century, is to speak before a capacity crowd Monday night at the University of Toledo.
His address is at 7 p.m. in Doermann Theatre. Although tickets for the event are sold out, the university has announced it will stream the event live free of charge in UT’s Memorial Field House, Room 2100, to accommodate the overflow audience.
Mr. Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush’s senior adviser for seven years, is to be the first speaker in the 2014-2015 academic year’s Jesup Scott Honors College Distinguished Lecture Series.
In addition to leading Mr. Bush’s election campaigns in 2000 and 2004, Mr. Rove served as deputy chief of staff from 2004 to 2007, overseeing the offices of strategic initiatives, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs. He was deputy chief of staff for policy and coordinated the White House policy-making process.
In his online biography, Mr. Rove quotes Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report author-columnist, as saying no presidential appointee “has ever had such a strong influence on politics and policy, and none is likely to do so again anytime soon.”
But he has his critics.
The change.org Web site had 216 signatures last night on a petition calling upon UT to cancel the event, claiming that Mr. Rove’s “moral character does not meet the university's standards of excellence and undermines its reputation as an academic institution.”
Before running Mr. Bush’s campaigns, Mr. Rove was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, nonpartisan causes, and nonprofit groups.
His clients included more than 75 Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden, according to his biography.
He has served as a Fox News contributor, and now serves on the University of Texas Chancellor’s Council executive committee and on the board of trustees for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and the Texas State History Museum Foundation. He is a member of the McDonald Observatory board of visitors and the Texas Philosophical Society.
A Colorado native, Mr. Rove writes a weekly op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and is the author of a best-selling book, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. He also has written for other national publications, such as Forbes, FoxNews.com, Newsweek, and the Washington Post.
He has a joint appointment in the journalism and government departments at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches graduate students in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, his biography states.
Next up in the Distinguished Lecture Series will be Paul Begala, political strategist and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, on Jan. 21, followed by Brian Kennedy, Toledo Museum of Art director, on March 24.
First Published September 13, 2014, 4:39 a.m.
