Official Publication of the National League of Cities OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES
NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
Volume 34, Number 45 | December 12, 2011

IN THIS ISSUE
www.nlc.org
PAGE 3

PAGE 3
Time Banks: Service is in Season All
Year Long
PAGE 4
NEA Posts 2012 Our Town Grant
Details
PAGE 5
New Members, First-Time Attendees
Interact With NLC at Congress of Cities
Gillespie, McAuliffe to Open Congressional City Conference

by Cyndy Liedtke Hogan
Former heads of the coun-
try’s major political parties will
be the speakers for the open-
ing general session of the 2012
Congressional City Conference
in March in Washington, D.C.
Ed Gillespie, former coun-
selor to the President and for-
mer chairman of the Republican
National Committee and Terry
McAuliffe, former chairman
of the Democratic National
Committee, and chairman of
Hillary Clinton for President,
will speak on Monday, March
12, to attendees of NLC’s legis-
lative conference.

Gillespie and McAuliffe will
offer their perspectives on the
2012 election, which will be an
area of focus for the conference
and NLC in the coming year.
“As we enter this critical elec-
tion year, it is important that
we hear from each of the par-
ties to learn what they plan on
doing on behalf of our nation’s
cities,” said NLC President Ted
Ellis, mayor of Bluffton, Ind.
“These are two excellent speak-
ers, who bring a knowledge base
from years of experience at the

Ed Gillespie

very top levels of our nation’s
political process.”
Gillespie is one of the coun-
try’s top communications strat-
egists with a long record of
success in business, politics and
government. He is founder of
Ed Gillespie Strategies, a stra-
tegic consulting firm that pro-
vides high-level advice to com-
panies and CEOs, coalitions
and trade associations.

At the beginning of 2010,
Gillespie was named chair-
man of the Republican State
Leadership Committee, which

Terry McAuliffe
helps elect state attorneys gen-
eral, lieutenant governors, sec-
retaries of state and house and
senate candidates across the
country.
Gillespie was Counselor to
the President in the last 18
months of the George W. Bush
Administration.
A former chairman of
the Republican National
Committee, Gillespie in 2004
became the first GOP chair-
man in 80 years to preside over
his party’s winning the White
House, House and Senate.

Gillespie was a long-time
aide to former House Majority
Leader Dick Armey, and as pol-
icy and communications direc-
tor for the House Republican
Conference, he was a principal
drafter of the Contract with
America, the 1994 campaign
platform on which Republicans
gained control of the House
of Representatives for the first
time in 40 years. Gillespie is
also the author of “Winning
Right: Campaign Politics and
Conservative Policies.”
McAuliffe, a lifelong entre-
preneur, key strategist, presi-
dential confidante, party chair-
man and fundraiser extraordi-
naire, has long played a part in
national politics and the elec-
toral process.

Credited with almost single-
handedly bringing a financially
ailing Democratic Party out of
the red, McAuliffe began his

2012

political career as a 23-year old
Catholic University graduate
who became finance chairman
for President Jimmy Carter.
His prowess at wrangling donor
support propelled him to big-
ger and bigger roles, including
chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, chair-
man of Bill Clinton’s reelection
committee and, most recently,
chairman of Hillary Clinton for
President.
Under his tenure as chair-
man of the DNC, McAuliffe
raised over $535 million, the
most ever raised by either politi-
cal party.
His The New York Times best-
selling memoir, “What A Party!:
My Life Among Democrats:
Presidents, Candidates,
Donors, Activists, Alligators
and Other Wild Animals,”

see page 7, column 1
Congress Continues to Wrangle Over
Long-Term Transportation Legislation

City Leaders Urged to Contact Senators to Protect Local Decision-Making
by Leslie Wollack

Newspaper Handling

As Congress gets ready to leave for the
year, lawmakers from both the House
and Senate promoted their own solu-
tions to the two-year impasse regarding
a long-term surface transportation pro-
gram for the nation. Provisions in the
bill that is moving, albeit slowly, would
impact the role that local governments
play in making planning decisions on
transportation projects in their com-
munities
With possible action this week by
the Senate Banking Committee on the
Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st
Century Act of 2011 (MAP-21), local
officials are urged to contact their sena-
tors and urge them to oppose changes
in the threshold for regional planning
responsibilities that would result in los-
ing their seat at the table for making
transportation spending decisions.

see page 7, column 1

share

fullscreen

Open Article

article text for page

< previous story | next story >

add comment | read comments

Share this page with a friend
Save to “My Stuff”
Subscribe to this magazine
Search
Help