Our own Ryan, Walker keynote speakers at CPAC

The boys who made Wisconsin famous...the conservative rock stars from Janesville and Delavan...both future Presidents? Could very well happen.

2/9/2012 8:44:00 AM
Wisconsin's presence looms large at CPAC


By Kevin Binversie
Wisconsin Reporter


As grassroots conservative activists from across the country for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, Wisconsin and two of her political powerhouses will be taking center stage.

The two heavy hitters, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-1st District, and Gov. Scott Walker, are headlining the conference's two big banquets Thursday and Friday, respectively, when hundreds of conservatives gather for speeches, planning and strategy sessions moving into the 2012 election season.

It marks the first time in the conference’s history that the dinners’ keynote speakers both hail from the same state.

“We certainly didn’t plan it this way,” said Gregg Keller, executive director of the American Conservative Union, a political nonprofit that advocates for conservative policies. ACU has held CPAC gatherings each year since 1973. “We were looking for two lawmakers who have had an impact on our country’s fiscal debate and, low and behold, they both happened to be from Wisconsin.

“Scott Walker has taken on the public employee unions and has been able to make his state’s finances solvent,” said Keller. “And then you have (House Budget Chairman) Paul Ryan, who has really been a kind of champion in trying to get the federal government to get its fiscal house in order. He has put forth and passed a budget which has helped move the ball forward on conservative values.”

Keller said the response from activists on hearing that Ryan and Walker would address CPAC attendees has been overwhelming.

Sold out

“Both of these banquets have already sold out, and everyone I’ve talked to about this weekend sounds really, really excited about hearing the two of them,” Keller said.

Past speakers at these banquets have included former U.S. presidents, sitting and former heads of state such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, members of Congress, conservative intellectuals and activists.

Recent banquet speakers have included U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio;Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and syndicated columnist and regular panelist on the ABC News program “This Week,” George F. Will.

For all the focus Wisconsinites have had inwardly on their politics during the past year, it’s easy to forget the rest of the country is following every twist and turn of Wisconsin politics with us. The honor of having Ryan and Walker keynote the largest gathering of conservative activists in America is evidence of this.

Lawmakers in New Hampshire and Arizona are looking at adopting Walker’s public-sector collective bargaining reforms, as they search for ways to balance their state budgets.

And Ryan has emerged as one of the most outspoken advocates for a return to fiscal sanity on the federal level, as the nation enters its fourth year of annual budget deficits passing $1 trillion.

So this weekend, Ryan and Walker will not be representing just their achievements, their policies and their conservatism. They will be representing Wisconsin’s rise to prominence on the nation’s political stage.