FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORMER CONGRESSIONAL WHIP TONY COELHO TO TEACH COURSE ON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS AT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

April 23, 2004 - Former Congressional Whip Tony Coelho will join LMU's nationally recognized presidential scholar Michael A. Genovese and elections expert Matthew Streb this fall to team-teach a new course focusing on the 2004 presidential election.

Called Campaign 2004, the political science course will examine the impact of the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism on the upcoming presidential election - the first since September 11. The curriculum also will include a study of the presidential selection process, the candidates, issues, and voters, and will examine the role of the media and the impact of money on the outcome of the election.

"Tony Coelho will add a dynamic dimension to the course.  Coelho, who once led Al Gore's campaign, is one of the top party strategists, and knows politics inside and out.  He has an uncanny sense of where the nation is going, and how to convert that vision into a campaign strategy,” said Genovese.  “No one knows politics better than Coelho, and it will be exciting to have someone teach our students who is so well connected and can add such considerable depth and insight on the political process."

Coelho represented California as a United States Congressman from 1979 to 1989. During that time, he rose to the third most powerful position in the House of Representatives, the Democratic Majority Whip. Coelho also has been a strong advocate of disability rights throughout his career. During the latter phase of his tenure as Congressman, Coelho introduced a piece of legislation that was the first version of what became the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Coelho also has held other leadership posts in both the private and public sectors.

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