Face The State Staff Report
What do a student, a retired air force pilot, a financial advisor, an assistant district attorney and an entrepreneur have in common? They’re all members of the 2009 Leadership Program of the Rockies.
LPR, a center-right non-partisan political training program, selects from a highly competitive annual applicant pool of hundreds. Curriculum for its 65 participants largely focuses on the principles of free enterprise, as well as contemporary issues surrounding limited government, elections, and individual rights. Much like applying to college, hopefuls fill out an application and submit two letters of recommendation. The standouts are asked back for interviews before a three-person panel that includes LPR President Shari Williams, alumni, and board members.
This year's class kicked off Thursday night with a party at the governor's mansion in Denver. Participants were back Friday morning with a welcome from LPR Chairman Bob Schaffer, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Wayne Allard. “Conservatism means something different all over the world,” Schaffer told the class. “The Founding Fathers used to be considered liberal.”
Schaffer explained the five values he hopes LPR’s leaders take away from the program: the power and importance of the individual, the family, the moral case for capitalism, how weakness threatens freedom, and the moral absolutes that are the foundation of early American thought.
Dr. Tom Krannawitter, an assistant political science professor at Hillsdale College, also appeared Friday as a guest lecturer. Krannawitter walked participants through the history of "progressive" thought in America and compared that philosophy to the principles of America’s Founding Fathers.
According to Krannawitter, the single greatest political crisis today is that the U.S. constitution is irrelevant to political life. When a frustrated student asked how America has drifted so far from the original intent of its founders, Krannawitter replied, “I hate to say this, but we have gotten the government we voted for. It’s largely a criticism of ourselves.”
“I wish my professors were more like that,” said Athena Dalton, 20, a University of Colorado student and the youngest member of this year’s class.
Dalton, a delegate to the Republican National Convention, said part of her motivation for participating in LPR is because she has aspirations to run for political office. Many LPR graduates have gone on to hold public office, such as U.S. Attorney Troy Eid, state Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colo. Springs, former state Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier, and former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. While the program was once called the "Republican Leadership Program," it shed its partisan focus in 2004, and now focuses more on ideology than politics, frequently admitting those from other political parties.