CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY TO HOST SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL FOR BOOK SIGNING OF REPUBLICAN LEADER: A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY ON SENATOR MITCH McCONNELL, NOV. 13

By Christina Miller, student news writer

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky.—U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will sign Republican Leader: A Political Biography on Senator Mitch McConnell by Kentucky author John David Dyche at Campbellsville University Nov. 13.

The book signing begins at 11 a.m. in Campbellsville University's Barnes & Noble College Bookstore.

McConnell will also tape Dialogue on Public Issues with John Chowning, vice president for church and external relations and executive assistant to the president at Campbellsville University. He will also give an address at 10 a.m. in Campbellsville University's Winters Dining Hall. Following the address, a reception will be held in the Chowning Executive Dining Room. The public is invited to the address and reception.

The event is a part of the Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy.

McConnell, the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky's history, is the Senate Republican Leader in the 111th Congress. Elected to that position unanimously by his colleagues on Nov. 18, 2008, he is the 15th Senate Republican Leader and only the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate. He was first elected to Senate in 1984.

McConnell previously served as the Republican Leader in the 110th Congress and the Majority Whip in the 108th and 109th Congresses. McConnell also served in leadership as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 1998 and 2000 election cycles.

McConnell graduated in 1964 with honors from the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences, where he served as student body president. In 1967, he graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.

McConnell worked as an intern on Capitol Hill for Senator John Sherman Cooper before serving as chief legislative assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and as deputy assistant attorney general to President Gerald Ford. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he served as judge-executive of Jefferson County, Ky., from 1978 until he commenced his Senate term on Jan. 3, 1985.

McConnell serves as a senior member of the Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees.

He and his wife, Elaine L. Chao, who served as President George W. Bush's U.S. Secretary of Labor and as former president of the United Way of America and director of the Peace Corps, have three daughters.

Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 3,006 students who represent 97 Kentucky counties, 30 states and 37 foreign nations. Listed in U.S.News & World Report's 2010 “America's Best Colleges,” CU is ranked 23rd in “Best Baccalaureate Colleges” in the South, tied for fifth in “most international students” and fourth in “up-and-coming” schools in baccalaureate colleges in the South. CU has been ranked 17 consecutive years with U.S.News & World Report. The university has also been named to America's Best Christian Colleges® and to G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military Friendly School. Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his 11th year as president.