- Nancy Pfotenhauer
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Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer (born Nancy Wadley) is currently the president of MediaSpeak Strategies. She was former Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign and political commentator on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC [1] She was also former Executive Vice President of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), former President of the Independent Women's Forum, and former President of Americans for Prosperity (originally CSE).[2]
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Early career
She started her career as graduate research assistant to Walter Williams at George Mason University, where she was taking an MA in economics. At George Mason, Pfotenhauer studied under Walter Williams, a substitute host on the Rush Limbaugh Show. After graduating from George Mason University, Pfotenhauer became chief economist at the Republican National Committee (1988). She worked for George H. W. Bush's transition team (at age 24) and then (1988–1990) Sen. William L. Armstrong (R-CO); in 1990 she was appointed chief economist of the President's Council on Competitiveness.[3]
Citizens for a Sound Economy
In 1995[4] Pfotenhauer joined Citizens for a Sound Economy as Executive Vice President for Policy. With her then-husband Daniel J. Mitchell, an economist at The Heritage Foundation, she co-hosted the call-in show Mitchells in the Morning on National Empowerment Television, run by Heritage Foundation founder Paul Weyrich.
Koch Industries (1996 - 2001)
From 1996 to 2001, she served as Director of the Washington office for Koch Industries (KII). She built and managed the DC team’s lobbying operation, PAC and all legislative and regulatory strategies in addition to jointly running KII’s government affairs operations globally. The largest privately-held company in the country, KII’s interests fell heavily in the energy, environment, transportation and tax fields. She ran multi-million dollar issue campaigns at the federal and state level, using earned and paid media and the most sophisticated message-development tools and grassroots and opinion-leader mobilization techniques.
While working for Koch, she married Gordon Smith's (R-OR)'s chief of staff Kurt Pfotenhauer, now a mortgage-industry lobbyist.
Recent career
Currently the president of MediaSpeak Strategies, Pfotenhauer was a Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the McCain for President campaign and frequent political commentator on FOX, CNN and MSNBC. She is the former President and C.E.O. of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) (2000–2005).[5] She was Vice Chairman of IWF’s Board of Directors from 2005-2007.[1] In 2002, Pfotenhauer was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as a delegate to the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women and served during the 46th session of the Commission.[6] The Bush Administration also appointed her to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women.[1] Additionally, she served on advisory committees reporting directly to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.
She was an advisor for the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. During the campaign she sparked controversy by referring to areas of Virginia outside of Northern Virginia as "real Virginia", picking up on a GOP talking point that Sarah Palin promoted, namely that red states are the "real America" and more "pro-America."[7]
In early 2011, she appeared as a spokeswoman for Koch Industries on FoxNews and other media outlets.
References
- ^ a b c http://www.pbs.org/ttc/panelists_pfotenhauer.html
- ^ PBS
- ^ Independent Women's Forum Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer
- ^ National Journal, 21 April 2001, People.
- ^ http://www.iwf.org/authors/show/275.html
- ^ http://www.nationalreview.com/kob/kob032102.shtml
- ^ Tapper, Jake (2008-10-18), McCain Adviser Says Northern Virginia Not "Real" Virginia, http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/mccain-adviser.html, retrieved 2008-10-28
Categories:- Living people
- American economists
- Female economists
- George Mason University alumni
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