KU News Release

Dole Institute director to discuss working for presidential candidate

LAWRENCE — Dole Institute of Politics Director Bill Lacy will discuss his experiences running the presidential campaign of former Sen. Fred Thompson at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, at the institute on the University of Kansas’ west campus. The program is free and open to the public.

“Presidential politics is almost impossible to predict,” said Jonathan Earle, interim director of the Dole Institute, who will remain as associate director for programming after Lacy’s return. “Most of us thought Fred had a serious shot at the nomination, and the campaign Bill ran was as classy as they come. I can’t wait to hear his stories from the trail.”

Described by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as a “calm man with a comfortable manner,” Lacy promises to give an unvarnished look at the campaign and the race for the White House.

Before joining the Dole Institute in 2004, Lacy worked in Washington, D.C., as a campaign strategist, serving in senior roles in the five presidential campaigns from 1980 to 1996. He served as White House political director for President Reagan and has had instrumental consulting roles in senatorial races, including Bob Dole’s 1992 campaign and the campaigns for Thompson’s victory in 1994 and re-election in 1996. Lacy also was vice chairman and CEO of the Sophie Mae Candy Co.

Lacy advised political parties for the 1990 democratic elections in Czechoslovakia, the first such elections in more than 50 years. Lacy was an advisory member for the 1988 Presidential Oral History Project of the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He was appointed fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1991. Lacy graduated from Vanderbilt University with bachelor’s degrees in political science and history.

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