Jindal, Booker to speak tonight

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:12:14 -0500

Two rising political stars are speaking in the Triangle tonight.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will be the featured speaker at the John Locke Foundation's annual dinner in Raleigh tonight.

And Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker will speak at Duke University this evening.

Jindal, 37, became the youngest governor in the nation when he was sworn in last January. He made ethics reform and reducing business taxes his top priorities. He'll speak after a 6:30 p.m. dinner at the Marriott Crabtree Valley hotel. Tickets are $60.

A Rhodes Scholar who studied at Stanford and Yale, Booker moved to Newark's most notorious housing project to work as a community organizer before being elected mayor. He'll speak at 5:30 p.m. in Fleishman Commons at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The talk is free.

More information on the speeches is available here.

Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Duke

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:31:01 -0500

Duke University is losing one senator, but gaining a new one.

North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Duke graduate, lost her re-election bid earlier this month.

But on Monday, Edward E. "Ted" Kaufman, another Dookie, was named to the Senate seat in Delaware held by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Rob Christensen reports.

Kaufman not only graduated from Duke, but since 1991 he has been a senior lecturing fellow at Duke law school while also teaching in the Fuqua School of Business and the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

Kaufman, 69, has been Biden's chief of staff for 19 years. Kaufman said he would only serve until 2010, leaving open the possibility that Biden’s son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, would run then.

Kaufman once lived in Raleigh years ago, when he worked for Dupont.