Last Thursday the Lincoln Club of Orange County hosted a fundraiser for Lynn Swann, the 
Republican candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. The All-Pro wide receiver of the Pittsburgh Steelers, USC All-American and T.V. sports commentator was greeted by 175 Lincoln Club members and USC alumni invitees for a lunch in Newport Beach.
The guest list included a number of USC‘s athletic hall of famers, including not only Swann, but running backs Anthony Davis and Sam Cunningham, Olympic swimmers John Naber and Bruce Furniss, and tennis great Bob Lutz. Lincoln Club president Rich Wagner, himself an ex-USC swimmer and grad, said that, "We could easily field an offensive football squad, an Olympic swim team, and a Davis Cup tennis team with the talent in the room."
The event was fun-filled with Wagner taking shots at UCLA alums in the room, and reserving a good-natured jab at Ohio State Buckeye and national talk radio host Hugh Hewitt who was there, and who had Wagner on his show last week and, while promoting the event, just couldn’t help but take shots at USC alums, fans and the marching band. Perrennial emcee, Lincoln Club member and Irrelevant Week founder Paul Salata entertained attendees with stories comparing his career with the Steelers versus Swann’s, and Sam Cunningham, Swann’s roomate at USC, introduced him with some personal anecdotes.
Swann’s speech was simple and direct. While indicating that he along with other African-American Republicans in the country are seeking high offices (Steele for Senate in Maryland, Blackwell for Governor in Ohio), he was not running to become a career politician and to set the stage for higher office. It was his intent to be governor of Pennsylvania in order to bring government back to representing the people. In his opinion the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was out of control in its spending, and special interests controlling the government needed to be parried. He stated that the people of Pennsylvania were amongst the highest taxed and least served of any state, and that the spending per pupil in education was amongst the highest in the country yet with no appreciable progress in learning and graduation.
When asked why the Lincoln Club was supporting Swann, Rich Wagner said, "the Lincoln Club has always looked at, as well as worked on, races of national importance. Earlier this year we held a fundraiser for Michael Steele running for Senator in Maryland, as well as Mark Kennedy running for Senator in Minnesota. These are all important races whether it is part of the strategy to hold onto the U.S. Senate, or to help put good, solid African-American candidates into high office to begin challenging at the national level the conventional assumption that the African-American vote is owned by the Democratic Party. Lynn Swann is a great candidate and an articulate spokesman, and the citizens of Pennsylvania deserve a governor of his caliber."
Great stuff.