Lee Hamilton and Trevor Potter Join Advisory Board

CHICAGO, Oct. 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy today announced that Lee Hamilton and Trevor Potter have joined the Center's Advisory Board. Their participation will enhance the Center's capacity to identify challenges to democratic systems of government and conceive practical ways of addressing them.

Lee Hamilton served for thirty-four years as a United States Congressman from Indiana. He was chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), and chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993. He also served as Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.

During his political service, Hamilton established himself as a leading congressional voice on foreign affairs, economic policy, and congressional organization. He is the former President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and now serves as Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton also remains an important and active voice on matters of international relations and foreign affairs. He is currently a member of the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and in December 2002, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil.

Hamilton commented, "I am pleased and honored to join the advisory board of the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy. The Center does superb work in educating all of us about the strengths of, and challenges facing, our representative democracy."

Trevor Potter is the former Commissioner and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He served as General Counsel to John McCain's 2008 and 2000 presidential campaigns and as Deputy General Counsel to George H. W. Bush's 1988 campaign. Potter is the founding President and General Counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit which focuses on campaign finance issues in the courts and before the Federal Election Commission. He now represents Stephen Colbert and his SuperPac and 501 C -4 and is also a frequent guest on Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report," where he explains campaign finance issues, and he even represents Mr. Colbert's SuperPAC. Potter has been described by the American Bar Association Journal as "hands down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law and money."

"I am very pleased to be involved with the Stevenson Center, which does a superb job of discussing issues of national and international importance in a thoughtful and informative way," Potter said. "The Stevenson Center is one of those groups that does exactly what it claims—it informs citizens, and gives them the tools to become better citizens."

Senator Adlai Stevenson remarked, "With the addition of Lee Hamilton and Trevor Potter to our Advisory Board we are further building our capacity to bring the public the best, most informative programming on the challenges and opportunities to democratic systems of government. We rely heavily on our boards to share their experience and wisdom in this regard, and we are grateful to have members like them who bring intellectual capacity, experience, and connections."

The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy Board of Directors includes: Daniel B. Conley, Edison W. Dick, Howard Dubin, James W. Houlihan, Daniel Hynes, Carol Spielman, Adlai E. Stevenson III, and Wayne Whalen.

Hamilton and Potter will join Caroline Cracraft, Ambassador Tommy Koh, Bill Kurtis, Jack Matlock, Frances Mautner-Markhof, Peter Nardulli, Adele Simmons, and Katherine Hamilton-Smith on the Center's Advisory Board.

Officers of The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy include President Nancy Stevenson, Deputy Executive Director James Xue, and Senior Adviser Khairy Tourk.

About The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy

The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy was formed to enhance the global understanding and practice of democracy. It was founded in 2008 by former Illinois Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III and other civic leaders in honor of Adlai E. Stevenson II. The goal of the non-profit organization is to identify challenges to democratic systems of government and conceive practical ways of addressing them. Through lively presentations and discussion of major issues in the country and the world, the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy aims to engage people in the democratic dialogue. Its programs feature practitioners with real-world, on-the-ground experience.

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