The Political Science 215 lecture hosted two alumni guest speakers April 19, 2013. Kent Lucken and Gentry Collins talked about the politics of today.

Kent Lucken, managing director at Citigroup, spoke today about the recent bombings in Boston.

Lucken was a previous diplomat in the U.S. department of state. According to Belfer Center he had diplomatic assignments in Italy, Russia, Georgia, Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.

Lucken talked to the students about the two suspects from Chechnya involved in the incident. He told of Chechnya’s brief history and gave the students some open-ended questions to think about as the story unfolds in the media.

“I think for American government students, this is very relevant to what you are studying here,” Lucken said.

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, contributed to Kent Lucken’s speech, saying of the bombings, “It’s like an hors d’oeuvres; it’s like an appetizer before a big meal.”

“And when you watch this unfold, hopefully you’ll be able to think about the bigger implications, which are pretty huge.”

Schmidt then introduced Gentry Collins, a partner at Cap Public Affairs and a founding partner at Wholecrowd. He is also co-founder of NewRepublican.org.

Collins talked to the students about reshaping the way Republicans campaign and to give more of an understanding about brand management.

He started his presentation emphasizing how important the students of Iowa State are to an election.

Being a part of American government or political science puts a student in the “epicenter of american politics right here at Iowa State,” Collins said.

“Kids that come to Iowa State to study government and politics have a great advantage and I want to make sure that they understand that and are taking advantage of it.”

He talked about the Ames straw poll and how much a presidential candidate depends on its outcome. “More candidates for president of the United States have been washed out of the campaign … because of the Ames straw poll,” Collins said.

“And because of poor showings at the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primaries combined.”

He continued to talk about the voice of ISU students and how every student can be heard and is cared about.

“There is not a serious candidate for president on either side of the aisle, there is not a serious political operative, or consultant who doesn’t want your ear, who doesn’t care about you, who doesn’t care about what you think,” Collins said.

Throughout the rest of this speech he talked about how important it was for the Republican Party to rebrand themselves. He talked about the need to change perspectives and reach out to more Americans.

In one part of his speech he mentioned how through the exit polling information of the 2012 elections, the Republican Party would have won the presidency if their banding had changed.

He ended his presentation with saying that the New Republicans want to, as one student put it, “change the pizza box but not the contents,” keep the government small and have the people decide how to live their lives.