Vin Weber

John Vincent Weber (born July 24, 1952 in Slayton, Minnesota) is a former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. Weber attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities from 1970 to 1974. He had been the co-publisher of Murray County newspaper and the president of Weber Publishing Company. He was press secretary to Representative Tom Hagedorn from 1974 to 1975, a senior aide to Senator Rudy Boschwitz from 1977 to 1980. Weber had also been a delegate to the Minnesota State Republican conventions in 1972 and 1978. In 1980, at the age of 28 he was elected to the Sixth Congressional District, defeating Archie Baumann by 53 to 47 percent. Baumann had been an aide to former congressman Richard Nolan. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1992, following his involvement in the Congressional check-kiting scandal, and is now a resident of Walker, Minnesota.

He is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26 1998, [http://www.theindyvoice.com/pnac/ PNAC Letter] sent to US President Bill Clinton.

Currently, Weber is managing partner of the Washington, D.C. branch of lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock.

Weber also serves as chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization designed to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. He is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, where is co-director of the Policy Forum. He also serves on the Advisory Board [http://www.politicslaw.org/board.html] of the Institute for Law and Politics at the University of Minnesota Law School. Weber is a board member of several private sector and nonprofit organizations, including ITT Educational Services, Department 56, and the Aspen Institute. He also serves on the Board of The Council on Foreign Relations and co-chaired a major independent task force on U.S. Policy Toward Reform in the Arab World with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In addition, Weber is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board.

Weber served as the Bush-Cheney '04 Plains States Regional Chairman. He maintains strong bipartisan relationships across the legislative and executive branches of government. On January 16, 2007, Weber became Policy Chairman for Romney for President Exploratory Committee. [http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=177449]