ITHACA, N.Y. -- Joe Trippi, the first campaign director for Howard Dean's presidential primary bid, will speak on "Conservatism on College Campuses" Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 5 p.m. in 305 Ives Hall on the Cornell University campus.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Cornell Mock Election student group and the Cornell Democrats. It is open to the public without charge.

As Dean's first primary campaign director in 2004, Trippi pioneered the use of online technology to organize a large, grassroots fund-raising effort. Trippi began his political career working on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's presidential primary campaign in 1980. His work in presidential politics continued with the campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean.

Trippi started media consulting at Doak, Shrum and Associates, where he was involved in developing the strategy and producing the media for the successful campaigns of Jerry Baliles for governor of Virginia and Bob Casey for governor of Pennsylvania. Trippi also was instrumental in the re-election campaigns of U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston of California and Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles.

As a political analyst and commentator, Trippi appears regularly on MSNBC. He has been profiled in GQ magazine, The New Republic and The New York Times Magazine.

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Cornell Mock Election schedule update : The Sept. 22 lecture featuring Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, has been canceled.