Author: Pennsylvania Press Club

Harrisburg Hilton at noon

Lawrence Tabas
Chairman
Republican Party of Pennsylvania

Lawrence Tabas was elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania on July 13, 2019.

As longtime general counsel to the party, Tabas has argued cases for Republican candidates at the local, state and federal level.

With more than four decades representing his party and its candidates, Tabas became party chairman at a time the party faced fundraising challenges and attacks from opposition party institutions and activists.

His representation places special emphasis on campaign finance law (federal and state), ballot referendum matters, nomination petitions and ballot access, recounts and election contests, regulatory matters, corporate and association-sponsored political action committees, voting equipment and systems, conduct of elections, and much more.

Tabas is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and earned his law degree at Georgetown University. He lives with his wife, Libby, in Philadelphia.

 

Harrisburg Hilton at noon

Congressman Dwight Evans

Congressman Dwight Evans represents Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes Northwest and West Philadelphia and parts of North, South and Center City Philadelphia. He was first elected in a special election in November 2016. Before that, he served as a state representative for 36 years and made history in 1990 when he became the first African-American chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, a position he held for two decades.

He currently serves on the Ways and Means Committee and as vice chair of the Small Business Committee. He is also an at-large member of the executive committee of the Congressional Black Caucus.

A longtime resident of the West Oak Lane neighborhood, he is a graduate of Germantown High School, the Community College of Philadelphia and LaSalle University.

 

Harrisburg Hilton at noon

Teresa Miller
Secretary of Human Services

Prior to her appointment as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Miller served as Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner, where she worked on a range of issues, including the administration’s top priorities – fighting the heroin and opioid epidemic and helping seniors.

In 2017, Secretary Miller was named chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Senior Issues Task Force. At the NAIC, she has been a leader in taking on the current challenges of the long term care insurance markets.

Prior to coming to Pennsylvania, Miller served as acting director of the State Exchanges Group, the Oversight Group, and the Insurance Programs Group in the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Before going to Washington, she worked in Oregon where she fought for state adoption of mental health parity legislation, representing drug and alcohol treatment providers, social workers, the Arc of Oregon and other advocates for people with disabilities. Then, as the insurance regulator in Oregon, she worked to ensure consumers received the benefits of that law.

Secretary Miller received her J.D. from Willamette University College of Law, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Pacific Lutheran University.