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Frank Fahrenkopf  

Frank Fahrenkopf, born in 1939, is a high-powered Washington lawyer and former national chairman of the U.S. Republican Party. He is president of the American Gaming Association, the lobby arm of the casino industry. He is also the co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Presidential Debates. He is also a trustee of the Free Enterprise Foundation.

As an attorney in Reno, Nevada in 1975 he represented the Tobacco Institute as a lobbyist, and in that capacity claimed in a March 4, 1975 article printed in the Nevada State Journal that there was no conclusive evidence that cigarette smoking was harmful to the nonsmokers and that that legislative efforts to end smoking in public places represented "a big brother approach...an attempt to legislate morals and public behavior. He further stated that "The claims that tobacco smoking is hazardous to the non-smokers are...just a facade disguising what is an attempt by one group of persons to write their prejudices into the law."[1] It is unclear how long Fahrenkopf represented the Tobacco Institute, but by 1983 he had become chairman of the Republican National Committe.

Fahrenkopf served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1983-1989 (throughout six of president Ronald Reagan's eight years in office).

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