Mary Matalin and husband, James Carville, will be the guest speakers at the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry.

Fish fry moves to Indy with Matalin and Carville

The 2004 Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry, which will begin at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 7, will feature not one, but two, guest speakers as well as a new location — the Marsh Blue Ribbon Pavillion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

The speakers will be the husband-and-wife team of Democrat James Carville and Republican Mary Matalin. They will discuss “All's Fair: Love, War, and Politics,” a takeoff of their best-selling book, All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President.

Carville is a co-host of Crossfire, CNN's political debate program, and he was the campaign manager and senior political adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Matalin was a senior campaign official for the 1992 re-election campaign of President George H. W. Bush and most recently served as assistant to President George W. Bush and as counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. She was the first White House official to hold that double title.

The couple also plays fictional versions of themselves in the new HBO series, K Street, a weekly show about lawmaking in Washington.

“Whatever your political leaning,” says Donya Lester, executive secretary of the Ag Alumni Association, “this program will make for a very entertaining fish fry. Carville and Matalin are bright and exceptionally witty. And no other husband and wife team has had more access to America's last three presidential administrations.”

West Lafayette's Cumberland Place, home to the fish fry for the past two years, has been sold to a church, forcing Lester to relocate the association's annual meeting. With a crowd of more than 1,500 expected, the Marsh Blue Ribbon Pavillion at the state fairgrounds seemed like a natural location.

“The Purdue Ag Alumni Association first started meeting at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in the early 1900s, so we feel like we are returning to our roots. We hope this location will be the home of the fish fry for a long time,” Lester says.

Ticket information will be available beginning in October from the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association, 615 W. State St., Room 1, West Lafayette, IN. 47907-2053; (765) 494-8593.

Contact Lester at lesterd@purdue.edu