By Tom Mulkeen, Contributing Writer

The PA Leadership Conference announced yesterday that presidential candidate Herman Cain would keynote their annual event known as Pennsylvania’s CPAC.

Conservative activists from around the state will be gathering on April 8th and 9th at the Radisson Penn Harris Convention Center in Camp Hill (Harrisburg), PA.  Some of the other notable speakers include Sen. Toomey, former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, and Fox News analyst and long-time Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and long-time radio talk show host in Atlanta is a favorite of the Tea Party and the conservative base.  He spoke at over 40 Tea Party rallies last year and won a reader poll for the 2012 GOP nominee at conservative website Redstate.com according to The Atlantic beating out Sarah Palin.

However, his prospects of winning the nomination will be slim at best because of his lack of name recognition nationally and admits in the same article that he is a “dark-horse”.  Cain has been making the rounds in New Hampshire and Iowa over the last year and activists there say he is creating a buzz.  “He is someone Iowa caucus-goers are going to take very seriously,” former Iowa Republican Party chairman Richard Schwarm told the AP.

He will have a difficult time raising money against other contenders, such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Tim Pawlenty who have political networks across the country that they can tap into for money and staffers should they decide to run.  Officially, he has only established an exploratory committee to run for President and says that the only thing holding him back would be money.

Cain is a dynamic speaker with a plethora of business experience; he has worked for Cola-Cola, Pillsbury and Burger King and was CEO of the National Restaurants Association after building up Godfather’s from near bankruptcy into a profitable company with over 10,000 employees.  Cain is also known for an exchange with Bill Clinton when he was president where Cain claims that Clinton’s health care plan would cause business costs to increase and workers to lose their jobs.

The Conference will also feature several panels and workshops mostly geared towards younger people interested in politics.  More specific information about these workshops and about how to register to attend the conference can be found on their website.

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