Board of Directors
Amory Houghton, Chairman and Founder
John C. Danforth, Board Member
Warren B. Rudman, Board Member
Sherwood Boehlert, Board Member
David Thomas, Executive Director
Former U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Congressman Davis served seven terms in the United States House representing Virginia’s 11th Congressional District.
In the House Davis served as Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, as well as Chair of the subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy. Congressman Davis’ vigilant oversight of large dollar federal contracts resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars saved for the taxpayers. Davis also authored significant portions of the 9-11 Implementations Act and under his leadership the Committee conducted oversight on and investigated matters related to the effective administration of government programs of great public interest.
Davis’ success on the legislative front has been matched by his success at growing the GOP. In 1998, Davis was elected Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. After defying the pundits by maintaining the GOP’s majority in the House in November 2000, Davis was easily re-elected to again lead the NRCC through 2002.
Davis’ tenure as NRCC Chairman reached an end after the fall 2002 elections, in which House Republicans made history: only three times since the Civil War has the President’s party added House seats during the midterm elections.
Prior to his election to Congress, Tom was the chief elected official in Fairfax County, the eleventh most populous municipality with the second largest county budget in the United States. In 1993, during Tom’s tenure as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Fairfax County was recognized as the nation’s best financially managed county.
Formerly the Vice President and General Counsel of PRC, Inc., a high technology and professional services firm headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Tom moved to the position of Corporate Counsel upon his election as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Before his election to that post, Tom served for 12 years as Mason District’s representative to the Board. Tom is also a charter member and past president of the Bailey’s Crossroads Rotary Club, and he has served on numerous charity boards.
Tom was born in Minot, North Dakota on January 5, 1949, and moved with his family to Fairfax County at an early age. He graduated as president of his class from the United States Capitol Page School following four years as a U.S. Senate Page. He went on to Amherst College, graduating with honors in Political Science, and subsequently earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. Tom also attended Officer Candidate School, served on active duty in the U.S. Army, and spent eight years with the Virginia National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve.
In addition to serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Republican Main Street Partnership, Congressman Davis has also accepted a position as director with Deloitte’s Federal Government Services. Davis will advise Deloitte’s clients on major trends, opportunities and challenges facing the federal government, with a focus on technology innovation and government transformation.
At his retirement, former Congress-man Amo Houghton (R-New York) was the sixth ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired its Oversight Subcommittee, and served on its Trade Subcommittee. He also was a member of the International Relations Committee and vice chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa.
Houghton built a reputation as a results-oriented congressman who espoused moderate social programs and conservative fiscal policy. He was a founder of 1997's historic Bipartisan Congressional Retreat, which focused on the role of civility in political life.
Houghton is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society, an issues forum that brings together moderate officeholders with top business leaders. He also is an active member of a group of moderate Republicans that has worked to produce a balanced budget.
The only former CEO of a Fortune 500 firm ever to serve in the House, Houghton is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School. He joined Corning Glass Works (now Corning, Incorporated) as an accountant in 1951 after serving as a Pfc. in the Marine Corps. He retired from Corning in 1986 after serving as president, board chairman and chief executive officer.
Houghton and his wife, Priscilla, make their home in Corning, New York.
Charles F. Bass is a Board Member and former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Republican Main Street Partnership. He joined the Board of Directors in 2005 and is a former six-term Member of Congress from New Hampshire.
Prior to serving in Congress, Mr. Bass previously held office in the State Legislature and the State Senate. His family’s commitment to public service includes the work of his father Perkins Bass, who also represented New Hampshire’s Second District in Congress, and his grandfather Robert P. Bass, who was Governor of New Hampshire, a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt and a founder of the progressive Republican movement. His great grandfather, John Lendrum Mitchell served many years as a Democrat from Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Bass epitomizes Yankee frugality, independence, and pragmatism. He served as an influential member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee as vice-chairman of the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee and was a leader in the promotion of alternative energy, strong environmental policies, advancing science and technology, and supporting economic prosperity. Bass also served as co-chairman of the House Tuesday Group and was elected their representative to House leadership twice.
As a long-time advocate of campaign reform, he worked with Senator John McCain and Congressman Chris Shays to ban soft money and sham issue ads. Mr. Bass’ commitment to integrity also led him to organize the formal petition to call for a new election for the House Majority Leader in 2006.
Prior to his service in Congress, Mr. Bass operated a successful, family-owned small business. Mr. Bass and his wife Lisa maintain their residence in Peterborough, New Hampshire with their two children, Lucy and Jonathan.
John C. Danforth (R-MO) was elected Attorney General of Missouri in 1968 in his first race for public office. He was re-elected Attorney General in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and re-elected in 1982 and 1988. Danforth was the first U.S. Senator from Missouri to chair a major legislative committee since World War I and the first Republican in the history of the state elected to three terms as U.S. Senator.
While in the Senate, Danforth was active in numerous efforts important to the State of Missouri and to the nation including efforts to reign in the unbridled growth of entitlements, reduce the deficit, encourage long-term economic growth, improve education, reduce hunger and malnutrition throughout the world, and increase production of affordable housing. In June 2004, Senator Danforth was nominated by President Bush to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
Warren B. Rudman (R-NH) was first elected to the Senate in 1980, and was overwhelmingly reelected in 1986.
During his 12 years in the Senate, Senator Rudman established a record of independence by refusing to accept out-of-state political action committee donations. Perhaps his best-known accomplishment came in 1985, when he co-authored the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction law, a historic step that imposed discipline and accountability on the chaotic budget process in order to reduce the federal deficit.
After leaving the Senate, Rudman became a founding co-chairman of the Concord Coalition. The Concord Coalition is a non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about the causes and consequences of federal budget deficits, the long-term challenges facing America's unsustainable entitlement programs, and how to build a sound economy for future generations.
Sherwood Boehlert, former Chairman of the House Science Committee, was first elected to the House of Representatives in November 1982 and served 13th consecutive term representing Upstate New York.
Boehlert served on the Science Committee since 1983, and was elected Chairman in January 2001. Boehlert was the only full committee chairman from the Northeast region. The Committee has jurisdiction over all federal nonmilitary scientific and technology research and development programs, on which the federal government spends more than $30 billion a year. The Committee has jurisdiction over NASA, the National Science Foundation, and research and development initiatives within the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce. In addition, the Committee has jurisdiction over civil aviation research and development and marine research.
Boehlert was also a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and served as Chairman of its Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment from 1995 to 2000. He also served as a senior member of House Homeland Security Committee, by appointment of Speaker of the House. The committee focused solely on the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security
Born on September 28, 1936 in Utica, New York, Boehlert is a graduate of Whitesboro Central High School and Utica College (Bachelor of Science, 1961). Before serving as Oneida County Executive (1979-83), he was manager of public relations at Wyandotte Chemical (1961-64) and served two years in the U.S. Army (1956-58).
An avid New York Yankees fan and movie buff, Boehlert and his wife, Marianne (Willey) Boehlert, make their home in New Hartford, New York. They have four grown children and five grandchildren. In addition to continuing his long-time relationship with the Republican Main Street Partnership, Mr. Boehlert joined the Wilson Center as a public policy scholar in January 2007
Nancy Johnson (R-CT) represented Connecticut's Sixth District from 1983 to 2007. Representative Johnson was the first Republican woman to serve on the Ways and Means Committee and was the first woman ever to chair one of its subcommittees. Throughout her congressional career, Johnson was a national leader on health care reform, winning passage of several measures making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.
As a leading spokesperson on women's issues, Johnson sponsored legislation to maintain quality mammogram standards and to ban discrimination against women and others with a genetic disposition toward diseases like breast cancer. Thanks to her efforts, homemakers can contribute to their Individual Retirement Accounts at the same level as their wage-earning spouses. Representative Johnson was an active and outspoken member of the Republican Main Street Partnership during her time in Congress.
Former Congressman Doug Ose (R-CA) represented California’s 3rd Congressional District for three terms. First elected in 1998, Ose was was named a “Hero of the Taxpayers” by Americans for Tax Reform, earned a “Tax Fighter” award from the National Tax Limitation Committee and was saluted as a “Guardian of Small Business” by the National Federation of Independent Business. In Congress, Ose voted for one of the largest tax cuts in American history — a $1.35 trillion tax reform package that ended the marriage penalty tax, lowered the death tax and increased child tax credits for American families. He was Chairman of a House Government Reform Committee, holding the IRS and other federal agencies accountable for wasting tax money. He spearheaded the Government Waste and Corrections Act aimed at stopping wasteful federal spending that was costing taxpayers $30 billion annually. He opposed automatic pay raises for members of Congress, and introduced legislation requiring members of Congress to forfeit their pay for every day the federal budget is late.
Ose was born in Sacramento in 1955. He earned a degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley. He and his wife, Lynnda, have two daughters, Erika and Emily.
David Thomas is Executive Director of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Thomas joined Main Street in 2008. Thomas came to Main Street after serving as Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-VA).
Before serving as Chief of Staff to Rep. Davis, Thomas was Associate Political Director for the Office of Political Affairs in the Bush White House. During his time at the White House, Thomas oversaw the Western Region of the United States, where he facilitated regional political and policy discussions.
In addition to his time in the White House, Thomas also previously served as Campaign Manager and District Director for Rep. Davis.
Thomas is a graduate of George Mason University and resides in Virginia with his wife and two children.
Member Spotlight
Mike Castle
Congressman, Delaware
“Mike Castle is one of the most important voices for centrists on either side of the ...
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