John Kennedy, Chairman
John Kennedy began a career in the rail industry as a track laborer. After “saving up dimes” for seven years, John founded Kennedy Railroad Builders in Harrisburg in 1965. In 1980, John was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. After four terms, he kept a public commitment to the idea of the citizen legislature by returning to his private railroad business while declining to receive a government pension. His eight years in public life were defined by what the Harrisburg Patriot-News called “pounding away for internal reform that is essential to restore public faith in the Legislature as an institution of integrity and accountability.” In 2006, John Kennedy re-emerged to publicly speak out against the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s decision to approve illegal pay increases for lawmakers. The public outcry echoing on talk radio stations, blogs and newspaper opinion pages led to the repeal of the raise and the replacement of dozens of lawmakers. Retired from his private business, John advises his three sons, keepers of the Kennedy love affair with rail.
Lowman Henry, Treasurer
Lowman Henry is Chairman and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc., a non-profit public affairs foundation based in Harrisburg, PA. He serves as host of American Radio Journal (heard on 129 radio stations nationwide) and is host of the Lincoln Radio Journal, a weekly public affairs radio program syndicated on 79 Pennsylvania radio stations. He is also President of the Pennsylvania Leadership Council, Inc., which assembles the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference. He has served in elective office as a Dauphin County Commissioner and a Lower Paxton Township Supervisor. He serves on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association and on the advisory board of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy in Pittsburgh. Mr. Henry is a member and laity leader at the Charlton United Methodist in Lower Paxton. He is a graduate of Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. He is married to Carol Lynn Henry, and they have three sons.
Leo Knepper, Executive Director
Leo Knepper joined CAP after being the Pennsylvania state director for Heritage Action for America, the political affiliate of The Heritage Foundation. Leo is a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and longtime conservative activist. He has built grassroots networks to fight against abuses in Pennsylvania government, including the infamous midnight pay raise. Leo is working toward the completion of an MBA through Penn State’s Capitol Campus, where he earned a bachelor’s in psychology magna cum laude. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for business students. Leo is the Schuylkill County Republican Committee’s first alternate representative for Pine Grove, where he and his wife reside.
Jana Benscoter, Development Director
Jana Benscoter has worked in journalism for more than a decade, during which she’s covered a broad range of topics, including: business, education, local and state government, and political corruption. Jana has been published in the Boston Globe, Drexel Alumni Magazine, Carolina Journal, Guilford Woman Magazine, the High Point Enterprise, Kinston Free Press, Lincoln Tribune Online, the Rhinoceros Times, Triad Business Journal, the York Dispatch, and Wake Weekly. She won second place for investigative journalism in the North Carolina Press Association Winter Writer's competition in 2007. As an editor, she published three annual issues of a public policy magazine, Civitas Review Magazine, and in 2009, she launched a monthly newspaper that highlighted North Carolina legislation, Civitas Capitol Connection. A Pennsylvania native, Jana attended college at University of Massachusetts Amherst and Boston campuses.
