The Dole Institute of Politics has named Democratic political operative John Toohey and Republican grassroots activist Alan Cobb as its Senior Fellows for spring 2006.

Each will lead public weekly, not-for-credit study groups beginning in March. They met with the public at a reception in the institute’s Hansen Hall at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Toohey was a senior aide for John Kerry’s presidential campaign from January 2003 to December 2004. During the Clinton administration he was a public affairs officer for the Department of Defense and, as an information officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, he was stationed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during the 1994 military interven-tion. He has also worked in senior staff positions for the presidential campaigns of Democrats Bill Clinton, Dick Gephardt and Walter Mondale. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Toohey’s Dole Institute “study group” will focus on political communication in what he terms the “emerging media”: blogs, news as entertainment and entertainment as news. It will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesdays at the institute. Starting dates for both study groups will be announced soon.

Cobb is Kansas state director for Americans for Prosperity, an organization of leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets. He is a leading advocate for legislation known as the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Cobb also served as campaign manager for Tim Shallenburger’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign and as a long-time manager of public affairs for Koch Industries. He holds degrees from the Washburn University School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania and Wichita State University.

Cobb’s study group takes citizen involvement as its subject, especially instances where citizens bypass elected representatives to have a more direct say in government. It will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesdays at the institute.