Annette Meeks

President, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota

Vin Weber calls Annette Meeks "one of the most dynamic conservatives in the party." Tony Sutton calls her "a party thought leader." Her conservative credentials are impeccable. During the fabled Republican Revolution in 1994, she was deputy chief of staff to none other than Newt Gingrich.

Meeks is a conservative to the marrow. She sees "soul-searching" and "depth" in George W. Bush. She decries liberal dominion of our universities and she initiated a short-lived project when she was CEO of the Center of the American Experiment called Foundations for Active Conservative Thinking (FACT)—which meant she had opened up a Minnesota front in a nationwide conservative uproar over a perceived far-left-lean in American academia.

She was voted out of her leadership role at CAE in 2006 and started her own conservative think tank: Freedom Foundation of Minnesota.

A Minnesota delegate to every Republican National Convention since 1988, Meeks is now a partner—with her husband, Jack—in the RNC-focused public relations firm Twin Cities Strategies. She hosts a weekly radio show called The Polichicks, and she's a Pawlenty appointee to the Metropolitan Council. Friends say she's backed off party activity since the appointment. Still, says Weber, an old friend, "she's constantly in motion. Lots of people want her to run for office."

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The 10 most powerful Minnesota Republicans:

• Jeff Larson, The Quiet Giant
• Mike Wigley, The Taxman
• Robert Cummins, The Sugar Daddy
• Jack Meeks, The Lifer
• Annette Meeks, The True Believer
• Mitchell Pearlstein, The Intellectual
• William Cooper, The Crusader
• Chris Georgacas, The Whiz Kid
• Evie Axdahl, The Stalwart
• Marsie Leier, The Pioneer