LOS ANGELES, CA – The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) today announced a distinguished list of elected officials who will attend the 2005 ANCA-WR Annual Banquet on September 18th at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. This year, Congressman Ed Royce and State Senator Jackie Speier will be honored for their long-lasting support of issues of concern to the Armenian American community. Alex Sardar, who served as the ANCA-WR’s Executive Director from 2000 to 2002 and is currently the Armenia Country Director for Counterpart and Chief of Party for the organization’s Civic Advocacy Support Program USAID grant, will be the Master of Ceremonies of the event.

Newly-elected Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, will make special remarks during the evening’s program. Among the officials who have confirmed their attendance are Representative Howard Berman, California State Board of Supervisor Claude Parrish, California State Senators Joseph Dunn and Liz Figueroa, California State Assemblymembers Rudy Bermudez, Ronald Calderon, Judy Chu, Dario Frommer, Jerome Horton, Shirley Horton, Paul Koretz, Lloyd Levine, Gloria Negrete McLeod, Cindy Montañez, and Keith Stuart Richman, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Michael Antonovich and Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles City Councilmembers Eric Garcetti, Tom LaBonge, Jan Perry, and Dennis Zine, Vice President of the LAUSD Jon Lauritzen, LAUSD official Robert Collins, Mayor of Glendale Rafi Manoukian, United States District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian, Retired California Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Gregory Keosian, Zaven Sinanian, and Maral Injejikian.

The ANCA-WR Annual Banquet regularly draws over 700 individuals, including a long list of dignitaries, such as prominent Members of Congress and state legislators, as well as a vast number of Armenian American community leaders and political activists. The annual event is the largest of its kind and helps raise funds to operate the nation’s largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots and political advocacy organization. More honorees are to be announced in the coming weeks before the annual banquet.

For more information on this year’s ANCA-WR Annual Banquet, or to reserve a table, call the ANCA-WR office at (818) 500­1918.

The ANCA is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the Armenian-American community on a broad range of issues.