Campaign Committees Ink Staffers
Roll Call Staff
As the 110th Congress opens with pomp and circumstance today, party leaders on both sides of the aisle still are working behind the scenes to install top campaign committee staff and pick the teams that will lead their political efforts for the 2008 cycle.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.), who in late December was the last of the four committee chairmen to be selected, has not made any official staff announcements as of yet. However, Democratic sources acknowledge that current deputy executive director in charge of finance Brian Wolff is set to become the new executive director.
Wolff, a Little Rock, Ark., native, is a close political confidant of Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also has worked for the campaigns of former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Sources also confirmed that Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider will move over to the DCCC to head the communications shop and that Beverly Gilyard will remain in her current post as member services director.
The DCCC political director and finance director jobs are still up in the air, however, both positions are considered likely to be filled soon and potentially though internal promotions.
Current DCCC Executive Director Karin Johanson and Communications Director Bill Burton are departing the committee for yet-to-be announced positions.
John Lapp, who ran the committee’s Independent Expenditure program in the previous cycle, has left the committee to become a partner in a Democratic consulting firm that will now be known as McMahon Squier Lapp and Associates.
DCCC Press Secretary Sarah Feinberg is moving over to the House Democratic Caucus with incoming Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the outgoing DCCC chairman.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has seen the least transition so far of the four political arms, as DSCC Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is returning for a second election cycle. Executive Director J.B. Poersch will remain in that position and other staff announcements will be made in coming weeks.
While there are some definite holes in the senior-level staff that will have to be plugged — DSCC Communications Director Phil Singer is headed to work on the presidential exploratory effort of Sen. Clinton — Poersch said he also expects a high level of retention.
“We have more [people] than usual that are going to stay on,” he said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of transition in November and December.”
Candidate recruitment will be a top focus for Senate Democrats as they seek to expand their one-seat majority this cycle. Republicans are defending 21 seats and Democrats only 12 seats in 2008.
On the GOP side, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign (Nev.) named an executive director, political director and finance director shortly after being tapped for the position last year.
Ensign has brought his chief of staff, Scott Bensing, over to the NRSC to serve as executive director. Nevada-based political consultant Mike Slanker is the new political director and Slanker’s wife, Lindsey, will be the NRSC finance director. The couple currently runs a political consulting firm that many Nevada GOP candidates have used.
Rebecca Fisher has been hired as communications director and will begin her new job on Monday. Fisher worked on Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2000 presidential bid and later did press stints in both his personal office and with the Senate Commerce Committee when he was chairman.
For the past two years Fisher has worked in the media bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.
Meanwhile, several staffers from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s finance and research divisions have moved over and taken similar posts at the NRSC.
Bill Wykpisz has moved from being deputy research director at the NRCC to become NRSC research director for the 2008 cycle.
Also, Jenny Sheffield will be the new PAC director at the NRSC, after serving in the same capacity for the NRCC in the previous cycle.
In a recent interview, incoming NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) said that after hiring senior staff the committee would take some time in filling other positions — in part because of the NRCC’s post-election financial situation. The committee is around $15 million in debt.
Cole has announced that his Chief of Staff Pete Kirkham will be the executive director for the NRCC and that Janice Knopp will join the committee as finance director.
Knopp comes to the committee after serving as director of marketing/deputy finance director at the Republican National Committee. She had been at the RNC since 1993 and worked with Cole during his tenure as chief of staff there from 1999 to 2001.
A new political director and communications director have not yet been named at the NRCC.
David M. Drucker contributed to this report.
House Energy and Commerce Committee: Henry Waxman in His Element
March 15, 12 a.m.
In his 36-year Congressional career, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has developed a reputation as a master legislator — someone whose balance of principle and pragmatism has allowed him to amass a long slate of legislative victories in all kinds of different political climates. Read Full Article
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