| 摘要 | Hill Dwellers
At least he won’t have to print up new business cards. After trying out three new jobs in the past two years, Frederick W. Hatfield has returned to the office of Sen. John B. Breaux, D- La., where he served as chief of staff from 1995-96. He’ll sport the same title this time around. Hatfield has maintained an impressive pace in the intervening two years: He launched, and later sold, an education technology firm called ETC; accepted a post as the top lobbyist for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States–only to quit a month later; and jetted through Portugal as deputy commissioner general for the U.S. pavilion at Expo ’98 in Lisbon. ”It’s been a busy, but enlightening, couple of years,” said Hatfield, 43. As for his brief DISCUS tenure back in December 1997, Hatfield said the life of a lobbyist just didn’t appeal to him. ”I’d lobbied for five years before joining Breaux’s staff, and it took going back to it to realize that it’s something I just don’t want to do any longer,” he said. A year later, the DISCUS job still hasn’t been filled, but ”there are no hard feelings,” he said. ”It’s a great job for the right person.” His Portugal whirl was a product of serendipity. Former Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., a one-time boss of Hatfield’s, was named commissioner general of the U.S. pavilion by President Clinton, and promptly offered Hatfield the deputy’s post. Back with Breaux, Hatfield’s already delving into the mysteries of Medicare reform. Breaux chairs the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, and is ranking minority member on the Special Committee on Aging.
Retiring House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon, R-N.Y., is launching a new lobbying company with two of his longtime aides: William D. Crosby, the Rules Committee’s chief counsel, and professional staff member David Lonie. The new firm, tentatively named the Solomon Group, will be affiliated with the Paul Laxalt Group, run by the former Senator from Nevada, and the Laxalt Corp., headed by Michelle Laxalt, the Senator’s daughter. Solomon’s firm expects to share some clients with the two Laxalt companies. It will also share office space. ”We’ll work on some client matters separately, and we’ll work on some client matters as a group,” said Tom Loranger, a vice president of the Laxalt Group.
Incoming House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest, R-Texas, has rounded up a herd of native Texans to join his committee staff, where they’ll work on repairing holes in the farm safety net. After 27 years as county executive of the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency branch in Lubbock, Texas, Alan Mackey is moving to Washington to be a professional staffer on the committee. A self-described ”plain kind of person” who ”works behind the scenes,” Mackey, 43, made local customer service a priority back in Texas and will offer a ”grass-roots-level” perspective in Washington. An employee of the FSA since he was 16, Mackey has also advised the USDA on implementing national programs at the county level. More fluent in Washingtonspeak is Keith M. Williams, Combest’s press secretary since 1989, who will hold the same title when he joins the committee in January. Williams, 43, said he’ll help Combest be ”an advocate for farmers.” He spent 10 years as a reporter for Lubbock’s KAMC-TV, an experience he said contributed to his appreciation of farmers. Also heading for the committee is Tom Sell, 25, Combest’s legislative assistant for agriculture, trade, and environment, who will be a professional staff member.
Two longtime staffers in the office of Rep. Constance A. Morella, R-Md., Cindy Hall and Mary Anne O’Boyle Leary, will soon be running the show at Women’s Policy Inc., a Washington nonprofit focused on women’s legislative issues. Hall, 40, will take over next month as president of the organization, which was founded three years ago to research women’s policy issues (after the House voted to eliminate legislative service organizations). Hall, who’s worked on Capitol Hill for the past 18 years, spent the past 12 as Morella’s legislative director, following women’s health and budget matters. She said her new job will give her a chance to focus more closely on women’s issues. Hall will oversee policy analyses, publications, and fund raising, and is likely to tackle Social Security and health care reform. Leary, 52, Morella’s press secretary, will take over as the nonprofit’s executive director. She’ll focus on day-to-day management, communications, and a bit of fund raising. During her nearly decade-long tenure in Morella’s office, Leary worked on domestic violence issues, including the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. The move to Women’s Policy Inc. ”gets us out of the pressure- cooker atmosphere of the Hill,” Leary said, ”but keeps us in touch with the things that made the Hill attractive.”
Corporate Life
As the hype over Mobil Corp.’s proposed merger with Exxon Corp. builds, Mobil’s senior media relations adviser for global public affairs, Michael W. Robinson, is bracing for the crush. New to the post, Robinson, 35, said he’s ”been racing to get up to speed.” Fortunately, his last job–as an associate director of media relations at the National Association of Securities Dealers–prepped him on antitrust issues. During his three-year stint with the NASD, the Justice Department investigated 24 firms listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange for conspiring to inflate stock prices. The investigation was settled in June 1996 with no admission of wrongdoing by the companies. At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with the NASD after investigating it for failing to adequately police NASDAQ. The settlement censured the NASD, and required it to spend $100 million to upgrade oversight mechanisms.
Media People
He’s calling it ”book leave,” but it’ll be a long time before Rick Atkinson returns to roam The Washington Post’s newsroom. Atkinson, The Post’s assistant managing editor for investigations, recently signed a contract with Henry Holt and Co. to write a ”Liberation Trilogy” on World War II. He’ll have three years to write each part. Though rumors put his advance in excess of $1 million, Atkinson would say only that he’d been given a ”very substantial” payment. A Postie for the past 15 years, Atkinson, 46, has written two other books: The Long Gray Line, about the West Point class of 1966, and Crusade, about the Persian Gulf War. They came out in 1989 and 1993, respectively. John Sterling, editor of Atkinson’s first two books, who has since become president and publisher of Henry Holt, offered him the new contract. Last year, Atkinson was considered a top contender to replace Robert Kaiser as The Post’s managing editor, but the job went to The Washington Post Magazine editor, Steve Coll.
Michael Barone, a travelin’ man who may be the only guy who’s hit every congressional district in the country, is returning to U.S. News & World Report as a columnist and senior writer. He was a senior writer there from 1989-96. Barone has served as the principal co-author of National Journal Group’s The Almanac of American Politics since its first edition was published in 1971, and will continue to do so–district-hopping research and all. At U.S. News, he’ll write a biweekly column on general political topics that will alternate with a column by Contributing Editor Gloria Borger. Barone has left Reader’s Digest, where he was a senior staff editor, but said he’ll write occasional articles for the magazine.
Around the Agencies
Milton Kaufman, the Census Bureau’s senior foreign trade statistician, has retired after 64 years of continuous service to the federal government. That achievement gave Kaufman, 87, a longer tenure than any other active federal employee, a distinction he shared with only one other person. In 1933, fresh from the City College of New York (where he earned a master’s degree in mathematics), Kaufman was hired to crunch numbers for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration–at the princely rate of $18 a week. After a year at the WPA, Kaufman moved to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in 1942 joined the Census Bureau. While the introduction of the mainframe computer in 1957 revolutionized information processing at the bureau, Kaufman says today’s machines make the old mainframes look like ”babies trying to walk.” His affinity for long-term federal service apparently runs in the family: Kaufman’s son, Hugh Kaufman, has been a federal employee for 31 years. Kaufman the younger was a much-publicized whistleblower who took his Environmental Protection Agency bosses to task for toxic waste cover-ups in the early 1980s.
Consulting Game
Rick A. Grafmeyer is scooting back through the revolving door. He’s leaving his post as national director of tax legislation at the accounting firm of Ernst & Young to become deputy chief of staff at the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Grafmeyer, 41, was recently passed over for the top legislative job at Ernst & Young in favor of Phillip D. Moseley, formerly the top tax lobbyist at Van Scoyoc Associates Inc. But Moseley’s hire wasn’t the reason for his departure, Grafmeyer said. ”His coming here has actually made it tougher to leave. . . . I would have liked to stay, but this opportunity just popped up.” Grafmeyer’s a familiar face on Capitol Hill, where he took two separate turns at the Senate Finance Committee. In his most recent stopover at Finance, Grafmeyer worked under Lindy L. Paull, who has since become the Joint Tax panel’s chief of staff. His return to the Hill will result in a pay cut that ”would make your head spin,” Grafmeyer admitted, but he added, ”That’s the cost of doing what you like to do.”
After eight years as senior vice president at Cassidy & Associates Inc., Charles H. Dolan Jr. will take the same title at the Washington office of the New York City-based public relations firm Ketchum Communications Inc. Before his stint at Cassidy, Dolan, 48, served as the executive director of the Democratic Governors’ Association. He was also a member of the Clinton for President Exploratory Committee in 1992. When Clinton decided to run, Dolan headed his Virginia campaign staff, a role he resumed in 1996. Since 1983, he has served on the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bipartisan panel established by Congress to advise the President, the Secretary of State, and the U.S. Information Agency director on ways to promote America’s image abroad. At Ketchum, Dolan will concentrate on health care and technology issues.
Steven O. Palmer has a ticket to ride: He’s joined the Washington lobbying firm of Van Scoyoc Associates Inc. as a transportation and aerospace lobbyist. Palmer, who will be a vice president, is no stranger to planes, trains, and automobiles. Since 1993, he’s been assistant secretary for governmental affairs at the Transportation Department, a position he’s held longer than anyone in DOT history. Palmer, 42, was one of the Clinton Administration’s point men in negotiations over this year’s something-for-everyone, $198 billion highway bill. Before joining the DOT, he was a senior staffer on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Next year, aviation issues will dominate Palmer’s radar screen: He’ll pay particularly close attention to airline competition and the aviation trust fund. Palmer’s transportation expertise will help Van Scoyoc Associates expand its client base beyond its tax-and-appropriations terrain, said President H. Stewart Van Scoyoc.
In the Tanks
Peter J. Wallison, a veteran of both the Reagan and Ford Administrations and a longtime performer in Washington’s legal arena, has a new gig at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Wallison, 57, will set up shop as a resident fellow; he’ll also co-direct the think tank’s Financial Market Deregulation Project, which covers ground he staked out as general counsel to the Treasury Department during President Reagan’s first term. The one-time counsel to Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller left his Treasury post in 1986 to serve as White House counsel. A year later, he returned to private practice as a partner at the Washington law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he specialized in financial law and banking regulations. Now he’ll have an opportunity ”to research and write and think, which (at) a law practice (one) simply cannot do,” he said, but he’ll remain as of counsel at Gibson, Dunn.
Interest Groups
Shifting from policy to people, Ingrid M. Duren is the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s new executive director. The nonprofit institute offers Hispanic college students nine- month internships around town. A former corporal in the Marine Corps, Duren, 32, comes straight from the director’s chair in the Washington office of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, where she worked for two years on such issues as immigration, voting rights, and bilingual education. Having spent six years on Capitol Hill in the offices of Texas Democratic Reps. Henry B. Gonzalez and Gene Green, Duren is familiar with the roles that younger folks have there.
Have a tip for National Journal’s People column? Contact Shawn Zeller at szeller@njdc.com or (202) 739-8420, or Siobhan Gorman at sgorman@njdc.com or (202) 739-8407. |
