Copyright 2000 The National Journal, Inc.
The National Journal
June 3, 2000
SECTION: HILL PEOPLE; Pg. 1760; Vol. 32, No. 23
LENGTH: 635 words
HEADLINE:
Hill People for June 3, 2000
BYLINE: Piper Fogg
BODY:
House
Count Selena T. Walsh as
another of the many former Capitol Hill
staffers who have climbed aboard the
dot-com bandwagon. Walsh,
the executive director of the 18-member
Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, is joining Voter.com as the Web site's
director of
Democratic congressional outreach. Born in Mexico, Walsh, 27,
grew up there and in Austin, Texas. She has long been an advocate
of
Hispanic interests: For the past 10 months, Walsh has been
steering the
caucus through such issues as education and the high
dropout rate of
Hispanics. Before that, Walsh worked at the
League of United Latin-American
Citizens, which has the largest
Hispanic membership in the United States.
"You wear many hats in
advocacy," Walsh said. "Funding, local politics,
(and) what's
going on in Congress" are only some of the issues she's had to
juggle. At Voter.com, Walsh will apply her contacts and savvy to
the
task of attracting Democrats and the public to the Web site.
She's also
keeping a close eye on several key House and Senate
races.
Bill Grady is returning to his roots-in a way. Grady, who
was
born in New York City but grew up in Los Angeles, is the new
chief of staff
for a New Yorker, Democratic Rep. Louise M.
Slaughter. Grady, 40, put in
five years as chief of staff to the
late Rep. George Brown, D-Calif. After
Brown's death in 1999,
Grady spent six months as the interim top aide to
Rep. Brad
Sherman, D-Calif. Grady says he's excited about working for
Slaughter and her Rochester, N.Y., constituents. "She has a very
good
reputation on the Hill and has an intelligent staff," he
said. Grady
succeeds David Stricklin, who left in January to work
for Rep. Rod R.
Blagojevich, D-Ill.
Ben S. Turner began his career
as a reporter in the
heartland, but he has since been swept into national
and
international politics. He recently landed on Capitol Hill,
joining
the staff of Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., as press
secretary. After
spending two years in Steubenville, Ohio, where
he covered crime and the
courts for the local newspaper, the
Herald-Star, Turner, 28, moved to
Harrisburg, Pa., in 1996 to
work in the state House Democratic
communications office. He got
a taste of national politics in 1999, when he
arrived in
Washington as assistant director of the Washington Center for
Politics & Journalism. Six months later, Turner has settled in
Kanjorski's office and has taken on a broad range of issues,
including
compensation for Energy Department defense workers who
were exposed to
radiation and the carcinogenic metal beryllium,
as well as the construction
of an inflatable dam on
Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River. Until last week,
Turner's top
battle was trying to prevent the granting of permanent normal
trade relations to China. Now that the House has voted to approve
PNTR for China, Turner says he's hoping things go back to
normal.
House Science Committee Project Director
Raymond M.
Fitzgerald, whose responsibilities included organizing travel for
panel members, has packed his own bags. His destination is the
office of
Rep. John M. Shimkus, R-Ill., where he'll serve as
legislative director.
Fitzgerald, 28, who graduated from Northern
Illinois University in 1994, got
his start in politics with a
one-year fellowship with then-Illinois Gov. Jim
Edgar. That year
stretched into a four-and-a-half-year stint on Edgar's
staff.
Fitzgerald then put in a couple of months with Edgar's successor,
Gov. George H. Ryan, as deputy director of Ryan's Washington
office,
before heading to the Science Committee. In Shimkus'
office, Fitzgerald
anticipates that energy deregulation and
Commerce Committee issues will be
tying him up for a while.
LOAD-DATE: June 5, 2000
