Foreign Relation. Janice O'Connell recently took a job as senior vice president with Gephardt Government Affairs, run by former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo. O'Connell left Capitol Hill at the end of 2007, but spent almost 30 years working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While there, she spent most of her time working for Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and focused extensively on Latin America. Dodd, a former Peace Corps worker in the Dominican Republic, was steeped in the issue as chairman of the panel's Western Hemisphere Affairs Subcommittee. Dodd also led opposition to aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, a signature Cold War issue. O'Connell frequently traveled to Central America, and during her later years at the committee took trips with Dodd to Iraq and Afghanistan. She started out at the committee under its former chairman, the late Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho. "I went around and interviewed with a variety of places, and there happened to be an opening for a junior staffer," O'Connell said. She eventually became a committee veteran who dispensed advice. "While there is a precedent book that the committee does keep, sometimes having lived through the issue helped focus how one should proceed," she said. In her new position, she expects to represent foreign policy-related clients. Also joining the Gephardt Group is Catherine Goode, formerly of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, and former Hartford Financial Services Group lobbyist Joel Freedman.
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009
An item in the People item in Tuesday's CongressDailyAM mistakenly characterized Joel Freedman as a lobbyist. He oversaw the government affairs practice for the Hartford Financial Services Group, but he was not registered as a lobbyist.
Breaux and Gephardt. Gerard and Maloney. Berman and Podesta. According to First Street, these were among the most powerful lobbyists in Washington this year.
...Tom O'Donnell, Gephardt Government Affairs Group. O'Donnell and his former Capitol Hill boss, ex-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt (Mo.), have done well since joining forces...
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Gephardt's former chief of staff Tom O'Donnell talks to National Journal about post-debt ceiling debate prospects for bipartisanship.
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Video: How Will FAA Crisis Affect You?
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Debt-limit votes have been called the "burden of the majority" — an unpleasant chore that needed to be done by whichever party happens to be in power.
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Christina Hamilton, Former Chief of Staff to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, will join the firm. As a Senior Vice President with the firm, Christina will support the firm’s health, energy, transportation, trade and appropriations clients.
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Life on the outside after more than 41 years in Congress hasn’t been much different for former House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis. — or so it seems.
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Dick Gephardt participated in Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s welcoming lunch honoring Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Gephardt Government Affairs President & CEO Dick Gephardt announced that Former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey will join the firm.
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"If there was a tough leadership assignment in the country right now, it would be this job — at the top of everybody's list," says former House majority leader Richard Gephardt, who first recommended Panetta to President Clinton as his budget director. Panetta later became White House chief of staff.
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Dick comments on the "Gephardt rule" as the debt ceiling debate heats up.
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