ON THE MOVE

People

by Gregg Sangillo and Winter Casey

Sat. Jul 5, 2008


Interest Groups

Jeannie Bunton is a new vice president of external relations at the International Center for Research on Women. The group studies the effects of poverty and disease on women worldwide. Bunton, 42, was formerly with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

She is a native South Carolinian and still cooks "Low Country" Southern food like shrimp and grits for her friends. Her initial foray into journalism was inspired by such Southern writers as Eudora Welty and Harper Lee. And she says that the words of her father, a Baptist minister, also made an impression.

After finishing journalism school, she returned to her hometown of Bluffton to co-found a newspaper called The Bluffton Eccentric. As the name suggests, Bunton says, the paper was always irreverent. "One of my all-time favorite headlines was 'HUD Backwards Spells DUH,' " she recalls. In the early 1990s, Bunton earned her master's degree in public communications at American University before working for then-Rep. Arthur Ravenel, R-S.C. Bunton later worked on presidential speechwriting and media affairs in the White House under President George H.W. Bush.

She eventually spent 10 years at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a group often ensnared in funding and ideological battles over public television. "I used to jokingly refer to it as a lit match in search of gasoline," she says, although "it really is a remarkable gift in a democracy to have public airwaves." Bunton still starts her morning by listening to National Public Radio.
--Gregg Sangillo

John Kraus has returned to Washington in a new gig as communications director at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. In his previous D.C. stint, he worked on Capitol Hill for Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., before moving to Wisconsin during the 2006 election cycle to start a research and policy group called One Wisconsin Now.

A veteran of Wisconsin politics, Kraus, 43, worked on campaigns for Feingold, Gov. James Doyle, and a state Supreme Court judge. Kraus was also state director of John Edwards's 2004 presidential campaign. "It's always been a tough battleground state," Kraus says. One close race he worked on was the 2000 presidential campaign of Al Gore, who won Wisconsin by about 5,700 votes. Squeaking out the close races is "something that not only drives me but drives a lot of people that work in politics. That sort of competition is exciting to be a part of," Kraus says. He has also worked in the Milwaukee office of Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis.

Kraus is from Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He majored in English and took only one political science class. But he still followed politics and started out as a volunteer on the successful campaign of former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist.

Kraus feels that conservatives have made better use of ballot initiatives over the years, and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center is part of an effort to advance progressive causes through the state ballot process. The center's new deputy executive director is Joel Foster, who cut his teeth working for organized labor in Arizona. He was most recently policy director for the Arizona affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Foster has also worked as communications director at Mi Familia Vota, the Service Employees International Union's Latino outreach effort.
--G.S.

In the Tanks

Chris Tuttle has left the State Department, where he served as director of the Office of Strategic Communications and Planning, to join the Council on Foreign Relations as deputy director of its Washington Program. In this role, Tuttle will manage the group's member meetings and outreach program. He will also work to get the CFR's products and scholars up to Capitol Hill through the council's congressional program.

"I am a generalist in terms of foreign policy," Tuttle says. It's the "area in which the U.S. faces its most daunting challenges, but also its best opportunities for success in the future."

Tuttle, 37, is married to Johanna Nesseth Tuttle, a vice president for strategic planning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They have a 2-year-old son, Christian, and another baby boy on the way. The couple lives in Alexandria, Va. Tuttle says he enjoys preparing all varieties of food--he has taken French cooking classes--and likes to garden.

He grew up in Wisconsin and earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). While in college, Tuttle interned in Washington for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the first Bush administration, and CNN's Washington Bureau. Just after getting his degree, he worked with former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater on his book Call the Briefing!

Tuttle also served as chief of staff to Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., worked on the Republican caucus staff for the Wisconsin state Assembly, and spent a year at a public-relations firm. He recently earned a master's degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College.
--Winter Casey

Hill People

Lindsey Mask, the press secretary for Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., is taking a temporary leave of absence to work on the communications team for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Although Mask grew up in a small town in Texas, she "always felt like a city girl." So when Mask moved to Washington, she felt right at home. She is the founder of a professional networking group for young women called the Ladies Dinner Club. She is also a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program and is on the board of the District Trust Charities. When Mask is not working, she enjoys travel and great restaurants.

Mask, 32, was previously press secretary for Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and worked as a communications specialist and speechwriter for the Texas Education Agency. She also served as an administrative aide for two members of the Texas House of Representatives. Mask spent a year as a reporter for an ABC network affiliate in Calumet, Mich.

She earned her undergraduate degree in communications from Texas State University (San Marcos).
--W.C.

Shorts

Ride the Dow ... Patrick Yoest has been promoted from a general assignment reporter to a congressional reporter at Dow Jones Newswires, which he joined in March. The Newswires now has two full-time people at the Capitol. Yoest will focus on Social Security, Medicare, and entitlement-spending issues. He has covered veterans affairs and homeland security for Congressional Quarterly. Yoest earned a bachelor's degree in economics and history at the University of Pittsburgh, in his hometown. Outside of work, he is a volunteer tutor for high school students in Washington and is active in a National Press Club program that awards scholarships for college-bound minority students.

Going Private ... John Tomaszewski, communications director for Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., is moving to the private sector to work for the crisis and litigation department at Levick Strategic Communications. Tomas-zewski has stepped out of the revolving door before. He was a communications director for then-Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., before going to Lockheed Martin Information Technology in early 2007. Earlier in his career, he was a political researcher for the Waverly Group in Ellicott City, Md. Tomaszewski has a bachelor's degree from Ramapo College of New Jersey and a master's from the Center for European Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
--W.C. and G.S.

Have a tip for National Journal's People column? Contact Gregg Sangillo or Winter Casey at 202-739-8400, or at people@nationaljournal.com.

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