After spending almost a decade at the Information Technology Association of America working on technology and tax issues, Carol Cayo has left to open the Washington office for Vertex, a 20-year-old tax software and research company with headquarters based in Berwyn, PA. Cayo has been replaced at ITAA by Lori Comeau, who will be vice president, software division. Comeau comes to ITAA from McGraw Hill, a spokeswoman said.

     John Raffetto, who had been a principal at Podesta.com, has left to work on freelance press relations projects. One of his clients is Infotech Strategies, which this week is helping to launch Slam Dunk Networks, a new company, backed by Cisco, American Express, Oracle and others, that aims to track business-to-business transactions on the Internet. Prior to working at Podesta, Raffetto spent time on the Hill working for Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-AK. Between projects, Raffetto also plans to fit in some golfing and fishing.

     After creating E-Advocates a year ago, its principals Pam Fielding and Daniel Bennett have parted ways. Bennett left to start another company, called Citizen Contact that is focused on building Web sites for Democratic members of Congress. In part to replace Bennett, Fielding has brought in Nicole Duritz, who has been working for the American Association of Retired Persons. At AARP, Duritz was one of the leaders behind the BeAVoter.org, which worked with America Online and MCI WorldCom to create a Web site that would make it easy to register to vote. Bennett said he left E-Advocates because he and Pam "were both moving in different directions." Bennett said he wanted to concentrate on helping Democrats in Congress win, while Fielding wanted to focus on helping non-profit, advocacy and corporate clients to use the Web. E-Advocates is a unit of Capitol Advantage.

     AllAdvantage.com founder and CEO Jim Jorgensen and his wife Bridget Jorgensen, founder of the Summit Consulting Group and the Why Me Foundation, met with about a dozen House Democrat caucus members last Tuesday for lunch. Among the topics of discussion were privacy, H-1B visas and education. On privacy, Jorgensen expressed his support for strong opt-in privacy policies, so that consumers know how and what personal information is being used. AllAdvantage is an Internet company that pays people to surf the Web. On education, the Jorgensens pushed members to look at ways to increase incentives and salaries for teachers to attract and retain higher quality teachers and to work on ways to increase the number of resources kids in elementary school have in terms of access to computers and training on how to use them and the Internet. On H-1b visas, AllAdvantage said 40 to 50 of the company's 700 employees have H-1B visas, according to a person who attended the meeting.

     Alexander Ogilvy has added a new person to its DC tech group. The public relations firm hired Jenny Miller who was wooed away from the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age (also known as ProComp), an industry group committed to the enforcement of antitrust laws in the new economy. Previously, Miller also was involved in projects for Netscape Communications and Emusic.com and served as a liaison between the Dole for President campaign and the Computers and Information Technology campaign policy group.

     Deidre Mulligan, staff counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology, Ron Plesser, an attorney at Piper, Marbury Rudnick and Wolfe, and Glee Rady with Privada will be the guest speakers at the next Internet Caucus lunch to be held May 24. The topic will be online privacy, which has been among the hottest and most difficult issues for lawmakers to grapple with this year.

     Grassroots.com, the political Web site, has added more members to its DC office. Kyle McSlarrow, who formerly worked for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-MS, and heads up political and governmental affairs, has hired April Osajima to head Grassroots.com's DC sales. She joins the company from the American Association of University Women, where she was director of programs. She also has worked as an aide to Rep. Peter Kostmayer, D-PA. Also coming on board is Michael Turk, as director of DC operations. Previously Turk was network architect for the Republican National Committee. Also hired was Todd Vitale, who will be director of political programs. Vitale was formerly vice president of the Tarrance Group, a political research and strategy firm.

     Fresh from the Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, campaign for president, Dan Schnur, former Republican political director for TechNet, Silicon Valley's lobbying group, is joining with Ted Forstmann, to create Free America's Children, a political organization aimed at promoting school choice. Schnur will be executive director of the organization and will work in New York City. "Our job is to inject the issue of school competition into the campaigns this year," Schnur, 36, told National Journal. Schnur worked on communications strategy at the McCain campaign.

     After nine years on Capitol Hill, Laura Cox, communications director for Senate Republican Conference Secretary Paul Coverdell, R-GA, is leaving to become vice president for strategic policy and communications for Institnet, Reuters' electronic exchange systems for institutional investors. "Instinet has long been a driving force for change in more than 40 global markets and is a member of 18 exchanges in North America, Europe, and Asia," Cox said. Electronic exchange policy issues may increase in profile as more market trading occurs on exchanges others than the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. Before working for Coverdell, Cox spent five years as communications director with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, and two years as assistant press secretary for Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-TX.

     Ellen Stroud, communications director for TechNet, Silicon Valley's lobbying group, recently left the organization for the dot com world. She will be working on communications strategy for PerksAtWork.com , a Web site that helps companies build employee benefits programs. Prior to TechNet, Stroud handled communications strategy for Internet Caucus co-chair Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-VA.

- by Bara Vaida