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Commerce Contact Heads To The RNC
by Bara Vaida
Jim Dyke, who has been press secretary to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans for the past year, has left to become the press secretary for the Republican National Committee (RNC). Previously, Dyke was a lobbyist at Quinn Gillespie and Associates where he worked on getting legislation through Congress to eliminate the Spanish War-era telephone tax, dubbed the "Tax on Talking." Commerce Deputy Press Secretary Trevor Francis will take over Dyke's duties. Before Commerce, Francis worked in the public affairs office of the State Department and served on the Bush campaign.
President Bush has nominated Michael Toner to be a member of the Federal Election Commission. He will replace Darryl Wold, whose term expired. Toner is chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. Toner was general counsel to Bush's transition team and election campaign. From 1997 to 1999, Toner served as deputy counsel to the RNC, and in 1996 he was counsel to Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole.
New Communications Stations
Jonathan Lamy has been named director of communications at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), replacing Jano Cabrera, who departed the RIAA to serve as communications director for former Vice President Al Gore's political action committee. Most recently, Lamy was press secretary for anti-hunger group Bread for the World. He also has been press secretary for Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., and deputy press secretary for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
With the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau getting a facelift and a new name as part of an FCC reorganization plan, Bureau Chief Dorothy Atwood organized a ceremony celebrating the bureau's history. Atwood recognized 30 employees who have been at the bureau for more than 20 years and one employee who is a 40-year veteran. She also gave the Bureau Chief Award to 21 people, noting a personal detail about each of them For example, employees learned that one of their fellow workers used to baby-sit Gwyneth Paltrow and another appeared as a model in Vogue. Atwood also discussed the various proceedings the bureau must tackle, setting them to music. For example, when talking about the hard work required to comb through a Bell application for long-distance service, Atwood played "Queens Under Pressure," by David Bowie. Each bureau employee received a mug with the bureau's new initials, WCB, which morphs to "Way Cool Bureau" when hot liquid is poured into it. On most days, WCB stands for Wireless Competition Bureau.
In other FCC news, Monica Shah Desai, who served as a legal adviser for wireless and international matters, is leaving FCC Commission Kevin Martin's office to join the Wireless Competition Bureau's Competitive Pricing Division. Taking over for Desai will be Samuel Feder, who has been serving as Martin's legal adviser. Daniel Gonzalez will take over Feder's common-carrier issues.
Team Tapped To Study IT And Info Security
Markle Foundation President Zoe Baird and former Netscape Communications CEO James Barksdale will chair a multi-sector task force to determine how information and technology can enhance national security. The task force will be conducted with the Brookings Institution, Markle Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Serving on the task force are EdVenture Holdings Chairman Esther Dyson; Sun Microsystems chief researcher John Gage, Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt of Utah, former National Security Agency Deputy Director Bill Crowell and Progressive Policy Institute Vice President Rob Atkinson.
The Intel Science Talent Search 61st awards ceremony Monday night was attended by many luminaries in the science community and a handful of policymakers, including John Marburger, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, who was revealed to be a semi-finalist for the awards in 1957, before they were sponsored by Intel. The 40 high-school finalists spent a week in D.C. visiting with their representatives, meeting with President Bush and undergoing judging at the National Academy of Sciences. First-place winner Ryan Patterson, who hails from Grand Junction, Colo., received a $100,000 four-year scholarship. He developed and patented a glove that translates American Sign Language to written text on a portable display device. Intel CEO Craig Barrett told the audience, "The world will move forward when they move the frontiers of science forward."
A Day At The Races
Democrat Ray Nagin, who is a general manager at Cox Communications, won the mayor's seat in New Orleans last week, joining the ranks of those who entered the world of politics from the high-tech sector. During the campaign, Nagin cast himself as a corporate turnaround artist who had energized a once-moribund cable-television franchise, according to the Times-Picayune. Nagin beat Richard Pennington.
Others with high-tech ties did not fare as well. Andrei Cherny, who was a speech writer for former Vice President Al Gore and helped to write the Democratic National Committee platform including its section on high-tech, lost his challenge for an Assembly seat representing California's San Fernando Valley in last week's primary. Cherny, who wrote a book last year called "The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age," lost to Democratic opponent Lloyd Levine, who is an aide to the current San Fernando Valley Assemblyman John Longville.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who does not face a serious challenger for the first time in her congressional career, has launched her own leadership political action committee called "Democrats for the Future," which she plans to use to boost her national and statewide image, reported The Tri-Valley Herald. Through leadership PACs, "lawmakers can showcase their fund-raising talents, raise money in addition to donations they collect for their biennial campaigns and then give financial gifts to other members of Congress," the newspaper said.
YdemsCan.net, a new online and offline PAC for under-40 Democrats, recently hosted a fundraiser for Kentucky House candidate Jack Conway and Nevada House candidate Darreo Herrara, reported PoliticsOnline. In 2002, the group plans to raise $30,000 for its PAC as well as $30,000 donated through its Web site.
Candida "Candi" Wolff was named assistant to Vice President Richard Cheney for legislative affairs. Wolff is serving as a liaison between the vice president and Congress and is responsible for managing the legislative affairs office. Previously, Wolff served for a year as deputy assistant to the vice president, focusing on Senate legislative affairs.
The board of directors of the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) voted Richard Burk, president and CEO of nii Communications to be the association's new chairman. Burk succeeds Doug Hanson, former president, CEO and chairman of Internet Commerce and Communications. Jerry James, president of Grande Communications and a former CompTel chairman, was elected to be the association's new vice chairman, succeeding Drew Walker, CEO of ITCDeltaCom. Joseph Ambersley, executive vice president of business development for PaeTec, was elected vice chairman/treasurer, succeeding Burk.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced he plans to fold the agency's China office into a larger North Asia office that will cover Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong and likely will be headed by Wendy Cutler, assistant U.S. trade representative for Japan, Inside U.S. Trade reported. The new China slot at the deputy USTR level will be filled by Charles Freeman, who has worked for more than two years as counsel for international affairs for Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Ark. Also, Dan Brinza, the USTR's top lawyer in Geneva, is returning to the United States and will be replaced by Steven Fabry, who is now a lawyer for services and investment, Inside U.S. Trade said.
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