Christopher Snow Hopkins

Christopher Snow Hopkins

Staff Reporter, People

Christopher Snow Hopkins is a staff reporter for National Journal, where he writes vignettes on members of the D.C. community.  Prior to writing the People column, he reported on energy and the environment for National Journal.  A native of Denver, Colorado, Hopkins has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of Chicago and has also reported on contemporary art for the PBS NewsHour.

Christopher Snow Hopkins's Latest Posts
PEOPLE

Bloss-Baum Pushes for Artists' Rights in Her New Public-Affairs Firm

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
As lawmakers mulled legislation to safeguard the rights of performing artists in 2010, two musicians sat in the office of then-Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, hopeful that he would support the bill. Read More »
PEOPLE

Saved From Boston's Bombs by a Text Message

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Veteran Capitol Hill staffer Amy Smith starts a new job on Friday, feeling lucky to be alive after narrowly escaping Monday's devastation near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Read More »
PEOPLE

On the Move: March 23, 2013

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Mike Magner
Kelly Nallen is American Crossroads' new director of digital. Former Hillary Clinton collaborator Kris Balderston is a senior partner at Fleishman-Hillard. Onetime DeLay policy director Juliane Sullivan heads the House Education and...

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PEOPLE

Retiring Senate Doorkeeper Has Seen Good Times and Bad

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
When Myron Fleming arrived on Capitol Hill in 1963, he recalls a woman hurling a racial remark his way not long after he was hired. Read More »
PEOPLE

NFL Linebacker Helping Veteran Lawmaker Tackle ‘Superbugs’

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Borrowing from her background in microbiology, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., has made a signature issue out of battling “superbugs,” strains of bacteria that have mutated from overexposure to antibiotics and become resistant to...

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PEOPLE

New Pope Draws Praise and Prayers From Washington

By Mike Magner and Christopher Snow Hopkins
President Obama wrapped up a rare meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon by giving his adversaries a piece of news. “I made the announcement that we saw smoke,” the president told reporters as he left the Capitol ...

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PEOPLE

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman Back in Washington for ‘Internationalism’ Project

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
In recent years, a number of prominent lawmakers have either renounced their party or been excommunicated. Read More »
PEOPLE

The Violence Against Women Act Started With One Woman: Ludy Green

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
A few years ago, Ludy Green placed a victim of domestic violence in the Washington office of an esteemed international organization, with a salary of $45,000, plus benefits. Read More »
PEOPLE

Anna Galland, 33, Leads MoveOn.org From Michigan

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Anna Galland, the new executive director of MoveOn.org, likes to keep her feet firmly planted outside the Beltway. Read More »
PEOPLE

A Look Inside Interpol in Washington

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Shawn Bray, the new head of Interpol in Washington, unlocks some of the mystery surrounding the global intelligence agency. Read More »
PEOPLE

Sculptor of Rosa Parks Statue Is No Stranger to Historical Figures

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
The statue of civil-rights pioneer Rosa Parks unveiled in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall this week is just the latest in a line of historical figures bearing the imprint of sculptor Rob Firmin. Read More »
PEOPLE

On the Move

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Mike Magner
Angela Rye launches a new lobby shop, Impact Strategies. Domingo Herraiz is Motorola's new VP of North American government affairs. Campaign insider Tharon Johnson joins McKenna Long & Aldridge. Read More »
PEOPLE

5 Inventors of the Cell Phone Honored for Wiring the World

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
On April 3, 1973, in New York City, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first call on a cell phone. Hoisting a 2.2-pound device, the 44-year-old called his rival at Bell Laboratories to gloat. Read More »
PEOPLE

The Inaugural Poet—a Gay Cuban-American Named After Nixon—Finds Inspiration in His Identity

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Like President Obama, poet Richard Blanco has been tormented by questions of race and identity. Read More »

New Mexico, 1st House District

With her election in New Mexico’s 1st District, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham continues her family’s political dynasty. Her grandfather, Eugene Lujan, was the New Mexico Supreme Court’s first Latino chief justice; her uncle,...

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Texas, 34th House District

Democrat Filemon Vela won a seat in the newly created 34th District on the strength of his membership in Brownsville’s most illustrious political family. The city’s federal courthouse bears the name of his late father, a U.S. di...

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Indiana, 5th House District

Susan Brooks, the Republican candidate from Indiana’s 5th District, channels the understated conservatism of the state’s two-term governor, Mitch Daniels. Brooks eked out a 1-percentage-point victory over former Rep. David McInt...

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PEOPLE

Natural History Digs In

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Maryland’s coastal plain is laden with fossil plants from the early Cretaceous period, and among those harvesting specimens is the new director of the Smithsonian Institution’s  Museum of Natural History. Read More »
PEOPLE

GOP Prophet of Doom

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Former Sen. Larry Pressler , R-S.D., warns that a day of reckoning is near. Read More »
Q&A

Remembering Ike

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Susan Eisenhower talks about the controversy over the design of the memorial to honor her grandfather. Read More »
PEOPLE

How Should We Remember Ike?

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
A battle is under way over the legacy of the 34th president, and at the heart of it is Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower . Read More »
PEOPLE

Jewish Groups Take On Farm Bill

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
One section of the Haggadah—a compilation of texts recited during the Passover Seder—invites the hungry and downtrodden to “come and eat.” Read More »
PEOPLE

Behind the Mall’s New ‘Healing Space’

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Julia Edwards
President Obama will deliver remarks next Wednesday at the groundbreaking for the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open on the National Mall in 2015. For supporters of the project, commi...

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PEOPLE

Walter Dean Myers: Youth Ambassador Is One for the Books

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
As the third national ambassador for young people’s literature, a position created by the Library of Congress in 2007, Walter Dean Myers loves to “get people to yell at me.” Read More »
PEOPLE

Victor J. DeNoble: Tobacco Scientist Featured in New Documentary

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Big Tobacco was brought down not by crusading lawmakers or damning medical research, but by a secret quest for a more addictive cigarette. Read More »
PEOPLE

There’s a New Sheriff in Town

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
On Tuesday night, the House sergeant at arms invaded American living rooms when he introduced President Obama before the State of the Union address. With protruding ears and an angular jaw, Paul D. Irving looked the part: a flinty...

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PEOPLE

Chasing the Merchants of Auschwitz

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Sixty-five years after the first military tribunal at Nuremberg, some Holocaust survivors are still awaiting recompense from the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Read More »
PEOPLE

Jersey Shore With a Political Bent

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
“Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes,” said Doron Ofir , the casting director behind MTV’s Jersey Shore , which debuted in December 2009 and has since become part of America’s cultural ...

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PEOPLE

Chinese Immigrant Leads the Legion

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Even as some Republicans question the efficacy of Keynesian economics, lawmakers in both parties have responded favorably to a certain passage in President Obama’s address to Congress last week. Read More »
CONGRESS

Kicking It During Recess? Not So Much, Say Freshman Lawmakers

By and Christopher Snow Hopkins
Maybe it’s a sign of just how bad the times are that an overwhelming majority of freshman lawmakers are spending most of the August recess back in their districts, trying to allay anxiety and explaining their decidedly short re...

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PEOPLE

Ex-Rep. Meek Prepping for U.N. Slot

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Former Rep. Kendrick Meek , D-Fla.—who was soundly defeated last year in a three-way race to succeed appointed Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla.—has received new marching orders from the White House. Read More »
PEOPLE

Detroit to D.C., Inspired by ‘Whizzer’ White

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Michael Ferrell couldn’t lose—he had a Supreme Court justice at his disposal. Read More »
PEOPLE

An Agency That Doesn’t Keep Secrets

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Sheryl Shenberger is saddled with a Herculean task. Read More »
PEOPLE

Custodian of America’s Front Yard

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
In the summer of 2008, the bodies of dozens of ducks and ducklings were found floating in the Capitol Reflecting Pool, prompting the National Park Service to cordon off the area. As park officials later explained, the noncirculating...

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WHITE HOUSE

Fox News Seeks Investigation of Twitter Hack

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Fox News says hackers used one of its Twitter accounts to spread disturbing phony reports about President Obama. Read More »
PEOPLE

An Old Conservationist Reawakens

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
A ghost of the Clinton administration has come out of the woodwork to rebuke President Obama for his timidity on conservation. Read More »
EARTH WEEK 2011

McKibben Flourishes Outside the 'Velvet Prison'

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Bill McKibben aims to transform climate change—heretofore an “inside Washington game”—into a global cause, a “mass movement” that will compel policymakers the world over to confront the reality of a warming planet.  Read More »
MEDIA

David Broder, 'Dean' of Washington Press Corps, Dead at 81

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
David Broder, 81, a Washington institution and Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for The Washington Post , died on Wednesday in Arlington of complications from diabetes, according to the Post . Read More »
PEOPLE

From the Archives: A Bittersweet Mission

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
For astronaut Mark Kelly, commanding Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission in April is an occasion for sober reflection. Read More »
PEOPLE

Sen. Shaheen's New Spokeswoman Was One of Facebook's Very First Users

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" on Wednesday, has been portrayed in print and on screen as a boy king yearning for acceptance. But Faryl Ury, who was recently named Se...

Read More »
SPACE PROGRAM

Mind if I Take This? It's From Space.

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
No reporter likes to be interrupted halfway through an interview—unless by a call from Space. On Wednesday, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly politely asked to interrupt an interview on his upcoming voyage on the Endeavour space shuttle ...

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ARIZONA-5

David Schweikert (R)

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
  Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
GUARD DUTY. The 111th Congress may be one of the most polarized yet, but some committees are more prone to partisan feuding than others. "Compared to what I have heard about other committees," the House Transportation and Infrastr...

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PEOPLE

Border Patrol

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Some hot-button issues are fleeting and some are perennial. According to Margaret Klessig Edmunds, the new chief of staff at ImmigrationWorks USA, immigration is an issue that "endures." Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Naureen Khan and Christopher Snow Hopkins
GOING TO JOSEPH. After more than a decade in public service, it was time for Chani Wiggins to jump ship. Wiggins, most recently assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, has been named a p...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
MUCH ADDO. Mina Addo, most recently a legislative assistant for health care with Sen. Byron Dorgan , D-N.D., has joined Burness Communications in Bethesda, Md., as a senior associate for public policy. Addo will engage a similar ...

Read More »
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Why The EPA Has Texas Boiling

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
The partisan issue of climate change is also becoming a contest between state and federal authority. Read More »
PEOPLE

Turning Up The Heat

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Russell Vought has spent over a decade helping craft policy on behalf of conservative lawmakers, whom he sees as a bulwark against immoderate growth in the public sector. Read More »
PEOPLE

Burning Rubber

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Capitol Hill is where ideals are reified as public policy, says Patty Sheetz, who has been named chief of staff to Rep. Jeff Fortenberry , R-Neb. "It's where the rubber meets the road." Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
FAMILY MATTERS . Valerie Henry is resigning her post as legislative assistant for Rep. Greg Walden , R-Ore., to become "full-time CEO" of a household with two young children. Born and raised in Alexandria, Va., Henry graduated fro...

Read More »
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Home Star Stalled As Spill Debate Rages On

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
The energy legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday is a potpourri, with provisions to abolish the oil spill liability cap and overhaul the government agency that oversees offshore drilling. But tacke...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
CONFECTIONER. When she is not lobbying, Melissa Dodson Schooley is wrangling with her toddlers and kneading pastry dough. "I'm a big chef. I like to do pastries," says the onetime fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding, ...

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PEOPLE

People

By Siddhartha Mahanta and Christopher Snow Hopkins
BACK TO THE SWAMP. For Gabriela Domenzain, the new communications director at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, coming back to Washington brings things full circle. Domenzain grew up in Miami and studied public policy at the Univ...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
HIGH WATTAGE. Former Rep. J.C. Watts , R-Okla., has been elected to the board of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on issues for blacks and other people of color. Since deciding not to seek...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Siddhartha Mahanta
MARCH OF FOLEY. The offices of Foley Hoag are expanding their government strategies practice and have hired Connie Garner and Stacey Sachs to navigate the uncharted waters of healthcare reform. Garner has been named policy directo...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
NURSE LESLIE. Registered nurse Leslie Judith Goldberg is retiring after 20 years with the Office of the Attending Physician in the House. Goldberg was born in Providence, R.I., and graduated from the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, N...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
APPLE STRODEL. House Speaker Pelosi on Thursday appointed Daniel J. Strodel as the interim House chief administrative officer, following Dan Beard's resignation earlier this month. Strodel, currently senior adviser to the House ...

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PEOPLE

People

By Siddhartha Mahanta and Christopher Snow Hopkins
CRIST STORY. For Greg Crist, the new head of public affairs for the American Health Care Association, the message is often in the data. A native Virginian and avid golfer, Crist jumped into state politics after graduating from the...

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PEOPLE

People

By Siddhartha Mahanta and Christopher Snow Hopkins
SERVICE MAN. In the eyes of retired Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis, Americans need help understanding what the military is all about. As the Family Research Council's senior fellow for national security, he hopes to change that. He wi...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Siddhartha Mahanta
BREAK ON THROUGH. Lindsay Punzenberger, a longtime aide to Rep. Thomas Petri , R-Wis., is the new assistant vice president at Venn Strategies, LLC. During six years in Petri's office, she helped the lawmaker forge a number of ini...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
HELP MATES. House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller has announced several changes to his panel staff. Jose P. Garza, most recently an assistant federal public defender in the Western District of Texas, has been tapped a...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
FLORIDA FROLIC. Eric Eikenberg, a former top aide to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, is joining the Tallahassee office of Holland & Knight LLP. Eikenberg started in politics in 1998 managing the unsuccessful state House campaign f...

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PEOPLE

People

By Siddhartha Mahanta and Christopher Snow Hopkins
BORDER FOCUS. Driven by a passion for immigration issues, Nicole Dinis and Evelyn Rodriguez are ascending the ranks in the office of Rep. Luis Gutierrez , D-Ill. Dinis is settling into her role as senior legislative assistant, ha...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Siddhartha Mahanta
HEALTHY HELPING. Mary B. Langowski, a former aide to Sen. Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, is joining DLA Piper, a global legal service provider. As senior policy adviser, Langowski will work with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle ,...

Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
MOORE TRADE. James P. Moore, Jr., who is joining APCO Worldwide as senior counselor, broke into the world of Washington by sheer tenacity. After receiving his master's in public and international affairs from the University of Pit...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Siddhartha Mahanta
AND THEN, VENN. Jim Ray, who is joining Venn Strategies, LLC, as senior adviser, had a hand in many of the "hot and heavy" issues that characterized the waning days of the Bush administration. When he was named strategic counsel f...

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PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
ALL HANDS ON DECK. After four years aboard an aircraft carrier, Darrin Munoz is the newly minted correspondence director for Sen. John Barrasso , R-Wyo. The youngest of seven in a family from Newcastle, Wyo., Munoz joined the Nav...

Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
LEAD NAVIGATOR. Meghan Johnson's favorite sport is indigenous to Washington. "Politics is the full-contact sport I pay attention to," she says. Johnson, who is joining Navigators Global LLC as senior vice president, will deal with...

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PEOPLE

People

By Mike Magner and Christopher Snow Hopkins
HEADED TO LOWE'S. After eight years working for Colorado lawmakers, Craig Rushing is headed to Mooresville, N.C., to become government affairs manager for home improvement retailer Lowe's. The North Carolina native started on Capi...

Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Snow Hopkins and Mike Magner
TAX WOMAN. Stacey Rolland has been named by House Speaker Pelosi as her new policy adviser on tax issues. Rolland comes to the Democratic leader's staff from the Treasury Department, where she worked in the Office of Legislative...

Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Hopkins and Gregg Sangillo
EMERGENCY LANDING. Rachel Racusen has been named director of public affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She was previously communications director under House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller , where she...

Read More »
PEOPLE

People

By Christopher Hopkins
IN THE FRONT PEW. Tamera Stanton Luzzatto is joining the Pew Charitable Trusts as managing director of government relations. She is a veteran of Capitol Hill, having served as chief of staff to former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ...

Read More »
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Regional Cap-And-Trade System Sees Early Successes

By Christopher Snow Hopkins
Corrected at 11:32 a.m. on March 2 . Read More »
THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

12 Tea Party Players To Watch

By Christopher Snow Hopkins, Siddhartha Mahanta and Theresa Poulson
Updated at 9:12 a.m. on Feb. 17. Read More »
SEE MORE
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