An Insider’s Guide to Political Jobs in Washington
Thursday, October 2, 2003

WILLIAM T. ENDICOTT (D)

Bill Endicott, the narrator of today's presentation, is the author of the bipartisan book "Political Jobs in Washington" published by John Wiley and Sons and available on Amazon.com. He is currently on tour speaking about the book and trying to get a new generation of young people interested in working in politics. He has held many of the jobs described in the book. Off and on over three decades, he worked for three congressmen, the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Administration--first as a political appointee to the Small Business Administration and then as Director of Research and Analysis in the White House Office of Political Affairs. He was also the head coach of the U.S. Olympic Team in whitewater kayaking at Barcelona, where his team won gold and bronze medals. Four years later he helped organize and finance those events for the Atlanta Olympics and was NBC TV's color announcer for them. He also served nine years in the Marine Corps Reserve, rising from Private to Captain. He owns a small publishing company, which has published several sports books that have been translated into many foreign languages. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

TUCKER MCNEIL (R)

Tucker was an American government major at U.Va., Class of 1999. He got his start in politics as Press Secretary to Congressman Mark Sanford of South Carolina, where he wrote press releases and speeches, maintained relationships with members of the press and scheduled press opportunities. Then, when Sandford got elected governor of South Carolina, Tucker became a speechwriter for Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey, who was President Bush's Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He worked with senior staff and program offices to craft messages on all the Bush Administration's top environmental priorities. Following that, he became Whitman's personal assistant, ensuring the preparedness and success of all aspects of her daily activities, both in the office and on the road promoting the Agency's goals and initiatives.

KIM TOBIN (D)

Kim Tobin graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1997 with a BA in International Relations (East Asia). In the fall of that year, she was an intern in two Democratic Senate offices, those of Senator Carol Moseley Braun and Senator Chris Dodd, prior to getting a paid staff assistant position with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. From there, she moved to the position of Senior Fellow with The Widmeyer Baker Group, a public/media/government relations firm in D.C, and subsequently to the position of program associate (external relations including lobbying) with the Fulbright Association, a nonprofit membership organization for former Fulbright Scholars. After two years in D.C., she spent two years in China, first as the development officer for the International School of Beijing and then as the managing editor for Beijing Jianwen, a bilingual arts and entertainment magazine. Since the fall of 2001, Kim has been a development officer for the Center for Politics.

DREAMA LEE (R)

Dreama Lee got her BA from U.Va. in Foreign Affairs in 1996 and immediately went to work in England before getting a job as a research assistant on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business, working for Senator "Kit" Bond. She also served as Legislative Assistant to Senator Bond and co-authored the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, Public Law 105-394, and was a key staffer in passage of the Foster Care Independence Living Act of 1999, Public Law 106-169. In the fall of 1999, she made two fact-finding trips on behalf of the U.S. Government, touring refugee camps in Western Sahara and Algeria and meeting with the U.S. Ambassador and other key officials, and meeting with officials of the Turkish republic of Northern Cypress to discuss the current status of Cypress. Leaving Senator Bond's office in 2000, she worked in Washington successively as manager of government relations for the 3Com Corporation; director of Fontheim International; and then as a public relations consultant, first self-employed and now for Touchtone, Inc Consulting Group, also in Washington. In 2002, she spent four months backpacking throughout Southeast Asia and Japan.

THOMAS F. WALLS (D)

After earning his BA from U.Va., Tom Walls, got started in politics as a Research/Production Assistant with the political consulting firm of Squier, Eskew, Knapp Communications. From there he worked as an assistant researcher on the Gary Hart for President campaign. After that, he returned to U.Va., this time for a law degree, and then was a partner in the law firm of Anderson, Kill, Olick & Oshinsky. At that point, he began an 11-year career on Capitol Hill, working successively as Legislative Assistant for Senator Dale Bumpers and as Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Russell Feingold, emphasizing appropriations, telecommunications, judiciary and foreign relations matters. Following the election of President Clinton, he was a consultant to the Clinton-Gore Transition Team. In 2001, he went back to the law, this time to the firm of McGuireWoods where he represents a variety of clients, specializing in the same areas he worked on in the Senate.

RALPH C. BLEDSOE (R)

Dr. Ralph Bledsoe, now retired, is an expert on the management of the presidency and the executive branch, having served in the Reagan White House in several key positions over the entire eight years of President Reagan's tenure. He served as: Special Assistant to the President; Director of the Office of Planning and Evaluation; Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Development; Executive Secretary of the Cabinet Council on Management and Administration; Executive Director of the Federal Property Review Board; and Executive Secretary of the Domestic Policy Council. He holds four academic degrees: a bachelor's and master's in business administration and a master's and doctoral degree in public administration. Prior to his government service, he spent 14 years as a corporate executive with System Development Corporation, an aerospace firm. Following that, he began a career in academe, establishing the University of Southern California School of Public Administration, serving as the director of the Washington Public Affairs Center of the University of Southern California, and serving as a senior faculty member and professor of public management at the Federal Executive Institute here in Charlottesville. He has also taught graduate courses in public administration at a number of universities, including U.Va. He first came to the attention of Ronald Reagan in 1971, when Reagan, then Governor of California, appointed him to the Board of Directors of the California Crime Technological Research Foundation. After leaving the White House, he was the first director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, and then served with the National Archives and Records Administration. He has also been an advisor to foreign governments and international public administration organizations.