Joe Martyak, the chief spokesman at the Environmental Protection Agency, is following his boss out the door.

Martyak will step down as associate administrator for the Office of Public Affairs on July 18 (EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman’s last day on the job is Friday). He will become vice president of communications and client relations at Van Scoyoc Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based government affairs firm.

Martyak joined EPA in June 2001 after serving as general manager of Golin/Harris, a public relations firm. He has also worked as vice president of corporate affairs for two European chemical companies, was a deputy undersecretary of Interior during the Reagan administration, and served on Capitol Hill as an aide to his hometown Congressman, then-Rep. Dan Flood (D-Pa.).

Martyak called his time at EPA “the highlight of my career.”

The EPA is expected to name Martyak’s replacement sometime next month. President Bush has yet to appoint a successor to Whitman, although Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R) — a former Senator — is considered the frontrunner.

Life Expectancy. Democrats for Life of America, an organization that works to elect Democrats who oppose abortion rights, was scheduled to have its annual dinner last night in Washington. The fete was set to honor two of the organization’s strongest defenders on Capitol Hill, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas).

Nelson and Stenholm are among the dozen or so Members of Congress who have been lobbying the Democratic National Committee to add Democrats for Life of America to the list of organizations that the DNC links to on its Web site. Recently, a DNC spokeswoman said the group’s request was under consideration.

But Roll Call has learned that Democrats for Life of America leaders have a meeting scheduled today with DNC Political Director Traci Siegel. Siegel has worked for NARAL (now NARAL Pro-Choice America), an abortion-rights group.

WISH List’s List. The WISH List, a D.C.-based fundraising network for Republican female candidates, has changed its leadership structure as it attempts to increase the number of moderate Republican women in elective office.

Pat Carpenter, who has served as the organization’s president for the past three

years, will now become president. She will be WISH’s chief spokeswoman and will oversee all staff and political, strategic and fundraising operations.

WISH has also created a new position of chairwoman of the board of directors. That role will be filled by Karen Judd Lewis, a partner in Williams & Jenson, a D.C. law and public affairs firm.

Because outgoing WISH President and co-founder Candace Straight’s term was coming to an end this month, WISH board members decided to restructure the management, leaving the board to set policy while the staff leads the organization. Straight will remain as a member of the board’s executive committee.

WISH recruits, trains, supports and elects pro-abortion-rights Republican women to federal, state and local office.

Not Just a Similar Name. Bannon Communications Research, a polling and communications firm in Washington, has added Brad Bauman to its staff. Bauman has worked with Bannon Communications on a variety of projects since 2002, including work for Democratic legislative caucuses in Georgia and South Carolina and for the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

Before joining the firm, Bauman worked for ConklinScott, a national fundraising firm for liberal candidates and organizations, and for ex-Sen. Bill Bradley’s (D-N.J.) 2000 presidential campaign.

Stand Up and Be Counted. It wasn’t quite an official government census document, but it sure looked like one. The envelope even used the same typefaces that the U.S. Census Bureau uses on its correspondence.

The Republican National Committee recently sent a letter to former and prospective donors, urging them to fill out a Republican Party Census Document and return it to the RNC — along with a generous contribution, of course. But while real census documents ask questions about a person’s household, this one asked questions about domestic and foreign policy, social issues and news outlets.

The Bolden and the Beautiful. Lost in the debate over whether D.C.’s first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential primary in 2004 will be anything but a beauty contest is news that the D.C. Democrats have a new party chairman. He is A. Scott Bolden, a partner in the government relations and litigation group of the law firm Reed Smith who is also a former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. He replaces Norman Neverson, who resigned.

Although the state party has not officially sanctioned the January primary, Bolden said he expects all of the Democratic presidential candidates to make campaign stops in the District. All will be invited to the D.C. Democratic Party Kennedy-King Dinner on Nov. 1, held at the new Washington Convention Center.

Jennifer Yachnin contributed to this report.