Skip to content

In and Out

Just two months after being hired, Jacque Mason has left the National Federation of Independent Business.

Mason was brought aboard as vice president for political affairs in August and reported to NFIB President Jack Faris.

Mason said she and NFIB officials had different ideas on how the organization should run its grassroots operation and what kind of resources to devote to those activities.

“It was a mutually agreeable departure,” said Mason, a veteran GOP operative, who added that there was “sort of a conflict of vision of the direction they wanted to go.”

“It just wasn’t a good fit,” noted Dan Danner, NFIB’s senior vice president for public policy.

“Sometimes the people and the jobs are not a match — and I think this was one of the those situations.”

Mason, a grassroots organizing specialist, worked for the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and GOPAC before going to NFIB.

Mason has been working on a consulting contract since she left NFIB, although she did not offer any details on her new work.

Bush Aide Heads to K Street. Bob Marsh, who served as President Bush’s legislative affairs aide has left the White House to take a lobbying post on K Street.

Marsh will start this week at the OB-C Group, the bipartisan lobbying shop founded by Lawrence O’Brien and Nick Calio, Bush’s former top lobbyist on Capitol Hill. Calio is now Citigroup’s top man in Washington.

Prior to his stint at the White House, Marsh was deputy director of federal affairs at General Motors and also served three terms as a Representative in the Massachusetts state House, where he was Assistant Minority Whip.

NAM’s Man? Michael Baroody, a top official at the National Association of Manufacturers, has emerged as the leading inside candidate to take over the trade association once current president and CEO Jerry Jasinowski steps down next year.

According to sources close to the association, Baroody would be a shoo-in for the post if NAM picks a new leader from within the organization.

Baroody is a well-liked Republican who has near-universal respect in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Baroody worked for then-Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and at the Republican National Committee, where he helped draft the GOP platform in 1980.

He later worked in the Reagan administration before becoming a lobbyist for the association.

Several Washington insiders said Baroody would help NAM retain its influence after the departure of Jasinowski. As Roll Call first reported last week, Jasinowski plans to retire next year after a 12-year reign.

Baroody is a “seasoned, experienced veteran,” according to a Republican lobbyist at a competing trade association.

“I don’t think they’ll have any loss of momentum, visibility or clout,” added the lobbyist.

However, several K Street insiders say the nation’s leading trade group is likely to cast a wide net for a replacement that would include candidates in the manufacturing sector who have spent little time in D.C.

One Republican lobbyist said of the search: “They are not just looking for a Washington type.”

Intel Chief Moves to K Street. The woman who ran the Congressional probe into pre-Sept. 11, 2001, security lapses is moving back downtown to help King & Spalding LLP rake in some new business.

Eleanor Hill, who served as staff director to the Joint Congressional Inquiry Related to September 11, is returning to her post as partner at the firm. She left the firm in June 2002 to head the special panel.

Previously, Hill was the inspector general for the Defense Department and served in the Senate for 15 years on the permanent subcommittee on investigations.

Federalist Group Adds Two. Chris Lamond and Chris Lynch have joined the Federalist Group, a Republican-only lobbying firm.

Lamond comes from Cassidy & Associates, where he was a senior vice president for the past five years.

Lynch was a legislative assistant to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Lynch is the most recent DeLay aide to join the firm. Last year, Drew Maloney left Capitol Hill for the Federalist Group.

K Street’s King Cesar Navigates the Hill. If there were any doubts that Cesar Conda would adjust to life on K Street, the former aide to Vice President Cheney erased them during his first week on the job.

Just three days into his new post, Conda inked a deal with Oracle, bringing one of the first high-tech clients to his new firm, The Navigators.

Conda left the White House for The Navigators earlier this year after spending 15 years in the Senate and the White House. The Navigators, formerly known as Anderson Murphy Pitts, is a fast-growing lobbying and consulting firm founded earlier this year by Republicans Phil Anderson and Jim Pitts.

GOP campaign consultant Mike Murphy signed up with the firm soon after it was founded.

In its first year the firm has focused on financial service clients, but Conda hopes that his energy and telecommunications background with Cheney — as well as his time in the Senate office of current Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham — will help the lobbying firm expand into energy and telecommunications issues.

Senak Attack. Fleishman-Hillard has added Mark Senak to its staff.

An attorney with nearly two decades of communications, public affairs and legal experience, Senak will join the public relations firm as a senior vice president.

Senak has published several articles and three books examining the issues of law, health policy and HIV.

Nolan Moves On. The Society for Women’s Health Research welcomed Martha Nolan last week as their new vice president of public policy.

Nolan had left MetLife, where she toiled for four years.

She has also held positions at United Health Group, the Health Insurance Association of America and Cigna Corp.

Michael E. Grass and Jessica L. Brady contributed to this report.

Recent Stories

Johnson: Budget blueprint not ready for prime time

Federal judge orders pause on USAID administrative leave

Trump gives DOGE new marching orders as Japan’s Ishiba tries a little flattery

Graham unveils budget blueprint ahead of markup next week

‘It’s a dumb time’ — Congressional Hits and Misses

US ordered not to release list of FBI agents tied to Jan. 6 cases