As previously reported by Matt, LG staffer Eli Zupnick, who worked on Obama's primary campaign, is the latest Roberts's staffer, following Larkin Barker, to join the Democratic candidate's push for November. From the LG's office:

PROVIDENCE— Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts announced today that Eli Zupnick will be leaving her staff to join Senator Barack Obama’s press team in the state of Washington. Zupnick, a senior policy analyst, has worked in the office since Roberts’ inauguration in January 2007.

“Eli has played an important role in my office, especially in my work on health care reform, and he will be greatly missed,” said Roberts. “However, I am proud that he will be working to elect a candidate who will bring real change to our country, and who will make health care reform a national priority once again.”

Zupnick came to work for Roberts’ campaign for Lt. Governor in December of 2005, serving as her deputy campaign manager. In February 2008, he took a leave of absence from the Lt. Governor’s office to serve as deputy press secretary for Obama’s primary campaign in Rhode Island.

“Lt. Governor Roberts has done great work for the people of Rhode Island over the past year and a half, and I am proud to have been a part of that,” said Zupnick. “Although it is with sadness that I leave Lt. Governor Roberts' office and Rhode Island, I am honored to have been offered this opportunity to be a part of Senator Obama's team in Washington state, and I am excited to spend the final months of the campaign working hard for real change in our country.”

8/7/2008 2:41:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Dan Barbarisi's got the details:

PROVIDENCE — Garry Bliss, the City of Providence’s top lobbyist and special projects guru, spent yesterday cleaning out his desk in preparation for his last day of work today. His walls were bare, save one poster, a framed rectangular fresco that Bliss picked up in Italy and hung over his chair. ...

For Bliss, leaving the city is a bittersweet moment. He’ll become one of the directors of the Providence public affairs firm The Clarendon Group, but the longtime federal, state and city employee leaves behind his day-to-day opportunity to prove that good government changes people’s lives.

“It is, without a doubt, the most intense and the most demanding job I have ever had. It is also the most exciting. It is where you can see the results of your work all around you,” Bliss said of his role as Providence’s chief of policy and legislative affairs.

Bliss will become one-third of a tripartite management team at Clarendon, which was founded in 2001 by Stacy Paterno and Christine Heenan. Heenan is leaving to become Harvard University’s vice president of government, community and public affairs, and Paterno, Bliss and Arianne Corrente Lynch will now lead Clarendon. Bliss will be the firm’s managing partner.

Bliss, 44, joined Mayor David N. Cicilline’s team in 2004, after five years with Rhode Island General Treasurer Paul Tavares. The 1985 Connecticut College graduate also worked at Moses Brown, his alma mater, at Textron and for Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy before joining Cicilline.

8/1/2008 10:30:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

 

Rachael Bornstein is filling the legislative director role for US Representative Jim Langevin in his DC office, succeeding 10-year veteran Brian Daniels, a Warwick native, who plans to pursue an MBA at Yale. Daniels formerly worked for former US Representative Robert Weygand.

Bornstein, who hails from Maryland, comes from the office of US Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, having most recently served as senior health policy advisor.

Marla Greenberg, Langevin's legislative assistant, is also departing, after two years, to chase a law degree.

7/31/2008 8:42:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Andrea Marcoccio, a staffer at Cranston-based Vision Strategies, is the latest Rhode Islander to take an out-of-state assignment with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

In an e-mail, the firm’s husband and wife partners, Bill Fischer and Jenn Bramley, write that Marcoccio . . .

is moving to Montana to assist Barack Obama's campaign, making her last day at Vision Strategies this Friday, August 1. For the past two years, Andrea has served as an account executive and graphic designer for our firm. She has brought a high level of dedication, creativity and commitment to our clients and the projects with which she has been associated.

Although we will miss her presence at Vision, we are certainly excited that one of our staffers will be contributing to Senator Barack Obama’s campaign to become the next president of the United States. Andrea will be working in the Missoula area of Montana where she will serve as a field organizer. She will officially begin her duties on August 5.

Fischer tells N4N that Marcoccio, a Warwick native, possess a very strong work ethic and is skilled at meeting deadlines.

Michael Dorsey, a familiar face from his work in Rhode Island in the 2006 Democratic campaign, is also working for Obama in Montana.

Larkin Barker, previously press secretary for LG Elizabeth Roberts, previously left that office to join Obama's NH campaign.

In a sign of the split present in some public and private offices during Rhode Island’s presidential primary, Bramley worked as Hillary Clinton’s deputy communications director. She also previously worked for former US Representative Bob Weygand and former treasurer Paul Tavaras, while Fischer was chief of staff during Sheldon Whitehouse’s days as attorney general here in Rhode Island.

Other former Vision Strategies staffers who've moved into politics include Whitehouse staffer Tony Simon and former Roberts's chief of staff Paul Tencher.

7/28/2008 5:25:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Scott MacKay in the ProJo and Matt have the details on Christine Heenan, the longtime local PR and consulting expert who worked in the Clinton White House and who was spokeswoman for Hillary's RI campaign, taking a new gig in Cambridge. (Obligatory only-in-RI connections: Christine is the daughter of former Phoenix columnist Pam Steager. She took longtime former Boston mayor Kevin H. White's superb poli-sci class at BU about a year or two after yours truly. Also, she is married to former Cicilline chief of staff Mike Mello.) Here's Matt's post.

One of Rhode Island's top public relations and political operatives, Christine Heenan, has accepted the post of Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs at Harvard University as of October 1st.  You might remember that Heenan most recently had two big wins as the communications director of the Hillary Clinton campaign in RI and also as one of the top strategists behind the Question #9 housing bond campaign.

Heenan will be leaving behind the public affairs agency that she founded: Clarendon Group.  In her place, Clarendon will now be led by a new three-member partnership including: current Clarendon Group Vice President of Public Affairs, Stacy Paterno, who becomes the Senior Partner of the firm, Clarendon Group Associate Director of Public Affairs, Arianne Corrente Lynch, who becomes Partner in the firm, and current Chief of Policy for the City of Providence, Garry Bliss, who becomes Managing Partner of Clarendon Group.

"Since its founding in 2001, Clarendon Group has occupied a unique place in the market, and has benefited from strong relationships with great clients." Heenan said. "I have tremendous confidence in the team that will lead Clarendon going forward, and in their ability to add value to clients and advance their agendas in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.”

7/16/2008 9:33:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

 

Mike Tanaka is a familiar face in Rhode Island, thanks both to his musical efforts with Mark Cutler's Dino Club and for his work as a television producer. Now he's got a new post: director of public and community relations in the office of Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts.

"I'm very excited," says Tanaka, who came to the Ocean State to attend grad school at Brown in the '80s, and who started in the new role last week.

Tanaka say his focus will be on strengthening strategic communications in the LG's office. Like a good staffer, he deferred when asked whether this is a signal regarding a potential 2010 gubernatorial run by Roberts. Tanaka will help to fill the role played by departing press secrertary Larkin Barker, who is joining Obama's campaign in NH. He says it is not yet clear whether someone else may ultimately be hired as press secretary.

An experienced TV hand, Tanaka left his role as an executive producer with MSNBC, where he was involved in political coverage, a little more than a year ago. Since television work meant commuting to New York, he says, he is looking forward to working closer to home.

6/30/2008 1:09:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

Larkin Barker, press secretary for Elizabeth Roberts, sends word that she's joining Barack Obama's campaign in New Hampshire next month as deputy communications director for that state.

Barker aided press secretary Alex Swartsel during Sheldon Whitehouse's successful Senate run in 2006, and she is national committewoman for the RI Young Dems.

Barker was aware of only one other staffer with RI connections who is joining Obama's NH drive for the White House -- Mindy Myers, chief of staff for Whitehouse, who will be state director in the Granite State. Another Roberts's aide, Eli Zupnick, worked for Obama prior to the RI primary earlier this year. 

The latest moves comes as the Obama team, flush with cash and rejecting public financing, plans a 50-state campaign, a development covered yesterday by the New York Times.

Aides and advisers to Mr. Obama said they did not believe he necessarily had a serious chance of winning in many of the traditionally Republican states. They said he could at least draw Mr. McCain into spending time and money in those places while swelling Democratic enrollment and supporting other Democrats on the ballot.

Mr. Obama’s strategists are studying data from focus groups, magazine subscription lists and census studies, the first steps toward an intensive door-to-door drive, using volunteers overseen by a growing staff of organizers.

Their aim is to reach voters with messages tailored to their interests through mail, e-mail and word of mouth.

Free from the constraints of public financing, Mr. Obama’s budget for the rest of the year could exceed $300 million, campaign and party officials have said. But his fund-raising slowed in May, when the campaign raised about $22 million — almost $10 million less than in April and a large decline from the record amounts he was taking in earlier this year. The decline was evidence that he might have to invest substantial time at fund-raising to match the levels he set in the first quarter this year.

6/23/2008 9:29:00 AM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |  

From the gov's office:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today announced that he has appointed Newport resident Amy Kempe as his new press secretary and spokesperson.

Kempe replaces Jeff Neal, who announced his intention to step down in March after more than five years. “I’m very pleased that Amy has agreed to take on this important role,” Governor Carcieri said.  “Amy boasts over ten years of public relations experience in Rhode Island and already has strong connections with a number of reporters in the state and region. With that experience in mind, I believe Amy will do a terrific job of working with the local media to convey my views and public policy positions to the people of Rhode Island.”

Since 2003, Amy Kempe has served as Vice President/Team Leader of Regan Communications Group, the 10th largest public relations firm in New England.  Her client list has included Newport Grand, Dunkin’ Donuts, and the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association, among others.  From 2000 to 2003, Kempe served as a Senior Account Manager for Regan Communications and was responsible for opening its Providence office.

From 1997 to 2000, Kempe served as a public relations supervisor for GTECH, where she was responsible for writing and distributing all corporate information.  In 1996, she served as finance and communications director for the Rick Wild for Congress Committee, and previously worked for the Kevin Vigilante for Congress Committee. 

Kempe earned a Master of Arts in Modern European History from the University of Rhode Island and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University at Albany – State University of New York.

5/20/2008 3:25:00 PM by Not For Nothing | Comments [0] |