Who Knows '08's Who's Who

If you're a campaign junkie, you're sure to know a bit about Joe Trippi, James Carville, and Donna Brazille. Now famous for being successful political operators, they once put in their dues working other jobs or in junior-level campaign positions. If you want to dig into their histories, just visit Wikipedia or read one of their books, but don't expect to find original documentation of their early campaign work. That's because campaigns don't publish staff directories, and neither do the DNC nor the RNC.

While that may not be a problem for the James Carvilles of the world - or the handful of other elite consultants and political celebrities who are widely known for their work - it is an issue for the entry, junior, and even some senior-level staffers. And when trying to tell the story of the previous months, reporters are often unable to find the people who know the story best - the staffers who were actually on the ground and behind the scenes, and not playing spokesperson to CNN.

At HuffPost's OffTheBus we've got a solution - The OffTheBus Field Guide. There you'll find lists of the presidential campaign staffers broken down by office location and campaign. Anyone can login in to the Guide and add in information to the staffers' bios, including the jobs they've had before and what projects they're working on now.

http://otb.huffingtonpost.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If you're a campaign staffer, pre-empt the press and fill out your bio. Tell the public - and political junkies - who you are, where you come from, and what you've worked on before. If you don't have time to create a login, you can email us info at [e-mail] and put "Field Guide Info" in the subject line.

http://otb.huffingtonpost.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Our newly minted Field Guide team is also researching the staffers, and will update the Guide with data from the 3rd quarter FEC reports. The information in the wiki comes from the 2nd quarter FEC reports, so if you don't find something that should be there, please add it.

Follow Amanda Michel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AmandaRMichel

Comments

[RumiSouth]

12:29 PM on 10/04/2007

I honestly wonder why no one's thought of this before. What an incredible resource -- not just for journalists, but strategists, activists, and politicians.

[jneely]

11:26 AM on 10/04/2007

One more small step for transparency in our politics. It's such an obvious idea begging for a good home and some kind of institutional support -- I'm glad it's found both.

[hontonoshijin]

09:41 AM on 10/04/2007

This is a good idea. The quality of a candidate, his or her honesty and integrity, can be estimated from the qualities of their campaign workers. Anybody remember Karl Rove? What did you expect from a man who would hire such a slimeball to run his campaign?

[mommadona]

12:25 AM on 10/04/2007

What a great idea!
A "Jane's" Book.....