Gordon LD to Join Lent Scrivner as Lobbyist

At the close of the Congressional session, Louis Finkel, legislative director for Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), plans to pack his bags and head to the private sector, where he will join the D.C-based lobbying firm Lent Scrivner & Roth.

The South Florida native came on board the Volunteer State lawmaker’s staff in 1996 and has been legislative director for the past three years.

Finkel began his career in 1993 in the office of Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.).

He has a 1995 bachelor’s in political science and sociology from George Washington University.

NOJOKE:Daniel Kidder joins Rep. Mac Collins’ (R-Ga.) office this month as press secretary.

The San Diego, Calif., native has just come off a four-year stint as president and CEO of Kidder Communication Resources Inc., a consulting firm in Manassas, Va.

Kidder spent the past year both working at the firm and as a manager in the media and public-relations department of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. In 1998 he served for a year as public relations-communications director of the Nation Association of Home Builders in the multifamily services division.

Before forming his own firm, Kidder was a general-assignment reporter for the Times Herald-Record Newspaper. From 1992 to 1995 he covered politics, crime, municipal government and happenings in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

A graduate of Virginia’s Liberty University, Kidder has a 1997 bachelor’s in communication.

WHEAT CROPSUP ATSTATEDEPT.: Marc Wheat wrapped up six years on the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week before moving into his new post at the State Department’s office of legislative affairs as legislative management officer.

Wheat, who served as health counsel, joined the committee staff in 1995 under then Chairman Tom Bliley (R-Va.). He also received his law degree that year from George Mason University School of Law.

While working toward his degree, Wheat was a legal intern for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1994 and a summer associate at Webster, Chamberlain &Bean.

Wheat began his Capitol Hill career in 1987 in the office of now House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). He served as senior legislative assistant before leaving in 1990 to join the bipartisan Citizens for a Sound Economy,

where he spent two years as director of tax and budget policy.

Wheat was also a volunteer for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign and took part in the ballot recounts in Florida.

Amember of the University of Illinois class of 1987, Wheat has a bachelor’s in Spanish.

MOVIN’ONUP:Interning has paid off for Samantha Benton, who, after just two months with Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), has been chosen as his staff assistant.

Benton, who hails from Hood River, Ore., joins the staff after spending a little more than a year as a legal assistant in the law offices of Patrick Palace in Tacoma, Wash. The 22-year-old also interned last summer in the Mercer Island-based district office of Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.).

Benton has a 2001 bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Puget Sound.