Staff Infection
Beach, Bennett
Staff Infection by Bennett Beach Consider Dale Denton. On July 30, 1973, soon after his graduation from college, Denton signed on as aq assistant to John Saylor, a Republican congressman...
...And she’ll miss the way the person at the other end of the line snaps to when she tells him where she’s calling from...
...Add to that the aides who are about to lose jobs because their bosses are retiring, and you get a group of about 1,000...
...Ask Richard Nixon...
...At least this time, he’ll have Bennett Beach works on Capitol Hill...
...But when all the votes were counted, Fox lost by 230...
...The veterans’ fate now rests with the freshman representatives, who will, it is hoped, dump their loyal supporters in search of Washington savvy...
...The task facing the displaGed assistants is to convince arriving legislators that they alone possess that special insight into how Washington really works...
...Unfortunately, the outward for the clever can be gratifyingly mobility can be just as fast...
...His administrative assistant, Harry Fox, decided to run for the vacant seat, so Denton headed off to western Pennsylvania to lend his services...
...She’ll lose the WATS line, the check-cashing service, the free parking, free picture-framing, and free package-wrapping, not to mention the discount-priced Christmas wrapping paper on sale in the stationery room...
...Yet one congressman advised new members in a recent briefing that legislative assistants were “a dime a dozen...
...In many cases, to the folks back home she’s made it big, and somehow a job at the Bureau of Weights and Measuresjust doesn’t match up to a job on the Hill...
...On July 30, 1973, soon after his graduation from college, Denton signed on as aq assistant to John Saylor, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania...
...What supermarket clerk can go home to his television set and see big-name reporters filing stories from the aisles in his store...
...The young Capitol Hill assistants realize that there are some people just like themselves from places like Dubuque and Memphis who expect to arrive with the incoming congressmen they helped elect...
...Losing a job is a painful experience for anyone...
...As he was beginning to settle into this position, his boss took on John Glenn in the primary, and, you guessed it, lost...
...no longer will the lobbyists come by asking for just a moment of someone’s busy time...
...There ate no civil service regulations, so that upward mobility rapid...
...Not all of these are major selling points, certainly, but they can make life a lot more pleasant at times...
...Still thinking Capitol Hill was the place to be, Denton started knocking on doors and eventually found a job with the newly appointed Ohio senator, Howard Metzenbaum...
...For every congressman who got a pink slip from the voters last November there are about ten staff members in his Washington office out of a job...
...Many of those whose paychecks are about to be cut off came to Washington specifically to work on the Hill, and for the most part, they’d like to stay at least a little longer...
...But unlike their defeated bosses, few staff assistants can head back home to a comfortable law practice or fly south to become ambassador to Costa Rica...
...The sense of being at the center of things is hard to find elsewhere...
...An attraction for many young persons anxious to steer their country down the right policy paths is the healthy pay scale which those with only a bachelor’s degree can rarely find elsewhere...
...Even if a staffer spends much of her time sending out American flags and pictures of her boss to the fifthgraders back in Topeka, at least she’s where the action is...
...company, and lots of it...
...Three months later, Saylor died of a heart attack...
...With a liberal arts education and no real expertise, a staff assistant who is quick of mind can pull down about $10,000 for starters and move up quickly from there...
...So unless Denton latches onto yet another congressman by January 2, he will have to start thinking about another line of work or, perhaps, law school...
...After just a few years some move into the $20,000 to $30,000 range...
...Staff Infection by Bennett Beach Consider Dale Denton...
Vol. 6 • January 1975 • No. 11
