John R. Easton

After graduation, he decided to take the trip east, and interned for Packwood in the fall of 1991.

"I had never been to Washington, D.C., before. I don't think I'd been to the East Coast before, so it was a big deal, a big eye-opener," he said.

Easton said he had a "fantastic" experience in Packwood's internship program, which he called the "gold standard of the Senate," at that time. He was exposed to all aspects of the Senate office, and was encouraged to write a memo on drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

After his internship, Easton returned to Oregon in 1992 to work on a statewide campaign. He used his journalism to win a job as press secretary for David Chen, who was running for state treasurer.

"I was his driver and his press secretary," Easton said. "We were on the road sometimes four days a week together, every town, criss-crossing the state," he said. "It was fun to get to know my own state that way."

Chen lost his race that fall, and Easton said his next goal was to go "as fast as I could back to Washington, D.C."

American Forestry and Paper Association

Easton leveraged his experience campaigning in the timber-dependent communities of Oregon, a state that is heavily dependent on forestry, to land a job with the American Forestry and Paper Association. He worked in media relations there during 1993 and part of 1994.

Greg Ganske (R-Iowa)

But Easton said he still dreamed of being a press secretary in a cogressional office. Finally in 1994, "I talked to a guy that was running for Congress in Iowa," he remembered. "We had a meeting over at the Capitol Hill Club." The guy was Greg Ganske (R), and Easton was soon hired as his campaign press secretary.

"He hired me, I drove out to Iowa-to Des Moines-and was on the ground within two weeks, Easton said.

Easton helped Ganske unseat a 36-year incumbent, and followed Ganske to Washington. He served as Rep. Ganske's press secretary from 1995 to 1996.

Gordon Smith (R- Ore.)

Easton was gearing up for Ganske's reelection campaign when he heard that Republican Gordon Smith was running for the Senate in his home state, Oregon.

Easton had helped Smith earlier in the year, when Smith ran in a special election to replace Packwood, who had been forced to resign over allegations of sexual abuse and assault. Though Smith failed to capture Packwood's seat in the special election, he was trying his hand at the open seat of retiring Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.). It was the first time in U.S. history anyone had run for both of their state's Senate seats in the same year.

Easton became Smith's communications director on the fall 1996 campaign. When Smith won, Easton went back to Capitol Hill as Smith's Senate communications director.

After a year and a half in Smith's office, Easton was itching to get back on the campaign trail. He managed the campaign of Molly Bordonaro, the 29-year-old Republican making her second run for the U.S. House from Oregon's heavily-Democratic 1st district. Bordonaro lost in a close race.

Bordonaro later worked on the George W. Bush presidential campaigns, and in 2005 Bush appointed her U.S. ambassador to Malta.

American Medical Association

Easton returned to Washington, D.C., in 1999 for a job with the American Medical Association (AMA), the doctors' advocacy group. Easton was one of the group's political directors, but he didn't register as a lobbyist.

Easton worked on issues advocacy related to the Patient's Bill of Rights, helped manage the group's political action committee (PAC), and worked to get pro-doctor candidates elected to Congress in 2000. One of the candidates Easton and the AMA supported was Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

Smith's Chief of Staff

By 2001, Gordon Smith was gearing up for his reelection campaign and asked Easton to run it. Easton, lured by the opportunity to manage a Senate campaign, returned to Smith's Senate office for a year in preparation. The campaign began in earnest in 2002.

"It was a good Republican cycle, but we also put all the pieces together," Easton said. "We raised all the money necessary and prevailed. It was a very good campaign."

Easton once again headed back to Capitol Hill with his candidate, this time as Smith's chief of staff, a job he held for Smith's entire second term, until Smith lost his 2008 reelection bid to Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

VH Strategies

During his time as Smith's chief of staff, Easton had worked with the Senate's informal bipartisan chief of staff group. He got to know Sen. Kent Conrad's (D-N.D.) chief of staff, Robert Van Heuvelen.

Van Huevelen founded the bipartisan consulting firm VH strategies in 2007, and in 2009, he recurited Easton to come work with him. Easton became a consultant and registered lobbyist, working on issues including renewable energy and health care.

"The idea was to kinda bring to the firm what was working so well with the informal group in the Senate," Easton said. "Which is just ,'Hey, this is about getting things done.'"

Easton said he was exposed to a new side of politics during his time at the firm. "It was really good to understand the dynamics of such a large component of the Beltway process," he said.

Kelly Ayotte

In late 2010, Easton got a call from Brooks Kochvar, the campaign manager who had run Gordon Smith's unsuccessful 2008 campaign. Kochvar's latest candidate, Kelly Ayotte, had just won a Senate seat in New Hampshire and needed to hire a chief of staff.

Easton gave Kochvar some ideas for possible chiefs of staff. "In that process, I said, 'Hey, anytime you two want to get together and talk about a Senate office structure, I'd be happy to meet with you.'"

Ayotte and Kochvar took Easton up on his offer in December 2010. "All we did for our first breakfast was talk about the dynamics of starting a Senate office, the land mines, the do's and don't's in the first six months," Easton said. "And then she called me the next day and said, 'Would you consider coming to work for me?'" he remembered.

Easton returned to the Hill in January 2011 as Ayotte's chief of staff.

Show less