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Discover America Partnership Lands Ridge
McCurdy was unavailable to comment on his new appointment, a spokeswoman for the auto group said. Nels Olson of Korn-Ferry International helped with the executive search.
Among the alliance's issues: The industry wants to avoid what it considers congressional meddling in government regulation of safety standards.
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Sign Up for RSS FeedThe alliance represents the BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Shepherd Heading to Venable
Not to be outdone by other law firms snagging Hill investigator types for the much-anticipated oversight investigations in the Democratic-controlled Congress, Venable has signed one up, too.
Raymond Shepherd III, chief counsel of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is moving to Venable next month to be head of the law firm's new congressional investigation group.
Before going to work for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) at the subcommittee, Shepherd was oversight counsel at the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Shepherd was involved with the panel's 25 hearings on such topics as abusive tax shelters, the United Nations oil-for-food program and the USA Patriot Act.
"I've seen a lot of companies prejudiced by counsel not knowing what Congress wants" and not realizing there are few rules that govern congressional investigations, he said.
Shepherd, who also will do some lobbying, will be covered by the one-year ethics ban from contacting former Senate colleagues.
Karl Racine of Venable said that Shepherd is a "special catch," particularly because the Coleman panel was known for its bipartisan approach.
Lobby Shop Takes a Left Turn
Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart has had strong Democratic -- and Republican -- credentials for years, and now it's getting a little more Democratic.
Jonathon Jones, a longtime aide to Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), most recently as chief of staff, joined the lobby shop Monday. Jones also helped create the Third Way, a centrist think tank, or "strategy center," for Senate Democrats.
David Johnson, a former executive director of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said of Jones's work with Carper and Third Way: "In the Senate you have to have enough in the middle to get anything done."
Jones is covered by a one-year ban on lobbying Carper or his staff.
Here and There
Also moving about town . . . Howard Waltzman, chief counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is leaving the Hill for Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw as a partner in the law firm.
Scott Gottlieb, deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs at the Food and Drug Administration, is leaving Jan. 16 to rejoin the American Enterprise Institute.
