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'The Other K Street'
Jane Norman of American Rights at Work, Brad Woodhouse and Jeff Blum are among the liberal activists who meet regularly at 1825 K St. NW.
(Photos By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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The halls and offices on the second and fourth floors of 1825 K Street look very much like the halls and offices of any other commercial building in downtown Washington.
USAction could easily be an accounting firm. Campaign for America's Future has as much wood on its walls as any established law firm.
And that is a definite change. Liberal groups have for years been notorious for maintaining a studied grunginess in their decor, a kind of milk-crate chic. Stacks of paper and scattered fast-food wrappers were regular features of the "good government" groups that once crammed into older, shabbier places like the United Methodist Building across from the Capitol.
Chronic under-funding was largely responsible.
But now the money is more plentiful on the left, and, as a result, its grass-roots lobbying has become far more systematic and professional. "We've learned over the years how to do better," Woodhouse said. "And the scale of things is much greater."
Big money from unions such as the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, as well as the Internet-fueled MoveOn, has provided groups like those at 1825 K Street the wherewithal to mount huge campaigns.
The senior officers at 1825 K Street dress like any other executives, not like underpaid counterculture dissidents. Woodhouse sometimes looks like he walked out of a Ralph Lauren catalogue. Creamer, constantly checking his BlackBerry, sports suspenders. Hickey wears silk ties.
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After yet another meeting in the conference room, staffers from various organizations hurried down the second-floor hallway and gathered around a TV monitor in a small office. Time to preview the attack.
On the screen appeared an image of President Bush, followed by the famous "Mission Accomplished" banner. "After four years with no end in sight," a voice intoned, "thousands of Americans wounded, Iraq in civil war and over 3,000 Americans dead, Heather Wilson is still voting with the president on Iraq." The image on the screen was replaced by a photograph of Wilson, a Republican House member from New Mexico. "Tell Heather Wilson: After four years, it's time to end the war."
Staffers cooed as the ad, produced by the consulting firm GMMB, played over and over, with a different Republican lawmaker featured each time.
