Lobbying's Good Guys? On the Campaign Trail, They're Invisible.

Promotion of the Week

Woodrow Wilson, leaving the White House with wife Edith in the back of a Pierce-Arrow in 1919, practiced a gentler brand of lobbyist-bashing. (Woodrow Wilson Birthplace)

Washington, as they say, is a transient city. Few people stay in one place very long.

But not Jason Smith. He remained in the same job and managed to move ahead.

Smith, 40, has worked at Widmeyer Communications, a public relations firm, for 12 years. The other day he was elevated to partner.

An education expert, Smith has helped out with the "Stop Bullying Now!" campaign for the Department of Health and Human Services and the recently released final report of the National Math Panel. His other clients have included Pearson Education, the American Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Fannie Mae.

"I am sitting in the same office I was in as a mid-level staffer in 1999," he said.

But he doesn't mind a bit. "I just love the work," he said. Sometimes that's enough.

Hire of the Week

Fred Downey, a former U.S. Army strategist and longtime military and international affairs staffer on Capitol Hill, is joining the Aerospace Industries Association as vice president of national security.

Downey, 60, comes to the lobby for defense contractors from the office of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), where he was a legislative aide for a dozen years.

In his new job, Downey will oversee policy development and lobbying for military and technical operations. His division runs, among other things, the Team America Rocketry Challenge, the world's largest rocket contest, which gets students in middle and high school to design and build rockets.

The association has five other vice presidents with responsibility for space, civil aviation, procurement and finance, supplier management, and legislative affairs.

Please send e-mail to kstreet@washpost.com.