Green Building Elements: Open Building

Hill People

National Journal March 31, 2007 | Katz, Marisa Scott MulhauMr is not actually from New Jersey. He’s a local, the self-proclaimed “only kid who grew up in Washington without political connections.” But because of his father, a doctor from northern New Jersey, and his mother, a social worker from southern New Jersey, he learned to talk Turnpike exits. It has gotten him jobs with two Democratic senators from the Garden State, first as a spokesman and speechwriter for thenSen. Robert Torrlcelll and now as a senior adviser, counsel, and press-operation director for Frank Lautenberg.

Mulhauser, 31, started in Torricelli’s office in 1997, one White House internship removed from the University of Pennsylvania. He spent the 2000 election cycle in the press shop at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. His toughest assignment: two days to throw together an eight-city Jimmy Buffett tour for now-Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FIa. Next, Mulhauser enrolled in Georgetown University Law Center and signed on as a spokesman and speechwriter for then-Sen. John Breaux, D-La. If you’ve ever wondered whether you can order a hoagie in the land of the po’ boy, “with a little translation, it can be done,” Mulhauser says.

After graduating from Georgetown in 2005, he did a stint at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll in Philadelphia. But when last November’s election results came in and the phone started ringing, he decided to come back to Washington. “There were years of darkness,” he says. “This was a chance to see things through, to get things done-things that we’d thought about and hoped about and talked about for a long time.” Certainly, talking is something Mulhauser is known for. Around November, he typically loses his voice and jokes about better budgeting for next year. He’ll be talking Turnpike exits a lot for Lautenberg. Where does he come down on Bon Jovl versus Bruce Sprlngsteen? “That’s a trick question,” Mulhauser says. “They’re both like fine wine, to be appreciated in their own way.” -Marisa Katz Tonnie Wybenslngw was tired of moving. She’d had several roommates and several apartments during the course of seven years in Washington. And so, when she decided to leave the Hill to take a job at NASDAQ in New York City, she hired movers. “I told them, ? don’t want to do anything-take everything off the walls, put everything in boxes,’ ” she says. That was only two months ago. Already, the movers are back. After Jason Roe, chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney, R-FIa., signed on as deputy campaign manager for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, he went up to New York, took Wybensinger out to dinner, and tried to persuade her to be his successor. It worked. “They’re like family to me,” Wybensinger says. “And, if your family tells you they need you, you don’t usually say no.” Snap decisions are not out of character for Wybensinger, 28. Toward the end of her time at Ohio State University, she announced that she was moving to Washington after graduation. She didn’t have anything lined up. But she’d taken a school trip to D.C. in eighth grade. “Other kids were just happy to be away from their parents,” she says. “I was the person standing in front asking a million questions about how it all worked.” Upon becoming a D.C. resident, she sought out a placement agency, which sent her to an interview with Cassidy & Associates. Although she’d never heard of the lobbying firm, she liked the feel of the office. “It was what I pictured working in Washington looking like,” she recalls. “People were dressed nice, the phones were all ringing, people were running around.” She took a job as an administrative assistant. see here jimmy buffett tour 2011 go to website jimmy buffett tour 2011

From there she landed a spot with then-Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Since Toomey was running for the Senate, his office stopped filling vacancies and Wybensinger quickly moved up the ladder. “I was a staff assistant for about six days, and then a legislative correspondent for a few months, and then an LA left and I became an LA handling Financial Services Committee issues for him.” When Toomey lost the Senate race, Wybensinger moved over to Feeney’s office, working her way up from legislative assistant to legislative director and deputy chief of staff. She’s absorbed a lot about Florida in the process. “Never underestimate Floridians,” says the die-hard Buckeye. She still owes Feeney spokeswoman Pepper Pennington a week’s worth of lunches for Florida’s crushing win over Ohio State in the BCS championship game. What if they end up facing off in the NCAA basketball final? “We haven’t come up with a bet this time around,” Wybensinger says. “Maybe just one lunch.” -M.K.

Katz, Marisa