Legistorm: Transparency's Sidekick

Election Day 2008 will take on a whole new meaning for some former congressional aides.

Tomorrow, a number of former staffers are trying to get back to Capitol Hill with a promotion as a legislator. LegiStorm has the information on how they got their political start.

Perhaps the most notable is Daniel Maffei. Maffei, a former communications aide to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), narrowly lost to then-incumbent Jim Walsh in 2006. This time around, Walsh has announced his retirement and Maffei is expected to win the seat.

Colorado’s Betsy Markey - a fomer aide to Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) – also has a shot at picking up a seat for the Democrats, as she is in a tight race with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.).

Anne Barth will have a harder time as a Democrat running in West Virginia’s 2nd District, although she’s getting some help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Also facing a difficult road is John Stone. This is a bad year to be a Republican challenger in a tight race against a Democrat inbumbent, even in usually Red Georgia. Stone, running for Georgia’s 12th District seat, was a former staffer for Georgia Reps. Charlie Norwood and Max Burns. He’s taking on Rep. John Barrow, who won by fewer than 1,000 votes in 2006 but has had a large money lead over Stone this year.

Other staffers are running campaigns with little real shot at winning a seat: George Phillips (R) in New York’s 22nd District; Greg Goode (R) in Indiana’s 8th District; and Charles Summers (R) in Maine’s 1st District.

Also on the national radar is the race in Minnesota to replace retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.). The Republican candidate is Eric Paulsen, who was an aide to Ramstad before being elected to the Minnesota House in 1994. A Republican succession is uncertain, however, as Paulsen faces a tight race against Ashwin Madia.

LegiStorm has the congressional salary information for all the former staffers linked above, as well as some other financial disclosure or trip data as well.