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Caught Our Eye items are posted daily. LegiStorm Pro subscribers have access to all posts a few hours before other users, and are also able to search the full Caught Our Eye archive. Log in as a LegiStorm Pro user or learn more about subscribing.

House aide returns after Internet Association shutdown

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Feb. 17, 2022

An Internet Association lobbyist has returned to Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) following the lobbying group's dissolution.

Bo Morris, who came back to Neguse this month, is now senior adviser to the congressman. He was deputy chief and legislative director during his first stint with the office, leaving last summer for a gig as the Internet Association's director of federal-government affairs.

Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay helped to found the Internet Association in 2012. The group lobbied on a host of Internet-related issues until shutting down at the end of last year.

Democratic staffer powers up with water

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Feb. 16, 2022

An aide to Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) is making waves with a new government-affairs job.

Will Pisano moved to the National Hydropower Association this month. He's now government-affairs director for the trade group, which represents the water-power industry. NHA lobbies mostly on energy issues.

Pisano worked his way up in Kuster's office to become a senior legislative assistant. Before that, he worked for her congressional campaign.

Senate Commerce alum lands at spaceflight group

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Feb. 15, 2022

A former Senate Commerce Committee staffer has jetted off to the private-spaceflight industry.

Mary Guenther started this month as director of space policy to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The trade group lobbies on aerospace issues and appropriations.

Guenther spent five years with the Commerce Committee before leaving in September. She was most recently a professional staff member under Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Senators run afoul of ethics rules governing social media use

Posted by LegiStorm on Feb. 14, 2022

Several senators have run afoul of Senate ethics rules designed to prevent them from using official Senate resources for campaign activities, according to a LegiStorm review of all senators' Twitter accounts and official websites.

According to guidance from the Senate Rules Committee, Senate rules prohibit "any linkage from a Member's official website or social media to any campaign website or social media." The committee further states that "a Member's campaign website may not link to his or her official Senate website."

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is among those to have mixed their official and campaign presence online. Hawley's official website frequently links to his campaign Twitter account in press releases and has done so as recently as last month. His official Twitter account has frequently linked to his campaign Twitter account, as recently as this past November

Other senators who have run afoul of the rules are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Graham linked to his campaign Twitter account from a press release on his official website this past July. Rubio's official Twitter account has linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as November 2019, and his official website has also linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as February 2019. Cruz linked to his campaign Twitter account from his official Twitter account in July 2019. Booker and Schatz have both linked to their campaign Twitter accounts from their official Twitter accounts numerous times, with Booker's most recent instance occurring in October 2018, and Schatz's in January 2014.

While she could not have been in violation of Senate ethics rules at the time, then-Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) linked to her campaign Twitter account from her official Twitter account numerous times in August 2017. According to House rules, "Member and Committee websites may not include personal, political, or campaign information; and may not be directly linked or refer to websites created or operated by a campaign or any campaign-related entity." Her official Twitter account at the time, @RepSinema, has now become @SenatorSinema.

Correction: An earlier version of this post wrongly listed Sen. John Ossoff (D-Ga.) as having violated Ethics rules.

Rep. Maxine Waters' ex-chief heads to delivery company

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Feb. 11, 2022

Rep. Maxine Water's (D-Calif.) former chief of staff has landed at delivery-service company Shipt.

Chasseny Lewis started this month as the company's director of federal affairs. Shipt, which is owned by Target, operates as a subscription delivery service for groceries and other household items.

Lewis left the Hill in December after just six months as chief of staff to Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. In addition to her time lobbying for Credit Suisse as their director of U.S. public policy, Lewis has served as chief to Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) and worked for Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

About Caught Our Eye

We spend a large part of our days looking at data. Documents often come in by the dozens and hundreds. And while most are boring - how interesting can staring at a phone directory or salary records be, for example? - we find daily reasons for interest, amusement or even concern packed in the documents. So we are launching a new running feature that we call "Caught our Eye."

Longer than tweets but shorter than most blog posts, Caught our Eye items will bring back the interest in reviewing documents and researching people. Some items might bring hard, breaking news. Others will raise eyebrows and lead some into further inquiry. Others might be good for a joke or two around the water cooler. All will enlighten about the people or workings of Capitol Hill.

Caught our Eye items will be published each morning for LegiStorm Pro subscribers. Non-Pro site users will be able to receive the news items a few hours later. In addition to having immediate access to the news, LegiStorm Pro users will have a handy way to search and browse all past items.