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Caught Our Eye

Whitfield's chief of staff switches to Fortune 500 public affairs job

Posted by Jenna Ebersole on Nov. 26, 2014

Rep. Ed Whitfield's (R-Ky.) chief of staff, who navigated a delicate ethics issue involving his boss' wife, has left for a communications and public affairs position at a Fortune 500 company.

Cory Hicks left Whitfield's office this month amid a probe over interaction between the office and the congressman's wife, a registered lobbyist. He had served as chief of staff since January 2013 and moved up through the ranks of Whitfield's office starting with an internship in 2003.

In an email in October 2013, Hicks reportedly told his boss he had talked to the Ethics Committee about requesting meetings with lobbyists and they had no issue with it. But he did not mention that Whitfield's wife was involved in meetings as he "suspected they would have expressed concerns."

Connie Harriman-Whitfield, the congressman's wife, has registered to lobby with the Humane Society Legislative Fund since 2011.

Hicks' new job as director of communications and public affairs at Fluor Corp. takes him to a company with long-standing interests in Washington. Fluor Corp. has lobbied on topics including nuclear energy and marine and maritime issues.

Due to an editing error, Tuesday's Caught Our Eye story misstated when Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) left on a privately funded trip to Tanzania. He left Nov. 5, a day after the election.