Despite a fast rise in the Democratic Party, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)'s office hasn't proved to be a fast track for careers in lobbying - at least not yet.
LegiStorm has found six revolving door ties to the congressman, who has been in office since 2003. Three of the revolving door staffers worked in his personal office, with two others serving under Van Hollen in his capacity as top Democrat on the Budget Committee.
Van Hollen is a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or "super committee." LegiStorm is profiling the revolving door ties for all of the super committee members over three weeks. You can see all the profiles here.
Van Hollen's most prominent revolving door staffer is Karen Robb, who left a lobbying position to become Van Hollen's chief of staff in 2005. Robb has stayed with Van Hollen since. She was policy director in Van Hollen's Office of Assistant to the Speaker of the House when he held that position in the Democratic majority. Robb is now chief counsel on the Budget Committee to Van Hollen, who is the committee's ranking member.
In addition to the five staffers who have worked for Van Hollen in his congressional offices, LegiStorm has also identified one person who worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when Van Hollen was chair of the organization in the latest election cycle. Brian Wolff was the finance director and executive director for the DCCC before becoming a lobbyist for the Edison Electric Institute in 2009. Since our database does not currently focus on the campaign committee staff, it's possible we have missed other DCCC revolving door staff.
