LegiStorm

A disgraced former Texas state representative and convicted felon has joined Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson's (D-Texas) staff in Dallas.

Terri Hodge served for more than a decade in the Texas House before her 2010 conviction for lying on her tax returns in connection with a public corruption investigation. Hodge received a one-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count of fraud and now serves as Johnson's district outreach consultant.

Johnson's communications director, Yinka Robinson, declined to comment on the hire citing a policy of not publicly discussing personnel matters.

Prosecutors said Hodge failed to report income of more than $40,000, some of it from campaign contributions, over the course of several years. Additionally, a developer paid expenses for a Dallas-area house Hodge owned and in return she allegedly wrote letters to help him get tax credits for low-income housing projects.

After the guilty plea, Hodge resigned and withdrew from an ongoing re-election campaign.

But after serving her time in prison, Hodge was back campaigning last year to be vice chairwoman of the Texas Democratic Party, though she later lost. She was also reportedly doing campaign projects for Johnson.

Hodge quietly joined Johnson's official Dallas staff in January.

A legislative aide for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) whose portfolio once included energy and climate issues has exited for a government affairs job with Peabody Energy Corp.

Ruth Demeter has taken a position as senior manager of federal government relations at the coal company. She worked for Barrasso from 2011 until this month and got her start in Congress in the office of Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), where she worked on a range of issues including energy and climate.

Demeter began as a staff assistant in Ensign's office in 2009, rising to legislative correspondent and legislative aide before moving to Barrasso's staff. Peabody has long hired lobbyists on the Hill who have advocated on a range of environmental regulations.

Demeter earned a bachelor's degree at the College of the Holy Cross in 2005 and a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 2005. 

A registered lobbyist on telecommunications and health issues has returned to the Hill to cover many of the same issues for Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.).

Erin Boyle worked one year off the Hill, in 2014, when she registered to lobby as vice president at Petrizzo Group Inc. Before her time as a lobbyist she was a staff assistant for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2011 and then worked for his campaign and political action committee until 2014.

Boyle filed to lobby with the Petrizzo Group on behalf of several organizations, including Streamline Health Inc., Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Frontier Communications Corp. She lobbied on issues ranging from health care technology for the Department of Veterans Affairs to cybersecurity.

For Katko, Boyle will serve as a legislative assistant covering health care, education, Social Security and telecommunications.

Boyle graduated in 2010 from Wake Forest University with a bachelor's degree.

As many staffers reveled in an extended long weekend on Tuesday, some of their northern state colleagues were out of luck.

Members from several cold-weather states that rarely shut down for snow tweeted that their staffers were hard at work despite the snow day. Staffers and their bosses mentioned "snow" in more than 100 tweets over the last few days.

Some staffers posted outfit photos taken in the snow, pictures of pets in the snow and lessons learned about shoe choices and shoveling.

But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) tweeted an Instagram photo of her D.C. staff at the office.

"While the federal government is closed for what D.C. considers a lot of snow, my team is in the office, hard at work for Alaskans!" she wrote.

"Like the excited snow-goers who made a mini Capital, DC's snowstorm didn't stop my office from working hard today," Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) added with a photo of a Capitol building sculpted out of snow.

"Even though most of DC was shut down today b/c of snow (dusting?), my Washington office was open and serving you," Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) tweeted with a photo.

"A few inches of snow won't stop my DC staff from working. Give us a call if there is anything we can do for you. #DCSnowDay #BuffaloStrong," Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) tweeted.

Bostonians, who are experiencing record-breaking snowfall in February, were quick to mock Washington's reaction to a mere few inches of snow. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) held a Q&A on Twitter during the day off.

"Snowed in? Tune in! To my Q/A on #NetNeutrality w @scrawford is today at 2PM EST - Tweet Q's using #AskEdSusan," he tweeted to kick it off.

A professional staff member at the Senate Finance Committee has switched to congressional affairs work for the Cato Institute.

Peter Russo worked under Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) for the committee, where he started in 2011. He moved this month to become director of congressional affairs at the libertarian think tank.

With any luck, the step away from Congress will also lower his chances of sharing a fate with another Peter Russo who is popular on Capitol Hill. The other Peter Russo, a character in the hit show "House of Cards," is a Pennsylvania congressman who met his doom in a parked car at the hands of the House majority whip.

The real-life Russo was already back on the Hill in his new role last week when he moderated a panel on libertarian policy priorities at the Rayburn House Office Building. 

The new Cato staffer holds a bachelor's degree from Hillsdale College and also has five years of experience, between 2004 and 2009, working as a territory manager for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.