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By Gregg Sangillo, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, Nov. 19, 2007

The image of Washington as an old-boy network lingers. Racial and ethnic minorities are still distinctly in the minority, and women haven't found equal footing with men. But when an African-American woman succeeds an African-American man as secretary of State, and when another woman might be on her way to the Oval Office, times are clearly changing.

To be sure, change has been a long time coming. Although women won the right to vote in 1920, the so-called "Year of the Woman" didn't occur until 1992, when five new women were elected to the Senate and 24 women first won seats in the House. And despite great strides in civil rights over the past 40 years, African-American and Latino legislators remain underrepresented in Congress.

Some signs of change are apparent, however. In 2004, the number of minorities in the Senate went from two to five with the election of Barack Obama, D-Ill., an African-American, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who are Hispanic. With more women and minorities being elected to higher office, greater opportunities have trickled down to congressional offices, K Street, and the broader Washington network.

"People of color and women are participating at a higher level, at a more active level," says Anita Estell, one of the city's first African-American female lobbyists and a shareholder with Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus. "But is it enough? No. Can we do more? Yes."

Melinda Glazer, a senior policy analyst with the National League of Cities, is active in the career development group Women in Government Relations. She is optimistic about the future for young women coming to Washington. "I don't necessarily feel that the obstacles that women are facing now are any different than what men are facing. I think a lot of the students that are coming in fresh out of college are facing very similar challenges."

A new generation of people in Washington has watched Nancy Pelosi become the first female speaker of the House and James Clyburn, a black Democrat from South Carolina, become House majority whip. "The last year or so has been inspiring. Just looking at the number of women that ran for office," says Ellen Chube, a 26-year-old who was an aide to then-Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn. "I know a lot of women and minorities who are looking to leave the Hill, who are looking for different opportunities. And when I hear these stories [about job hunting], they just come back with all these impressive offers," says Chube, now with law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

A number of factors have helped women and minorities make strides in recent years. The Democratic takeover of Congress, for one, has helped many people with ties to the Congressional Black Caucus. Twenty-two of the 43 members of the CBC are committee or subcommittee chairs, and 16 of the 21 Hispanic Caucus members chair a committee or subcommittee. The members in these leadership positions create opportunities for minority congressional staffers -- and also increase the demand for lobbyists with ties to the CBC and other minority groups.

Given the current climate, someone like Paul Brathwaite is in an ideal position. Brathwaite, who just turned 37, was formerly the executive director of the CBC. He now works at the Podesta Group, a government-relations firm headed by lobbyist Tony Podesta. "I think if Democrats stay in control of the Congress, from a lobbying perspective and from a congressional Hill perspective, there will be more opportunities for people of color," Brathwaite says. Of course, the growing number of black and Hispanic committee chairs doesn't guarantee that other minorities will get hired as staffers, he cautions. "Members give opportunities, really, to the best people. It just so happens, though, that they are certain to make sure that African-Americans, Hispanics, women, Asian-Americans are included now in the conversation, in the opportunities to get these jobs." The staff of the House Homeland Security Committee, which is chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., "may be one of the most diverse committees in Congress," Brathwaite says.

Women and minorities are also moving into prominent positions on the Republican side. Egyptian-born Shahira Knight was the top tax staffer at the House Ways and Means Committee under then-Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif. When Knight decided to leave Capitol Hill, she was heavily courted by K Street firms. Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., has been attacked for his views on homosexuality. But one of his senior staffers at the Senate Republican Conference and on his re-election campaign was Robert Traynham, a gay African-American. Traynham, 33, who was outed by two websites during Santorum's 2006 Senate race, is now the Washington bureau chief for the Comcast Network.

At a recent lunch, three experienced African-American lobbyists -- Robert Drummer of Drummer & Associates; Ainsley Gill, who runs his own lobbying firm, Ainsley Gill and Associates; and Julius Hobson of Powell Goldstein -- said that although connections to prominent Democrats can be an advantage, minorities should be wary of identifying too closely with just one party. All three K-Streeters are registered independents. When they were on the Hill, Drummer and Hobson worked for Democrats -- Drummer for Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., and Hobson for then-Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va.

Hobson says that a black lobbyist can't assume that he'll only work with Democrats or CBC members. "If that's your perception, you're on the floor, waiting for the crumbs to fall off the table." Hobson says that when he worked at the American Medical Association, a senior staffer who dealt with the Georgia congressional delegation quit the summer before the 1994 midterm elections. "I inherited Newt Gingrich. When the Republicans took over the majority after the election, who do you think [worked with] the Republican leadership for the AMA in the House? I did."

Anecdotally, many people cite progress on congressional staff hiring. The numbers, however, tell a somewhat mixed story. According to a study of the Senate by the Congressional Management Foundation, the male-female staff ratio didn't improve much from 1991 to 2001. It was 62 percent to 38 percent in 1991, and 57 percent to 43 percent in 2001. Importantly, though, more women are taking on senior roles in congressional offices. From 1991 to 2001, the proportion of women holding executive positions (such as chief of staff or legislative director) in the Senate increased from 31 percent to 42 percent. The overall proportion of minority (black, Hispanic, and Asian) staffers in the Senate remained stuck at 14.5 percent from 1991 to 2001, but in the House the representation of minority aides increased slightly from 13.8 percent in 1990 to 15.5 percent in 2000.

This summer, National Journal profiled more than 300 Hill staffers in senior positions on congressional committees and in House and Senate leadership offices. Thirty-four percent of the aides were women and 10 percent were minorities (5 percent were black, 3 percent Asian, and 2 percent Hispanic).

Talent and hard work can still help aides climb the congressional job ladder, regardless of race or gender. Marcus Mason grew up in South Central Los Angeles. And at the ripe age of 21, he managed the successful 1992 House campaign of California Democrat Walter Tucker. After the election, Mason recalls, "my boss asked me, 'What do you want to do?' And with everything I had in me I said, 'I want to be an intern.' And he looked at me and he was, like, 'You'll want to rethink that. You just won a congressional campaign!' " Mason became Tucker's chief of staff in Washington at age 22. Now 37, he works mostly on transportation issues at the Madison Group.

What are the consequences of greater diversity in official Washington? For one thing, some minorities from less-privileged backgrounds have used their influence to give back to their communities. Estell, for instance, represented the late Rosa Parks in Washington. "That comes from my family background. I'm really only one generation away from cotton pickers," she says. "My mother picked cotton in Mississippi. So in working on civil-rights issues, there has always been an element of wanting to give back where I came from." Estell adds, however, that it is important to avoid being pigeonholed as someone who only works on civil rights. "You have to not just focus on soft issues but the classic hard issues of Washington," she says, citing her work for pharmaceutical companies. "You don't want to get labeled simply a 'black lobbyist.' "

Just about everyone agrees that even though the tent has grown bigger, most Washington institutions -- both in government and in the private sector -- still have a long way to go to achieve real diversity. Drummer, Hobson, and Ainsley agree that minority lobbyists face more obstacles in dealing with clients in the private sector than with legislators. As an example, Drummer mentioned a panel discussion on diversity that he attended with corporations and law firms earlier this year. The "diversity" panel was made up of white men. "One of them showed a picture of a globe," Drummer recalls. "He went on to cite how in China, in their Beijing office, they've got Chinese lawyers. Chinese lawyers are not in the minority in Beijing!"

It's not enough to talk about diversity, Drummer argues. Moving forward, he says, K Street firms need to aggressively recruit quality, minority job candidates. "I don't want to sit here, 10 years from now, and have to have this same type of conversation."