There are statements of purposes, promises of healthier food for constituents and plenty of glad-handing. The “little guy,” a reporter for The Hill, is smoking cigarettes outside, wondering who is looking out for his interests. This is the stuff of election season in Washington, and the election for seats on the White House correspondents’ board is no exception
Jason Horowitz has a beautiful piece in The Washington Post today about the campaign season in the Brady Briefing Room leading up to board elections on July 15. Meet the candidates:
The candidates are Ed Henry, the CNN anchor with perfectly parted politician hair, who is running for the uncontested “TV seat.” Time’s Michael Scherer, the last magazine reporter to regularly attend the daily briefings, is running for the uncontested “Magazine seat.” (“An issue with the ballots,” he said, has nevertheless caused him consternation. “There is no box next to my name.”) But the real race is for the “at large” seat, coveted by [Bloomberg’s Hans] Nichols, Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal and Carol Lee of Politico.
What are the issues in this year’s election? Well, for one, the seating chart at the correspondents’ dinner. Also: Time‘s Michael Scherer has built healthier food in the vending machine outside the briefing room into his platform, while The Wall Street Journal‘s Laura Meckler, who has been touting her 14 years of experience, is promising a “summer picnic for actual WH reporters and officials.” No candidate will touch the question of who should fill Helen Thomas’ front-row seat with a 10-foot pole. That will be decided after the election.
“We’re staying out of it,” Bill Burton, a deputy press secretary at the White House, told Mr. Horowitz. “We think the voters should decide.”
