Four white male journalists are fighting to the death for a two-year term on the Daily Press Galleries’ Standing Committee of Correspondents. The election is next Thursday, Jan. 22. The beefcake contestants — oops, candidates — are the AP‘s Matt Daly, WaPo‘s Ed O’Keefe, New Jersey Star-Ledger‘s Jonathan Salant, and Omaha World Herald‘s Joe Morton.
I posed four delicate questions to each candidate. They are: 1. What is your height? 2. What is your weight? 3. What are your must-see TV shows? And 4. What is the first thing you will do when elected to office?
The Mirror has obtained the campaign letters of some of the candidates.
Who would you vote for?
From AP’s Matt Daly
Dear fellow journalists,
My name is Matthew Daly, congressional reporter for The Associated Press. I am writing to ask you to support my candidacy for a two-year term on the Daily Press Galleries’ Standing Committee of Correspondents.
As a longtime Washington reporter, I know how important it is to protect the news media’s workspace and ensure access to newsmakers as we cover Congress. As a veteran wire-service reporter, I pledge to fight for open government and access for all reporters as we do our jobs. Before joining the Hill staff last year, I covered a variety of beats for the AP, including nearly seven years as a regional reporter covering the Pacific Northwest, so I know how important it is for reporters to have access to local delegations. I also have covered energy and the White House and I know many of you personally.
At a time of dramatic change for our industry, it’s more important than ever to have reporters with knowledge of Capitol Hill’s inner workings engaged in looking out for daily print reporters in the halls of Congress.
The Standing Committee will be responsible for handling logistical issues surrounding the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions. I pledge to fight for access for print reporters at both events.
The election will be held Thursday, Jan. 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Senate Press Gallery, Room S-316.
Thanks in advance, and remember, “Daly for Daily.”
Please contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Matthew Daly
Congressional Reporter
From WaPo’s Ed O’Keefe
Height: 5’7″
Weight: “Too much.”
Must-see TV show: “Big Bang Theory”
First act in office: “Go to Disney World, obviously.”
My name is Ed O’Keefe and I’m a congressional reporter with The Washington Post. I’m writing to you because you’re a member of the congressional Daily Press Gallery and eligible to vote in elections for three new members of the Standing Committee of Correspondents next Thursday.
I’m running for one of the three open seats and am writing to ask for your vote in the election. Forgive me for the less personal nature of this message – especially for those of you I see on a regular basis — but there are more than 1,900 members of our press gallery and it would be difficult to reach all of you in person.
After covering Capitol Hill for the last few years, I’ve seen several times how the changing nature of our industry has bumped up against the restrictions of the Captol Police, House and Senate sergeant at arms and leadership offices. I can’t promise we’ll resolve those issues to your liking, but I’m hoping to serve as a fair representative of your concerns and hopefully nudge along congressional offices and those that set the restrictions further into the 21st Century.
The SCC also will be responsible for handling logistical issues surrounding coverage of the 2016 Democratic and Republican convention – another challenge, but one that I hope I can work with you on as the events approach.
The election is scheduled for Thursday, January 22nd in the Senate Press Gallery (Room S. 316 on the third floor of the U.S. Capitol). Polls will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Many thanks in advance and please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Ed O’Keefe
The Washington Post
From Star-Ledger’s Jonathan Salant
Height: “I’m 5-8, a little shorter, alas, than my 17-year-old son Izzy.”
Weight: “Aim to weigh around 170 when the softball season begins in April.”
Must-see TV shows: “SNY broadcasts of Mets games, for which I buy the MLB Extra Innings package every year.”
First act in office: “The first thing I will do if elected is listen to my fellow journalists. I’m running because I can bring a quarter-century of Capitol Hill experience and institutional knowledge to address the concerns and needs of the other reporters covering Congress.”
During one of Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill’s elections, a neighbor went to the eventual U.S. House speaker and said she would vote for him even though he didn’t ask her to do so. O’Neill said he didn’t think he needed to seek her support. She told him, “People like to be asked.”
So I am asking for your vote in next Thursday’s election in the Senate Daily Press Gallery for the Standing Committee of Correspondents. You must cast ballots for three of the four candidates and I hope I will be one of the three.
I came to Washington in 1987, the same year O’Neill retired, and I would bring the experience and institutional knowledge of a quarter-century covering Congress to the Standing Committee on issues from accommodating reporters who need to work out of the galleries to challenging curbs on our ability to tell the public what their elected officials are doing.
Currently, I am the Washington correspondent for NJ Advance Media, NJ.com and The Star-Ledger. Since we do not have an office, I will be working out of the press galleries almost every day that Congress is in session, and on many days when it’s not. So it will be very easy to find me to ask questions and raise concerns.
I last served on the Standing Committee 25 years ago. That was when we installed tables and chairs to replace empty gallery space so that reporters who were on the Hill but did not have permanent desks would have a place to sit and write their stories. We also credentialed a new outlet then called Bloomberg Business News.
I know many of you through the National Press Club, where I was president in 2006; or the Regional Reporters Association, where I was the group’s fourth president; or the Society of Professional Journalists, where I am a former president of its Washington chapter; or the Metropolitan Media Softball League.
Some of you worked with me at Newhouse News Service, Congressional Quarterly, the Associated Press or Bloomberg News. I met many of you on the softball field when I coached the National Press Club, AP or Bloomberg teams against Dow Jones, The Washington Post, Reuters, USA Today, National Journal, The Washington Times and others in the MMSL.
And while I’ve never worked for, or played against, McClatchy, I did have Thanksgiving dinner one year at Anders Gyllenhaal’s house when we both were at the Miami Herald.
The members elected this year will lead the Standing Committee during the 2016 national political conventions. I’ve been to the last 16 such gatherings, beginning in San Francisco in 1984 when the late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s keynote address electrified the Democratic delegates. Having covered six conventions as a regional reporter and 10 as a national correspondent, I’ve experienced firsthand the concerns and needs of solitary reporters and those working for large news organizations, and will work to provide adequate facilities for everyone.
Voting takes place from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm Jan 22 in the Senate Press Gallery. I am asking again for your vote. Hope to see you then.
Jonathan Salant
Washington correspondent
The Star-Ledger
From Omaha World Herald Joe Morton
We’re still waiting on this ginger’s campaign letter….Come on, Joe!