Ex-Craig aides now in prominent positions
In his 27 years in Congress, including the past 17 in the Senate, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has seen dozens of staff members depart for influential roles in business and politics. Here's a partial list of what some aides refer to as the "Craig Family": - Mike Reynoldson, Craig's former Boise office director and manager of his 1996 Senate re-election campaign, is the top lobbyist for Micron Technology Inc. and a volunteer state GOP official. - Norm Semanko, who once ran Craig's northern Idaho offices, heads the Idaho Water Users Association and ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year. - Wayne Hammon, Idaho's financial chief under Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, cut his GOP teeth as a Craig aide. - Brad Hoaglun, a local GOP official and former spokesman for Gov. Jim Risch during his 2006 chief executive stint, is chief of staff to Idaho Controller Donna Jones. - Mark Rey, Forest Service undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was on Craig's U.S. Senate staff. - Gregory Casey, Craig's former chief of staff, heads the Bipac business lobby in Washington, D.C. - Dwight Johnson, Idaho's former director of the Idaho State Board of Education, now works in the Department of Labor. - M.J. Byrne is spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Land Management in Idaho - Jeff Malmen is Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's chief of staff. - Jason Kreizenbeck is government affairs chief at Micron - Jane Wittmeyer lobbies for the Intermountain Forest Association. - Dan Goicoechea is Idaho deputy controller. - John Keenan, who was Craig's senior legislative director in the 1980s, is a deputy attorney general for Idaho. - Ken Burgess is an Idaho lobbyist and local GOP official in Boise. - Nate Fisher, Craig's natural resources policy adviser in the 1980s, head up Idaho's Office of Species Conservation for Otter. - Kristine Svinicki, a former Craig policy adviser, has been nominated by President Bush serve a five-year term as member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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