“Today we have two on-camera interviews, six radio shows and three newspaper interviews,” Adams said. “And that’s just what’s on the schedule. We’ll probably add a couple more. I’d say it’s about an average day, based on what I’ve seen so far.”

Adams’s duties go well beyond simply setting up press events. On his first day on the job — “before I was officially on the payroll,” he says — Adams appeared on a Denver-area radio show debating the editor of the Rocky Mountain News on immigration policy.

Though it has been a baptism by fire for Adams so far, he is by no means a newcomer to the conservative press circuit. In fact, his résumé reads like a directory of Washington conservatives: House Ways and Means, American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, John Ashcroft’s Justice Department.

What sets Tancredo’s office apart, in Adams’s mind, is that the office is truly collaborative. Tancredo regularly invites his whole staff and interns into his office to discuss policy. “For someone with a national profile like Tom to do that, that’s pretty remarkable,” said Adams.

These days, many of Adams’s press calls are about a possible Tancredo presidential bid. So far, he’s staying on message: Tancredo will enter the race if no other candidate emerges who is serious about closing off the borders.

“He just shoots straight with people,” Adams said. “No matter how many times people try to spin it or read something into it, that’s the way it is.”

Adams’s hobbies include tennis, barbecuing and going to the beach, though he notes that Ocean City and Rehoboth compare somewhat unfavorably to the renowned beaches of his native San Diego. If anything drives him from the Washington scene back to the West Coast, it’s likely to be the weather. Between the unpleasant summers and winters, “you get about three weeks of nice weather a year,” he grumbles.

Martinez aide has a broadcast past

Being a spokesman for freshman Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) is also no easy task.

But Ken Lundberg, 36, Martinez’s new press secretary, comes to it with experience as a broadcast journalist and press secretary for a House member. He worked for six years as a Capitol radio correspondent before becoming press secretary for Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.). A graduate of Wenatchee Valley College in Washington state, Lundberg enjoys woodworking as a hobby and recently built a dresser/changing table for his infant son.

Lieberman aides move up

Anyone dropping by 706 Hart will notice changes in the press office of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), who has promoted two of his former campaign staffers.

Smith College alum and Eureka, Calif., native Casey Aden-Wansbury, a veteran of the Democratic National Committee and the Gore campaign, will be taking over as communications director while Rob Sawicki, 30, will succeed her as press secretary. Sawicki, who is from Fairfield, Conn., attended Sacred Heart University and worked on Lieberman’s presidential campaign in New Mexico.

Aden-Wansbury and Sawicki promise to — dare we say — lend some Joe-mentum to Lieberman’s legislative agenda.