Jake Ward, the new communications director for Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), moved to Washington four years ago to work for Balch & Bingham, a downtown lobbying firm. From K Street he moved to the dynamic communications department of the General Services Administration.

Ward began his political career in the spring of 2002 when he interned for Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) for eight weeks.

“I really enjoyed it. I like the atmosphere up here,” the smooth-talking spinmeister said.

Ward, 27, is big on communications, and, considering what he does, that is a good thing. He insists that his master’s degree in criminal justice translates well to his work on Capitol Hill.

“I feel like I use it every day,” he says, explaining that the degree involved a lot of writing, as does his job as a flack. Always prepared with a catchy sound bite, Ward added, “The idea of reading polls and building survey questions and evaluating information are surprisingly similar. There is a science to the research method, and it’s surprisingly similar.”

Not neurotic in the least, another surprising aspect to Ward is that he actually keeps track of how many days he has been on the job. For instance, last Friday was his 101st day. Today is his 112th day.

He has a lengthy explanation for why he is a “communications director” as opposed to a “press secretary” — and insists he has no gender hang-ups. He says being a communications director is actually three separate jobs, and adds that most Hill press secretaries should call themselves communications directors “because there is a strategic component that goes beyond the immediate media and there’s a constituent-outreach component that goes beyond that. You’re working on town-hall material.”

So what does Ward do for fun?

Though he says he does not have much time for endeavors outside work, other than being a Red Sox aficionado, the Greenville, Maine, native is a fanatic about collecting old speeches and has been doing so for the past several years. His favorite speech is Abraham Lincoln’s at Cooper Union.

The ever-quotable Ward said he most liked the “development of the speech. It was a metaphor drawn out over a long period of time with a great focus on where the nation was in terms of slavery. He wrote with the ear rather than the eye. It was just a masterful speech.”