Male aides insist they are bad golfers

There are some new faces in Sen. Wayne Allard’s (R-Colo.) press shop.

Laura Condeluci, 27, is the new communications director. She is the former press secretary to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

“It’s tough to leave,” she says. “But I thought this is a great opportunity to learn a new set of issues for another member.”

A native of Pearl River, La., which is 35 miles north of New Orleans, Condeluci and her family were greatly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Her parents had to be evacuated; her grandparents’ home had to be gutted and needed a new roof.

Condeluci was affected personally because her April wedding had to be put on hold until she could find out whether the French Quarter hotel where she was to be married still existed. It did, and the wedding went on as planned.

She graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree in mass communication.

Steve Weymer, 28, the new deputy press secretary, has traded one Washington for another.

After working on the 2004 campaign of Washington state Secretary of State Sam Reed, he bought a one-way ticket to Washington, D.C. Initially he stayed on a friend’s floor until he secured a job with Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) as a legislative correspondent. He worked for Smith until June.

Weymer then landed a contract through the State Department to live in Albania and work on education issues. He had an interpreter assigned to him the entire time.

He grew up in Chewelah, Wash. and graduated from Washington State University. On the weekends, he says, “I play a lot of bad golf.”

Nick Zupancic, 26, moves up from legislative correspondent to legislative assistant. He came to Capitol Hill in December 2004 to work for Allard.

He grew up in Denver and attended the infamous Columbine High School in Littleton. He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in political science.

Zupancic calls himself a “weekend hack” of a golfer. He loves live music and is a huge fan of the Denver Broncos.

Hastert adds two aides to press office

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) recently announced the promotion of Chris Taylor to deputy press secretary. Ashley Rogers is his new press assistant.

Taylor began working as Hastert’s press intern in February 2005 and became press assistant in May of that year. The New York City native interned with Michael Bloomberg’s 2005 mayoral campaign and was the lead field representative in Michigan for the College Republican National Committee during the 2004 election campaign.

Rogers was deputy executive director for the College Republican National Committee and an associate with Americans for Tax Reform. She is a recent summa cum laude graduate of Sweet Briar College where she double-majored in philosophy and Latin.