Week 1 blog
Team Boehner is a political team that works to gather and mobilize support for Speaker John Boehner. The group is in essence the political arm of the Speaker’s staffers. The team covers everything the policy office and personal staff doesn’t cover in their duties. They do everything from work events and organize donations to send emails to contact the constituents and manage the press. The Team Boehner website is very focused on gathering support and donations. It encourages participation and donation as soon as you go to the front page. As you scroll down it links you to all of the social media used by the team, from Facebook to twitter to Flickr to blogs. The site also mixes in news posts and content that has been created by the political team on the issues that are currently being brought in front of the house or is being focused on in the media.
I’m interested in seeing if this is really the type of place that I want to be working in after college. I’ve worked for political groups in my home district for the majority of my life, but have never explored the DC side of it. I really want to see if this level and side of politics is where I want to be. I’ve always put this internship on a pedestal as a crash course in the job I have always wanted, yet this may not be my dream job. I need to see if in reality it is all I believe it to be or if I was the one who mentally made it into something that it’s not.
One of the biggest items on my bucket list is to network as much as possible and build up my own name in the political network. The political world is tiny, especially in Ohio republican politics. My life-long involvement has made it easy for me to interact with the staffers and politicians in it, but with one problem. I have gone to every political event with my step-dad and been introduced as a relation to him instead of my own person. I worked to build my own name last year when I worked in the district office, but I have yet to achieve the name recognition I want. Instead of having to describe my relations to Ohio politics through my step-dad, I want to be able to describe it through my own personal experiences. This summer is my chance to build my own name recognition, to say “Hi, I’m Alex. I work for Speaker Boehner’s communication team and used to work in the district office” instead of having to refer to my family connections. I want to be able to work in politics because of my own merit instead of my family’s network. I want to build those connections with my co-workers that will help me transfer to other offices and ask them for recommendations. I want to be a part of the Team Boehner network and have my own place in it instead of a place left by my family.