But Jackson, 29, recently found himself seated across from Mayor-elect Muriel E. Bowser weighing a career move that would take him in the opposite direction of most aspiring D.C. politicos: to a job with city government.
Bowser’s offer was gritty and far from the glamour of national politics: director of community relations. The unofficial job description? Fielding a ceaseless stream of complaints about potholes, trash and broken traffic lights.
“I jumped on it,” Jackson said.
He wasn’t alone. Since January, a wave of federal bureaucrats and national political staffers has washed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the D.C. government’s headquarters. Among the pilgrims: Obama’s top expert on homelessness among veterans, a chief bureaucrat in the General Services Administration, a former assistant chief of the Small Business Administration, the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus and the spokesman and two former staffers for the Democratic National Committee.
The members of this class share a feeling of discontent over the partisan brinkmanship and policy paralysis that have come to define Washington. But some are also quick to point out another motivation: improving a city they now view as their home town.
Bowser’s young administration — which largely took shape last week, when a slew of confirmations sailed through the D.C. Council — has become an emblem of a capital city in the midst of dramatic change. Just as growing numbers of Washingtonians see the city as their home — not just a career way station — so, too, has the city government become a destination of its own.
Bowser (D) said she went into many interviews ready with a pitch but often didn’t have to make too hard of a sell. For one federal applicant, the mayor said, she just listed everything else on her day’s agenda, including a new soccer stadium.
“You can only see the benefits of those efforts in such a short time at the local level,” Bowser said.
