OrganizationJOE BIDEN page  

Joe Biden Organization

(page updated August 24, 2015


Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President  Steve Ricchetti

(announced Nov. 13, 2013)  Counselor to the Vice President from March 2012.  Founder (Jan. 2011) and president of Ricchetti, Inc., and ran the firm for 10-plus years.  During the Clinton Administration Richetti served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the President from Jan. 1999 and as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs from Jan. 1993-Feb. 1996.  Executive director of the DSCC, 1991-92.  Other experience includes president and founder of Ricchetti & Associates; vice president of Public Strategies, Washington; executive director of congressional communications at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; and special legislative assistant at the Allied Corporation.  J.D. from George Mason University; undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio.  Native of Cleveland, OH.


Communications Director  Kate Bedingfield

(announced Aug. 24, 2015)  Vice president of corporate communications at the Motion Picture Association of America from May 2013; started at the MPAA in Nov. 2011.  White House Associate Communications Director and White House Deputy Director, and then Acting Director of Media Affairs.  Communications director on the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate campaign. NH press secretary and earlier deputy national press secretary on John Edwards' 2007-08 presidential campaign.  DCCC Western regional press secretary in the 2006 cycle.  Spokeswomen on Paul Hackett congressional campaign in Ohio's 2nd CD (Aug. 2005 special election).  Worked on the Kerry-Edwards general election campaign.  Worked at the AFL-CIO.  B.A. in history from the University of Virginia, 2004.


Press Secretary  Kendra Barkoff

(started June 2011; announced May 23, 2011)  Previously deputy communications director and press secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior.  Press secretary to Sen. Bob Casey.  Democratic media coordinator and press assistant to Sen. Richard Durbin.  Communications aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell.  Bachelor's degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, 2002.  Northern California native.


Former
Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director  Shailagh J. Murray  ...to Senior Advisor to President Obama

(announced as deputy chief of staff on Nov. 13, 2013; announced as communications director in March 2011)  Worked as a journalist for 20 years at the Washington Post, 2005-11 (a correspondent on Capitol Hill and covered elections) and the Wall Street Journal, 1992-2005 (covered Congress and politics from 1999-2005; correspondent in Prague and Brussels, 1992-99).  Graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Northwestern University.  Native of Buffalo, NY.


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Political Advisors include:

Valerie Biden Owens

(Biden's younger sister)  Valerie Biden Owens has run every campaign for her brother during his political career; seven U.S. Senate campaigns, his 1987 campaign and she was national chairwoman of his 2007-08 campaign.  Executive vice president of Joe Slade White and Company, a strategic consulting firm, since 1997.  She also serves as a volunteer political trainer/consultant for Women’s Campaign International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of women in the world’s emerging democracies.  Graduate of the University of Delaware, 1967.

John Martilla

President of Martilla Strategies, based in Boston.  More than 40-year relationship with Biden; managed strategy and advertising for Biden’s upset victory in 1972.  A senior advisor to Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign for governor of Massachusetts.  A senior advisor to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign; longtime advisor to Kerry going back to 1970.  For many years, through 1996, Martilla and Tom Kiley ran a consulting business.








In contrast to the Ready for Hillary organization which backed a run by Hillary Clinton and which operated throughout the 2014 cycle, independent efforts to build a base of support for Biden got off to a late start.  Draft Biden 2016 filed with the FEC on March 18, 2015 and has engaged in considerable activity since then.



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