Gerry Connolly and Aneesh Chopra

When President Obama announced this weekend that he was appointing Aneesh Chopra to be his Chief Technology Officer, George Burke, Rep. Gerry Connolly's communications director, sent out an email reminder that Connolly and Jim Moran had pushed for Chopra's appointment. Connolly's worked very hard to position himself as a champion of federal employees, a stance that makes sense for him given the makeup of his district, but also given the balance of political power in the House. Federal employee advocacy isn't necessarily the most popular brief in Congress, and some powerful federal employee advocates, including Steny Hoyer in the House and Barbara Mikulski in the Senate, have moved on to more prominent positions. So taking up the cause of federal employees can be a route to a subcommittee chairmanship, and score political points along the way.