OCR Text |
Show Senator gets lots of good wishes er, too." (An average $30,000 per year salary is often "eaten up" by $1,000 per month apartment rent. Laurie recently purchased an $80,000 two-bedroom condominium condomi-nium in suburban Falls Church, Va. 'if I'm going to pay $800 per month for an apartment, I might as well pay it toward a mortgage.") Laurie is part of a 30-member Garn staff, 17 of which are based in Washington, D.C. Visiting Utahns frequently stop by the senator's office on the fifth floor of the Everett Dirkson Buiding, but only a few will actually see Sen. Garn. Congressional duties absorp much of his weekday mornings, and 30-minute 30-minute appointments are scheduled sche-duled Tuesday through Thursday from 2-6 p.m. On most weekends. Gam travels back to his Park City condominium. For Utahns traveling to Washington, the most common request re-quest is for Senate gallery passes and tours to the FBI Building and the White House. ("We receive 15 White House passes per week," says a staff member, "And we go through those very quickly. We suggest people call us at least a month ahead of time.") Most of the staff, like Laurie are "transplanted" Utahns-and, like Laurie, most are enamored by the city and its excitement. "But I won't forget my roots," says Laurie. "I'm a Utahn and I intend someday to return to the West. But I doubt I'd enter journalism journal-ism when I return. What I'd like to pursue is a teaching career. I'm in a position where I view the news media from a different perspective, and I know of their power and their responsibilities. The media for instance, in-stance, contributed to the image problem of Rep. Monson. No matter mat-ter how hard he tried, he couldn't change the image left over from a turbulent campaign." With Sen. Jake Garn, Laurie Snow has few problems with "image." "im-age." The problem is in finding time to answer all the telephone calls. I C3 fit I Sl Jj I: M I WASHINGTON, D.C It was only Laurie Snow's second day on the job, but she was whisked into a hectic schedule and a national story. "It was crazy," she laughs. "It was fortunate that I knew the senator." ; "The Senator" is Jake Garn. And Laurie, as his communications communica-tions director, was instantly placed in the role of answering questions concerning Garn's hospital visit and subsequent kidney donation. "It was my second day on the job when Jake entered the hospital for tests to see if he were a suitable donor," said Laurie. "Immediately, "Immediate-ly, some members of the press jumped to the conclusion that he was having surgery. We had to scotch those rumors and explain the whole story. Let's face it, it was a story with a great appeal." And the story continued. On Sept. 9, Sen. Garn entered a Washington D.C. hospital to prepare pre-pare for surgery; on the following day, surgeons removed a kidney in a six-hour procedure, a life-saving option for Jake's daughter Susan, a 27-year-old who had suffered from progressive kidney failure since the age of 10. The operation was successful! and the nation's media turned to the young Laurie for information. Suddenly, Jake Garn was more than a Utah senator.. .He was "prime time." Laurie handled calls from ABC, CBS and NBC... and Mutual Broadcasting, Cable News Network and PBS.. .and "USA Today," "New York Times," "Washington Post," "Wall Street Journal," "Good Housekeeping," "Ladies Home Journal," "Los Angeles Times"... and "Time," "News- SENATOR JAKE GARN week," "People," and "U.S. News and World Report." The Salt Lake newspapers showed the expected interest. But so did a variety of specialty publications, especially those serving the bank ing and financial community. (Garn is chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee). And there were other, more personal per-sonal calls. A disc jockey from Chicago Chi-cago called for information, saying his radio station switchboard was flooded with calls from concerned listeners... A man in Atlanta telephoned tele-phoned to express his appreciation for Garn's "act of caring'; his wife, he said, was also seeking a kidney donor... Countless callers asked about Garn's request to make donations, in lieu of flowers, to the National Kidney Foundation and the American Diabetes Association. Associa-tion. "It was a very, very long day," said Laurie. "I have three telephone tele-phone lines and all of them were lit up all day long. But it was also very invigorating, knowing that I could help people who really cared." Not all of the inquiries were pleasing. One Utah reported arrogantly arro-gantly requested that a live television televi-sion camera be placed in the operating oper-ating room so history could record the up-front surgery. And during the surgery, a wire service reporter badgered Laurie to allow "just a short five-minute interview with him on the operating table." But most of the reporters, she said, were considerate and mindful of Garn's human gift. And one month after the surgery, the interview requests re-quests are still coming in. "Last Friday we arranged a short interview with National Public Pub-lic Radio," she says, "and I just got off the telephone with a representative repre-sentative from "Good Housekeeping." Housekeep-ing." They're willing to fly to Garn's home in Park City to conduct con-duct a warm feature piece on the senator. "We cooperate with the national media, but Jake has always stressed stres-sed the need to give priority to the Utah press. As far as we're concerned, con-cerned, Utah comes first-but it is exciting to have so much national interest, too." For Laurie, it's also exciting to be in the nation's capitol. A native of Spring ville, she attended Utah State University and served an internship in-ternship with the Garn staff. She later worked in press relations for the Department of Education and Rep. David Monson before joining Sen. Garn two months ago. At 28, she is enthralled with "Potomac fever." "It's a great place for a single person and there's a real sense of satisfaction in working for the senator. Our salaries are relatively high by Utah standards, but Washington's costs are much high- |