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Former 'Hotline' Editor To Write a Weekly Column for CQ Today and Contribute Special Reports from the Campaign Trail

WASHINGTON, February 25, 2003 — Congressional Quarterly Inc. (CQ), the nation's leader in political journalism for the past 58 years, today announced that political analyst Craig Crawford is joining the CQ news team as a columnist and special contributor.

Crawford will write a weekly column for CQ Today, the acclaimed news-daily that provides a comprehensive, up-to-date report on legislative and public policy activities on Capitol Hill. The column will launch on Monday, March 5, and will appear every Monday through the presidential primary season and the national conventions, according to David Rapp, editor and senior vice president in charge of CQ news publications.

"We are delighted to bring aboard a political writer of such depth, experience and journalistic verve," Rapp said of Crawford. "Craig has been a student of the national political scene for 20 years. His ability to connect the dots between the presidential race and policy-making on Capitol Hill will add yet another dimension of smart legislative analysis for the demanding readers of CQ Today."

Crawford appears regularly on the MSNBC and CNBC cable news channels and on CBS News, where he is a network news analyst for the CBS Early Show and the CBS Evening News.

For the past six years, Crawford has run The Hotline, a daily online political briefing published by the National Journal Group. As Editor-in-Chief and Executive Publisher, Crawford raised The Hotline's profile and circulation over the years by shifting to publication on the Internet, expanding coverage of political TV shows, and developing video content for broadcast and cable outlets.

Previously he was a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, where he covered political campaigns throughout the South. Crawford was the newspaper's Washington bureau chief from 1989 to 1997. Before becoming a journalist, he served in 1984 as the Alabama State Field Director for the John Glenn presidential primary campaign, and the Georgia State Field Director for the Mondale/Ferraro general election campaign.

Congressional Quarterly Inc., located in Washington, D.C., is an independent publisher and information provider, producing a wide variety of daily, weekly and monthly publications in print and on the Web. CQ provides opinion leaders in government, business, media and academia with comprehensible, credible, current and objective information on government, politics and public policy. CQ's award-winning product line includes: CQ Weekly, CQ Today and the award-winning legislative tracking service, CQ.com. The company's books division, CQ Press, also produces a full line of reference books, and political science texts and government directories.