C&E Flashbacks

The thirtieth anniversary of Campaigns & Elections is coming up quick, but it’s always nice to get a reminder of the publication’s past. This afternoon Elizabeth Bartz, one of the magazine’s original editors, stopped by for some reminiscence.Bartz, who was the associate editor of the magazine in 1982 and 1983, now works on the other side of politics, with the “people with the money,” she says. She’s the president and CEO of State and Federal Communcations, which helps corporations and trade associations with lobbying compliance. Still a subscriber, she’s watched the magazine grow from the quarterly she worked for into a bimonthly and then a monthly magazine—a now, of course, a daily online presence, as well. “The whole process of printing a publication has changed,” she said. “It no longer takes a month.” In her time, the magazine was smaller, and it wasn’t until after she left, in the magazine’s fourth year, that founder Stanley Foster Reed hired a full-time ad director, she said.Reed was proud of the magazine’s academic credentials, and filled the editorial board with political science professors. And the job came with its unexpected perks, like membership in the National Press Club (just next door to the original offices) and hook-ups with the New York Times (she includes a campaign-finance research job with the paper of note on her resume).But working for a magazine start-up had its challenges, too. “The magazine’s much better known now,” she said. “Everything’s changed.”