The Politicians are all about snapchat, and Rand Paul is using it to promote his new flat tax plan. So if you happen to live in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire or South Carolina, the first Snapchat ad for a presidential candidate has arrived.

Famous Friday Round Up  #RUNNING It seems like everyday we have a new politician announcing their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Is there some sort of unwritten guide that us common folk haven’t cued in on? We nailed down a few key steps that will surely have you on …

It seems like everyday we have a new politician announcing their candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. Is there some sort of unwritten guide that us common folk haven’t cued in on? We nailed down a few key steps that will surely have you on your way to joining the federal government as an elected official, whether in the Oval Office or House Office Buildings.

Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s The Lead and State of the Union pays homage to his professional roots at Roll Call, where he worked as a cartoonist and depicted some pretty comical scenes on “Capital Hell”. For Roll Call’s 60th anniversary today, Tapper gifted his alma mater with this — and we …

Jim Havard took a beautifully exposed photo of the Capitol building all lit up with the “flower moon” in the background, and submitted it to the FamousDC Flickr pool.

The MDDC Press Awards confirmed what we already knew: CQ Roll Call is awesome. CQ Roll Call brought five awards to Capitol Hill. Hill Navigator columnist Rebecca Gale was awarded second place for business reporting for “The Other Back Room: Breastfeeding on Capitol Hill” (Roll Call, Feb. 2, 2014). Roll …

Meredith Shiner at Yahoo Politics published an awesome piece about a time when members would work together … to shoot hoops. “Eventually, the Four O’Clock Caucus, also known as the Members Basketball Association (MBA), would disband, with many of its alumni rising up the ranks to run Washington. But in …

When you work on the Hill, certain tasks can take over the time you spend at the job. We put the call out to our chief of staff friends to ask how their time is spent at work. This week, we have how a Capitol Hill chief of staff’s day can sometimes be divided. Click on the preview above to see the full animated infographic.

When you work on the Hill, certain tasks can take over the time you spend at the job. We polled our press secretary and former press secretary friends to ask how their time is or was spent at work. This week, we have how a Capitol Hill press secretary’s day can sometimes be divided.

Check out Sam Stein’s interview with President Obama for Huffington Post. Great quote from the reel: When asked how much sleep he gets a night, President Barack Obama said, “probably not enough.” “I will say that when people leave the administration and I see them six months later, they have …

We were inspired by Vox’s Confession of a Member of Congress, so we decided to take this to the next level. The following is compiled from conversations with several current Congressional staffers over the weekend. We promised anonymity in exchange for their honesty. Confessions of a Capitol Hill Staffer 9 secrets from the inside By: A Congressional staffer on February 10, 2015 I am a Congressional staff member. I’m not going to tell you from where, or from which party. But I serve, and I am honored to serve. I serve with good people (and some less good ones), and we try to do our best. It’s a frustrating, even disillusioning job. Constituents call us on a daily basis and yell about things they either saw while “upping” with Chris Hayes on MSNBC or listening to Rush Limbaugh discuss how Obama wants to take their retirement away. My parents want to know why I’m not making more money and my boss – the Honorable Member of Congress – constantly tells me that I’m lucky to have this job and there is a “line all the way back to the district” filled with young people who would swap seats with me. So here are some things I wish the public, the media (and my parents) knew about the lowly paid public servants shuffling up the escalator at Capitol South each morning. 1. This is nothing like Game of Cards or The West Wing I wake up each morning in a group house, wait for my turn to use the shower, take the Circulator to the hill, and hustle into the office only to be yelled at on the phone by fired-up constituents. I’ve done the math: these callers account for 0.6% of the entire population of our district. This is not a glamorous lifestyle. The only thing our bosses have murdered recently is the other party’s hopes for a smooth passage of their favorite bill this Congress. Reporters don’t care what information we can offer them, they have a better source already. We understand we’re all working for and towards something greater: one day being a big enough deal for Mike Allen to mention my birthday in Playbook. 2. I can smell out an open bar reception like a bloodhound I’ll eat three bowls of chips at Tortilla Coast before I order my first beer. Sometimes they charge you for the second order. Sometimes they don’t. I always hope they don’t. 25-cent wing night at Capitol Lounge is my weekly Thanksgiving. Do you know how many wings you have to eat to get full? My number is between 12 – 15. Cheap beer helps too. We don’t have money. Most of us struggle on a weekly basis to survive in this expensive city. If someone tells me about an open bar reception – I’m there. I’ve learned about human resources management, horse racing and the challenges of moving coal on a train. They all had one thing in common: free beer within walking distance of my office and the Metro. 3. We don’t always agree with the boss. A small part of us dies when we’re drafting talking points (or watching senior staff draft talking points) for a bill that is completely unlikeable, or will be unpopular in the district, or that we personally completely oppose. We know the boss is pandering to the vocal minority. We know the boss is falling in the party line. We know the boss will trade a vote on this for a favor at home. Maybe you don’t know that, but I do. I usually shove this out of my mind when I buy a dozen beers at the cheapest happy hour I can find. 4. This is basically an extension of college When our offices were in Cannon HOB we used to have hall parties. I’ve seen a keg rolled down the hallways into the office as soon as the boss was “wheels up” heading back to the district. The Congressional softball and touch football league are the next step from college intramurals. You office is your dorm hall and your state delegation is your fraternity. 5. My mom thinks I work for the President of the United States I answer constituent letters all day. Eight hours a day I am answering some constituent concern. The border, Obamacare, or bad credit ratings – I answer them all. My writing is top notch and it will help when I get into law school, but I am not shaping any policy. That doesn’t stop my mother. She tells everyone that asks about me that I work for the President. “Close Advisor.” She is always “surprised you haven’t seen him on TV yet.” I answer mail to people with enough time to send a letter (!?) to their Member of Congress. 6. Once you figure out your way around Rayburn – it is time to go The building is confusing. The second number is the floor level. There are escalator doors that only go up. Whoever designed this really wanted to confuse everyone. This is a great gig. I once had the opportunity to attend the State of the Union after we had a last minute cancelation. A friend of mine works for the Vice President’s office and he took us bowling in the basement of the White House. My friends might make more money at Deloitte right now but they haven’t seen Bono casually walking the hall outside their offices. 7. Most form letters sent to the office are filed in the “Z Drawer” We don’t know how much money the vendors make creating these emails, postcards and form letters – but we know where they all end up: Drawer Z. Also known as- the trash can. We may count them. We may give an estimate of how many letters showed up. But we all get the joke. Someone is paying to create this outcry. They’re not legitimate letters. We know this. The boss knows this. We don’t play along. 8. Congressional staffers are either still on their parents’ dime or struggling to pay rent We aren’t all trust fund kids, but most of the staff in my office are still getting money from their parents. They may pay rent, gas, or car payments. The helicopter parents are still hovering just like college. Actually, most of them are either big donors to the boss or work in the lobbying business. Me? I live in a group house on Capitol Hill with two friends. The three of us split a $1,600 per month row house in a sketchy part of the city near H Street, NE. Thanks to the good people at Legistorm all of my friends, reporters and colleagues know how much I take home on a monthly basis. This works both ways. The entire office looks up lobbying fees for the contract guys who come in and treat us like stepping stones on the way in to talk with the Chief of Staff. 9. Your social media commentary can get you fired in 24 hours Hill staff are careful and scared. Twitter pages are private. Facebook profiles don’t include your last name. Instagram is completely fake. Why jeopardize a $40,000 a year job and embarrass your parents for something you wrote on Twitter? Reporters love monitoring this and making examples of the offenders. Staffers who aren’t intentionally vague about what’s going on at work or, who are simply straight-up classless about what’s happening in the world, get called out. Any follower within gated protected accounts who has the power of the screenshot at their fingertips can and will send a stupid post out to reporters. As a measure of protection, we try very hard to make sure our feeds are full of only kittens, photos of us doing cool things in D.C., or press releases we’ve written. And those of us who attempt about managing the boss’ Twitter account on their phones: these Congessional offices are one beer away from having a deleted Tweet front-and-center on Politiwhoops. Banner photo by AOC Feature photo by Antwain Jackson

Photographer Navin Sarma submitted this photo of gorgeous evening light on the Capitol, saying almost in a whisper (if emails could communicate whispers), “Fall is coming.”

This is a really on-point piece from Politico by Helena Bottemiller Evich. Big deals over immigration reform or government spending may not be getting made on Capitol Hill, but political maneuvering can yield a free pack of Skittles for a staffer with a sugar craving. It just might cost a …

America’s Lawn has events [running into issues] Fort Reno concerts: off again [on again?] Metro fares go up three percent [Metro is now 3% more annoying] Pop up buildings in D.C. [may get the middle finger] D.C. is about to have a tour guide boom [requirements get easier] Kenyan musicians …

We highly recommend you get your Congressional Baseball Game fantasy roster on, before it’s too late. http://fantasybaseball.rollcall.com/ Why? you ask. One, because you know exactly who the best players, MVPs and surprise underdogs are on the team this year. Two, more truthfully, because you can win some sweet swag. And …