President’s Trip Director Honed His Skills Campaigning in New Hampshire
RECHER
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
3/30/07
WASHINGTON, March 30 — When Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans in August of 2005, millions of people left homeless or without electricity looked to the president for comfort and aid in their time of need.
As President Bush visited the disaster zone four days later and confronted the difficult road ahead to recovery, White House senior advance representative Jason Recher of Rye, N.H., along with an entire team of 20 White House staffers and volunteers stood behind him. They planned each appearance, accommodation, travel logistic and detail to coordinate the president’s travels through the Gulf region.
In New Orleans, taking a helicopter tour with Mayor Ray Nagin to survey the devastation, Bush saw the city under water, homes and people alike swept away.
“The most difficult time I’ve had in this job was following Hurricane Katrina,” Jason Recher said, in a coffee shop near the White House. “We were down in the Gulf after the storm hit. Trying to get the logistics of a trip like that really is very trying and very fluid.”
As the President toured the devastated region, moving from state to state, he was accompanied by an entourage of staffers, security officials and military aides. The grueling pace quickly forged bonds of friendship between Recher and one particular military aide to the president.
Marine Corps Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss and Recher first met during a NATO summit in Istanbul in 2004. The next year after Katrina struck they found themselves traveling together with the president throughout the Gulf Coast.
“Mostly what we did down there was see things and communicate that to the senior leadership,” Cabaniss said in a phone interview from his current station in Kabul, Afghanistan. “Jason was the eyes and the ears. Part of the challenge was there’s so much to see. But Jason walks into the room with no ego; he just wanted to get the job done.”
For 27-year-old Recher, however, planning the president’s travels both around the country and around the world, whether to a disaster relief zone or an international summit, is just another day at the office. His responsibilities include coordinating the many different groups involved in the president’s trips, including the Secret Service, the White House Military Office, host committees and cabinet agencies.
While he says he must pinch himself everyday to remind himself how far he has come, colleagues and friends alike praise him for a professionalism and an attention to detail that allowed him to rise up the ranks of the White House so quickly.
“He knows the important questions to ask and grills down into the details,” Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, said. “There’s always a lot of demands. When we’re traveling he can sense when something’s coming off track. He has good instincts and is confident enough to act on his instincts.”
Recher began developing those instincts at an early age when he attended St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass. While still in high school, Recher volunteered on Ruth Griffin’s reelection campaign for New Hampshire Executive Council, where Griffin said he encouraged her to visit every town in her district.
“One of the smartest things I ever did was invite Jason Recher to help me with my campaign,” Griffin, who retired in January after two decades on the Council, recounted. “He came on board to help me with the nuts and bolts. I saw in Jason the promise of a young man with great principles and great integrity.”
While working for Griffin, whom Recher called one of his great political mentors, he recalls frequent stops at Evelyn Marconi’s Geno’s Chowder and Sandwich Shop, a state political landmark in Portsmouth, where they would meet with everyone from community members to former-first lady Barbara Bush.
“Ruth taught me the true value of New Hampshire retail politics,” Recher said. “Ruth also taught me the meaning of grassroots activism.”
In 1996, around the same time he was volunteering for Griffin, Recher also was working on John Sununu’s first campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. He went on to become the congressman’s first page after Sununu won the election.
“I would see him whenever he worked on the floor,” Sen. Sununu recalled. “He was quiet and enthusiastic; he’s a soft-spoken guy even now. He’s obviously very motivated and very disciplined.”
Only four years later, he left Boston College during his junior year to permanently join the Bush campaign in New Hampshire. Campaigning with George P. Bush, the president’s nephew, and coordinating youth events throughout the state, he never looked back. Come election night, he was a fully entrenched member of the Bush camp.
“I stayed with the campaign throughout, spent election night in Austin [and then] came home to New Hampshire for about 12 hours,” Recher reminisced. “Then, I hopped on a plane to Palm Beach and spent 36 days in Florida during the recount.”
After the Supreme Court’s landmark 2000 ruling, allowing Bush to assume office, Recher came to Washington to work on the president’s inauguration, a ceremony he would manage in 2005. In 2001 he organized a youth concert at the MCI Center featuring pop artists, including Jessica Simpson, 98 Degrees and Destiny’s Child.
Recher continued to volunteer in the advance office until 2003, while he finished his education at George Washington University. In 2004, he joined as an official staffer and was named trip director last May.
To date, he has traveled to more than 40 countries, including working the president’s recent tour through Latin America – not bad for a man who had never left the country before taking the job.
“I thought it was a great trip, and the president said several times it was one of his most memorable trips as president,” Recher said.
Even on official business Bush and his staff still find time for a little tourism. Trips to China, for example, included visits to the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, Recher said.
“Beijing is a really unique place to go, an even more unique place to go with the leader of the free world,” Recher said. “You’re going to the heart of modern-day communism and you go on the Great Wall with the president. It’s kind of a pinch yourself moment.”
Of all the places he has traveled, and of all the people he has met, including world leaders, Recher insists members of the military still leave the greatest impression upon him.
“It really is inspirational for me every day to work with them,” Recher said.
As the president nears the final year-and-a-half of his term, Recher says he looks forward to returning to New Hampshire, where his parents and family still reside, and that he will welcome a break after an exhausting four years.
“I could leave here tomorrow and know that I’ve done my part to serve,” Recher said. “I’ve had an amazing experience here, but I’d love to come back to New Hampshire and return home.”
Above all, Recher’s friends and co-workers alike note his enthusiasm and caring for all those with whom he works. As Cabaniss prepared to go to Afghanistan, Recher organized one last gathering to send off his friend.
“Before I left he pulled all the New Orleans’ team together and took me to lunch at the Convention Center,” Cabaniss said. “We need more people like that.”
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