Joel Packer isn’t the only new face on this blog.

Frequent contributing blogger Alyson Klein is now officially a part of Campaign K-12. We will share the duties of blogging about the presidential election, plus Congressional, state and local races.

Alyson is a federal beat reporter at EdWeek who manages to add some spice to the world of the federal budget (by, for example, talking about the science of ice skating in an otherwise routine budget story!) She’s has already offered valuable insight (and a lot of ellipses...) on this blog—on everything from the West Wing TV show imitating real life to whether McCain’s ban on employing registered lobbyists will affect his education policy team. She trekked all over my home state of Indiana for an Obama story, and her late-night TV-watching paid off with this gem about Al Franken on Letterman.

She’ll likely specialize in blogging about Congressional races and tracking Sens. McCain’s and Obama’s every move in Congress.