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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President


For Immediate Release March 18, 1996
              VICE PRESIDENT GORE NAMES KAREN SKELTON
                 AS DIRECTOR OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS

        Vice President Al Gore today (3/14) named Karen Elizabeth

Skelton to be his Director of Political Affairs. Skelton leaves the Department of Justice to join the Office of the Vice President.

"I am pleased to welcome Karen to the White House," Vice President Gore said. "Karen's experience in the executive branch, her management skills, and her work in politics make her the best person for the job. She has served well the Clinton Administration at the Department of Justice, and I know she will do an excellent job in her new position."

Skelton leaves the Department of Justice where she has worked since 1993, most recently as a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Previously, Skelton was a special assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia and served as the deputy counsel to the Attorney General, where she managed other department lawyers working on issues involving American Indians and environmental justice.

Prior to her work at the Department of Justice, Skelton worked for the law firm of Morrison & Foerster in Los Angeles, California. In that job, she represented the firm in a citywide pro bono project on behalf of the City of Los Angeles' Minority Business Enterprise project.

Skelton's political experience includes her work as Southern California field director in the Clinton-Gore Presidential Campaign during 1992, as a field director for the Dukakis Presidential Campaign during 1987-1988, and as a field organizer for the Mondale Presidential Campaign during 1983-1984.

A native of California who lives with her husband in Alexandria, Skelton graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Law School in 1992. She earned a Master's Degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1986, where she specialized in policy and legal analysis of the telecommunications industry. Skelton graduated magna cum laude with honors from the University of California at Los Angeles.

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