Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2011 > April > 30
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Zilker Spring Fling at the Ranch
This Spring Fling flew high. The Zilker Elementary School benefit brought out parents, teachers and neighbors to the Ranch, the West Sixth Street club that continues to diversify its social offerings.
Mardi Wareham and Joelle Boehle
No, of course there were no school-age kids at the rooftop venue. There was an enormous silent auction, food, drink and musicians. I spoke with former political spy and Out & About profile subject Ross Smith, a Zilker resident and composer who recently ran a song by Willie Nelson’s people. He hopes to make it past the mailroom.
Kate Lowery, Akua Woolbright and John Fleming
Then there was Mardi Wareham, who delivers singing telegrams. Do people really like singing telegrams? “If they have a sense of fun,” Wareham says. Makes sense. Nearby were Ted Smouse and Susan Slattery, who run a booking, management, events and media company names called Smouse Productions. They helped organize this event. Nicely done.
Susan Slattery and Ted Smouse
Kate Lowery was the third person in three days to tell me about a new Hispanic group backing the performing arts, which I’d love to know even more about. John Fleming tipped me on an upcoming expo for creative types. And Akua Woolbright confirmed the best news of all: Zilker is no longer in any danger of closing, despite the yard signs still up all over the neighborhood campaigning to keep it open.
“I think they leave them up to show support,” Woolbright said. “Now we are going to concentrate on making Zilker’s programs even better.”
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Profile: Lobbyist A.J. Bingham
Encountering a state legislator, Republican or Democrat, at a social function this month, do not ask the conventional question: “How’s your session going?”
“Horrible!”
“Worst ever!”
“I’d rather eat nails!”
Ask a lobbyist the same question and the answer will likely be more nuanced. After all, lobbyists often serve many clients with different interests in the legislative outcome.
Bingham, 27, sometimes raises eyebrows at a West Sixth Street lounge or an East Austin party announcing he’s a registered lobbyist.
“The first thing friends ask: ‘What do you do when it’s something you don’t believe in?’” says the Tucson, Ariz., native who grew up in Austin and Germany. “I say we offer a service, our job is to communicate and advocate, ethically, but as strongly as possible, the goals of our clients.”
When the legislature is not in session, the nattily dressed Bingham, who has considered a sideline in modeling, can be found at selective receptions, parties and happy hours.
But nowadays, his schedule is not so forgiving. Bingham rises at 5 a.m. and often doesn’t return home from work until after 10 p.m. After a workout and breakfast, he reads newspapers and reports in the McWilliams offices at 13th and Colorado streets. At 8 a.m. he heads to hearings, where he watches, takes notes and writes up summaries of the proceedings for clients.
His duties also include an avalanche of quick conversations, e-mails and phone calls. He helps write or amend bills, files support or opposition on “witness affirmation forms.”
“Everyday is something new,” he says. “I’m kept on my toes and the iPhone is always with me. This job is also very writing-intensive. Brevity is key.”
Some of Bingham’s social and professional fluidity comes from a youth spent on or near military bases. His father, Al Bingham, is a retired Air Force captain who now serves as human resources director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
His mother, Toni Bingham, owns and runs a home child development center in the Circle C neighborhood. Both parents grew up in Greensboro, N.C., where most of the family’s relatives remain.
“Being on a base around all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, I can now enter any situation and any group and be at ease,” he says of the military connection. “That was reinforced going away to college and law school in different states.”
Bingham grew up in the Whispering Oaks neighborhood off Manchaca Road, taking the bus to the LBJ Science Academy in northeast Austin, where he met teens from all over the city.
“Everyone there was a nerd, more or less,” he laughs. “But I was pretty active, socially and organizationally. I ran a little track, wrestled, participated in student government, amongst other clubs.”
Launching a social life in an assiduously social city, Bingham hung out at house parties, the University of Texas Student Union and the campus-area Spider House Cafe. When time came for college, he looked at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, but chose instead Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“It’s a ‘brochure campus,’” Binghams says of the suburban school with fewer than 7,000 students. “I’ve been told it was like going to West Lake High School, but college.”
Bingham, always interested in current events and politics, majored in political science. He stayed active in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
“It forced me to be more social in situations where you had to be ‘on,’ engage with personalities you might not even like,” he says. “I learned brotherhood and loyalty.”
His only brother, Austin Bingham, 19, is also a Sig Ep at the University of Texas San Antonio.
In 2008, the future lobbyist graduated from the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan., then he returned home to Austin. He happened to meet a few lobbyist attorneys through friends and friends of friends, then sought employment in this unusual field at the intersection of his interests.
And he started networking. His first job came with the Senate Research Center, where he covered hearings, wrote summaries and hundreds of bill analyses.
“I was in the process,” Bingham says. “And around the dome.”
After a stint on the House State Affairs Committee staff, he moved over to McWilliams, “a full service government affairs shop” run by power couple Andrea and Dean McWilliams, themselves masters of Austin networking and socializing.
Since he grew up primarily in Austin, Bingham has seen the social scene develop, become more international, more polished, open to dressing up.
He makes acute fashion distinctions among “Congress West” and “Congress East,” as well as the music clubs on Red River Street and mixed vibe in East Austin, where he lives.
He wears conservative but snappy suits to work, adding a touch of flash through ties, tie-clips and cuff links. He takes off the coat and tie for West Sixth Street or Warehouse District, changes into jeans and sneakers for East Sixth or Red River. East of Interstate 35: “You don’t have to dress up at all,” he says.
So how does Bingham, single, navigate his way around Austin’s nightlife?
“I do what interests me,” he ways. “I don’t want to be a scenester-type person. And I try to switch it up. Sometimes it’s the people I’m with. At other times, it’s just based on what I think is interesting and novel.”
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