LegiStorm

Rep. Ruben Gallego's (D-Ariz.) top staffer has landed at the vice president's office.

Grisella Martinez joined Kamala Harris's team this month as director of legislative affairs. Martinez had served as Gallego's chief of staff since last year.

Martinez was previously a lobbyist for the National Association of Broadcasters and the National Immigration Forum and spent five years working for then-Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.).

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill undergraduate alumnus who heads to the Hill is just as likely to work for a Republican as a Democrat. But when it comes to turning out congressional staffers, other schools have a far more partisan split.

Current staffers who hold bachelor's degrees from Hillsdale College, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Liberty University, Oklahoma State University, Boise State University and the University of Wyoming virtually all work for Republicans, according to LegiStorm data.

Pomona College, Santa Clara University, Barnard College, Swarthmore College, Mount Holyoke College and Hampton University produce staffers who are almost all Democrats.

Brown University produces the most partisan crop of staffers of any Ivy League school, with more than 93% of its alumni on the Hill working for Democrats.

The University of South Florida, Bucknell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Xavier University, the U.S. Naval Academy, California State University Fresno and the University of North Texas join the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in producing even mixes of Republican and Democratic staffers.

Rep. John Curtis's (R-Utah) newest hire is a K Street lobbyist.

Grace Bellone is now a legislative assistant handling the congressman's natural resources, labor and housing portfolios, among other legislative issues. She's also executive director of the Conservative Climate Caucus, which Curtis founded and chairs.

Bellone was most recently a legislative director at Alpine Group, where her clients included Ford Motor Co., the Recording Industry Association of America and UScellular.

Democratic leadership has lost a staffer to the steel industry.

Ashleigh Wilson is now manager and counsel for federal government affairs at Nucor Corp., the country's biggest steel producer. The company's public-affairs team disclosed spending $2.2 million on federal lobbying in the last year.

Wilson was most recently House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn's (S.C.) legislative director and counsel. She handled infrastructure, manufacturing and natural resources, among other legislative issues.

They may end up in the same place, but Republican and Democratic congressional staffers often take different educational paths on their way to Washington.

The top undergraduate schools for Republican staffers are the University of Mississippi, the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University, according to a LegiStorm analysis. Democratic staffers are more likely to have attended college in the area, with the most popular bachelor degrees coming from George Washington University, American University and the University of Maryland at College Park.

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the most popular law schools for staffers of both parties. The Catholic University of America and George Washington round out Repubican staffers' top law-school picks; Democrats matriculate to American University and Harvard.

Staffers who pursue master's degrees tend to stay nearby, regardless of party. Georgetown and George Washington are the top picks for both Republican and Democratic staffers. Democrats also tend toward American University, while Republicans bring experience from the U.S. Naval War College, located in Rhode Island.