Iowa City native press aide's job nears end

IOWA CITY -- Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20 will be the culmination of a dream for some. But it will end a dream job for Iowa City native Julie Adams.

Adams, 31, is counting down her final days as deputy press secretary for first lady Laura Bush, and she's not sure how she'll feel when everything is over.

"I think all of us have pinch-me moments where we think, 'I can't believe I'm actually working at the White House,'" Adams said during a visit to Iowa City. "Everyone always says it's kind of a letdown when you leave, and I'm preparing for that. But, obviously, I won't know about that until it actually happens."

As the first lady's deputy press secretary since September 2007, Adams has been responsible for prepping the first lady and her staff for interviews, organizing media access and acting as one of Bush's official spokeswomen.

The position has afforded Adams the opportunity to form a relationship with one of the most important women in the United States, and she described the first lady as kind, intelligent, generous and funny.

"She's exactly how she appears on TV -- she's no different behind the scenes," Adams said. "She's so smart and so well read that it makes the job of being her deputy press secretary pretty easy, because she's just naturally in touch with the issues that she's going to be asked about."

In a little more than a year of service, Adams was able to help the first lady promote global breast cancer awareness, national education, helping at-risk youth and improving the conditions in Afghanistan and Myanmar. Part of a staff of 25, Adams also has handled media requests for all other staff who serve under the first lady, including the White House's pastry chef, executive chef, chief usher and florist.

A 1995 West High graduate, Adams attended Luther College as an undergraduate and went to graduate school at the University of Iowa, earning degrees in political science and education, respectively.

After working on former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach's Republican re-election campaign in 2002, she eventually was hired on as deputy press secretary for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. She worked as a McConnell spokeswoman for 4 1/2 years until she was contacted in August 2007 by someone wondering if she wanted to work for the first lady.

She said it has been an honor to serve the Bush administration, which she said will be viewed more favorably in time.

"I think, obviously, history will be the judge," Adams said. "At the end of the day, we've been safe since Sept. 11 and, to me, that is the legacy that this president has left.

"We are a nation that has been protected under his watch, and I feel that he was the right man at the right time."

Adams said she still considers Iowa City home and tries to make it back a few times a year to visit her parents, Harold and Leah Adams, who still live in town. Although she's not sure where she will go from here, she said she's happy with where she started.

"I think Iowa City was the perfect molding ground that provided the preparation for what I do," Adams said. "It's so nice to be able to come home to it, because it is so comforting to be here."

Even if her heavily Democratic hometown is not exactly a bastion for Republicanism.

"I think if anything it made me more confident in my own beliefs," Adams said. "Even if I disagree with people politically, I know we're still Iowans and we're still friends and it doesn't change that."

By Stephen Schmidt, The Gazette