Amy Walter Joins ABC News As Political Director

Amy Walter joins ABC News as political director, it was announced today. Based in Washington, Ms. Walter will oversee all political coverage on ABCNews.com, including ABC’s "The Note." She will also guide the planning and editorial content of all political news and provide on-air analysis on ABC News programs, including "World News with Diane Sawyer," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," ABC News Radio, and ABC News Now.  Ms. Walter begins her new assignment on August 16, 2010. “ABC News’ longstanding commitment to political coverage will be enhanced with the addition of Amy Walter at the helm. We are fortunate to have one of the country’s top political forecasters and analysts on our team,” said ABC News President David Westin. Ms. Walter joins ABC from National Journal’s The Hotline, where she was the editor-in-chief and served as the political publication’s primary voice for the last three years.  In this role she provided regular analysis of the national political environment in her weekly National Journal.com column, On the Trail. She has also been a regular contributor to PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and provided political analysis on CNN, C-SPAN, CBS’ “Face the Nation,” NBC’s “Meet the Press” and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” She was a member of CNN’s Emmy-award winning election night team in 2006. From 1997 – 2007 she served as the senior editor of The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan publication, where she earned accolades for successfully handicapping U.S. House races and was frequently quoted as a congressional election expert in the major newspapers around the country.  During this time she also contributed to National Journal magazine and CongressDaily. Walter was named one of DC’s “50 Top Journalists” by Washingtonian Magazine in 2009 and honored with the Washington Post's Crystal Ball award for her spot-on election predictions in 2000. She graduated summa cum laude from Colby College.