Inside the Office of Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.): Victoria Weaver

Title: Staff assistant
Age: 25
Hometown: Philippi, W.Va.
Education: M.P.A., West Virginia University. B.A., international affairs and psychology, Marshall University.
Last job: Housing analyst at Fairmont-Morgantown Housing Authority
Philosophy on phone etiquette: Get right to the point but always be courteous and helpful.
Most bizarre incoming call: Someone offering to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights in two languages even though they knew “it was a waste of their time and they’d rather be outside playing.”
Professional role model: Eleanor Roosevelt
Most embarrassing moment on Capitol Hill: I don’t embarrass easily!
Interests outside of work:  My dog Tipper, reading, traveling, running.

Victoria Weaver has gotten used to making two clarifications about her dog, Tipper: First, he isn’t a she, and second, he isn’t named after Tipper Gore.

When Weaver, a staff assistant for Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), got the terrier mix two and a half years ago, she was living in Charleston, W.Va., working at the State Legislature. She was sitting outside of her apartment with her new puppy, who at that point was still nameless.

{mosads}“A little old lady passed by,” Weaver says, and asked her what the dog’s name was. When Weaver answered that she hadn’t come up with a name yet, the lady, looking at the puppy’s wobbly legs, suggested Tipsy. The two women compromised, coming up with Tipper.

When Weaver was deciding in college between following a medical-school track and a path into politics, she did short internships at a hospital and the State Legislature. She saw that people working in the Legislature “love[d] being there,” an observation that led her to return to the capital after graduation to work for the body’s minority leader.

Weaver’s from “ a very small town,” Philippi, W.Va., which was the site of the Civil War’s first land battle, but she has taken well to her new city and job.

She joined Capito’s office four months ago.

“I’m really excited to work for Shelley because she has an exciting future coming, and I think I’m here at a good time, to get in and learn my job very well,” she says. “I’m really excited to be a part of it.”

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