Familiar Faces On Baker's Bench

At the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the nomination of Roger Baker as chief information officer of the Veterans Affairs Department on May 6, committee chairman Daniel Akaka, D-HI, asked Baker to introduce any of his friends in the audience.

Baker introduced individuals who may not be household names outside the Beltway, but definitely resonate within the relatively narrow world of the federal information technology community: Robert Guerra and Phillip Kiviat, partners in the Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates Inc., a federal IT sales consulting firm based in Potomac, Md.

Online reports show that Guerra and Kiviat were heavy backers of President Obama during his campaign, with Kiviat more generous than Guerra. Kiviat contributed $2,000 to the Obama Victory Fund last year, but also hedged his bets with a $250 dollar contribution to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Guerra contributed $1,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.

Baker, who served as Commerce Department CIO in the Clinton administration and also served on the Obama Presidential Transition Team, contributed a total of $3,800 to various Obama campaign committees in 2008.