Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex The person with one of the worst jobs in the White House is also one of the cheeriest people in the building according to his colleagues. VIVEK VISWANATHAN, one of the many academic wunderkinds working for President JOE BIDEN, is the economic team official tasked with trying to reduce gas prices. Despite the political price Democrats are paying for the high cost of filling up the tank, senior White House officials think Viswanathan is doing a good job, considering the headwinds of the war in Ukraine and the increase in gas demand as the pandemic has waned. He is soon being promoted to be senior adviser to deputy chief of staff BRUCE REED, the most influential domestic policy adviser to the president, according to two people familiar with the matter. Reed’s current senior adviser, ZAYN SIDDIQUE, is headed to SUSAN RICE’s domestic policy council to be deputy director for economic mobility. While average gas prices are a dollar higher than the day Biden took office, the White House has been keen to point to their decline in the weeks before the election. For evidence, check RON KLAIN’ s Twitter feed. Or just look at what the president himself tweeted today: “We're seeing continued progress bringing down prices at the pump as costs decline, now going into a third straight week.” “Vivek is an immense talent, who has brought analytical rigor and creativity to the NEC’s work on energy policy and we are all fortunate that he will continue to be part of the team here at the White House,” BRIAN DEESE, the director of the National Economic Council, said in a statement. Viswanathan has essentially been designated to be a wet blanket of sorts. Former deputy NEC Director, DAVID KAMIN, told West Wing Playbook that Viswanathan’s task monitoring energy prices often meant he was the bearer of bad (and sometimes good) news in emails to both him and Deese. Through a White House spokesperson, Viswanathan declined to comment. The 35-year-old has an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a history masters degree from University of Cambridge, and an MBA and law degree from Stanford. One colleague described him as “the happiest warrior you’ll ever meet.” Indeed, he is the rare person in this White House about whom people just don’t have anything mean to say — and we asked! Viswanathan also is a colorful character in his own right, at least by D.C. standards. After working as a policy adviser for HILLARY CLINTON in the 2016 campaign, he went on a 10-day silence retreat that used the Vipassana meditation method. One person from the campaign noted “he was probably the healthiest person on the Hillary campaign, since he always made time for a daily run.” He applied those running skills to a long-shot campaign to become the California state treasurer in 2018. He was 31 at the time and earned himself some friendly press coverage by literally running 625 miles from San Diego to Sacramento, meeting voters along the way, often with glow-in-the dark tennis shoes. In an endorsement, the Mercury News & East Bay Times editorial board dubbed Viswanathan “one of the smartest candidates this state has seen in a long time.” Alas, he lost by over 30 points with 12.8 percent of the vote. He then worked as senior counselor to GAVIN NEWSOM before landing at the Biden White House. A White House gig was probably always inevitable. Growing up, his family took him on trips that every child dreams of: presidential libraries. He visited 12 of them, per a Stanford Law press release . Now he’ll have records in a future one. MESSAGE US — Are you EMMA TURNER, associate director for economic agency personnel? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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