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July 28, 1999 5:48 PM, EDT

The Teamsters have a new chief lobbyist. Mike Mathis, a veteran in the union’s government affairs department, took over as director July 28.

General President James P. Hoffa said Mathis’s mission will be to build bipartisan support for Teamster initiatives in Congress and re-establish the union’s political action fund -- Democrats Republicans Independents Voter Education -- as a major fundraising presence.

In 1995, DRIVE raised more money than any other political action committee in the country, the union said.

Mathis worked as a DRIVE field representative from 1984 to 1995, a period in which the program saw its income grow from $150,000 a year to $5.2 million. He also served as political coordinator for the international’s political education and get-out-the-vote initiatives in the 1996 and 1998 elections.

Mathis was named acting director of the department in January.

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