Capitol Lens | You’re gonna carry that weight - Roll Call

In June of 2015, my colleague Niels Lesniewski sent me an email about a moose coming to the Capitol. A what, in the where? This sounded like a prime feature photo. 

Al Drago, then our photo intern, and I scrambled to the Hart Senate Office Building loading dock to capture Marty the Moose and Kodak the Bear being transported from a U-Haul up to the 5th-floor office of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. Thus was born an annual photo-op, which, 10 years later, has expanded from just a Roll Call feature into a crowded media melee. 

These moose on the loose photos have even won Roll Call three awards over the years in the White House News Photographers Association’s “Eyes of History” contest. 

Marty and Kodak have traveled to Capitol Hill each year, except during the COVID-19 pandemic, for the New Hampshire State Society’s “Experience New Hampshire” event held in the Russell Building to showcase the state.

Staff from New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office prepare to unload the stuffed moose in the Hart Senate Office Building’s loading dock on June 16, 2015. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Staffers prepare to transport Marty the Moose, along with its detachable antlers, in the Hart Building’s loading dock on June 16, 2015. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Staffers try to move Marty through the Hart Building on June 4, 2019. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)

Photographers take pictures of the stuffed moose and bear in Shaheen’s office on June 4, 2019. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Staffers help unload Marty from a Hart Senate Office Building freight elevator on June 7, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Shaheen and Kodak the Bear await Marty’s arrival in the New Hampshire Democrat’s office on June 7, 2022.  (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Staffers roll Marty through the Hart basement on June 12, 2024, ahead of the the Experience New Hampshire reception. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

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