By: Michael Calderone

NYT Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet officially welcomed Jackie Calmes to paper, who was brought into the fold by her old friend and colleague, Jill Abramson. From an internal memo:

From Dean: Announcement I am pleased to announce that Jackie Calmes, a star political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, will be joining us as a senior economics correspondent.

Jackie has been a national correspondent for the Journal since 1990. She is currently their chief political correspondent, as evidenced by her recent dominance of the paper’s front page.  She covered Congress for 12 years. She covered the White House. And she has been a senior economic correspondent and features editor for the Journal. She also wrote the weekly Washington Wire column. Before coming to Washington, Jackie covered Texas government and politics in Austin, first for the Harte-Hanks chain, then for the Dallas Morning News. (Texas is a small state next to Louisiana.)

 The resume is impressive. But even more telling was the call I got last night from Al Hunt, who opened the conversation by saying, "you just got a wonderful reporter and a wonderful person."

This is an important coup for the paper, another sign that The Times cares deeply about Washington and intends to remain competitive at a time when many papers, unfortunately, are pulling back.

When she arrives later this summer she will begin covering the campaign, working with Dick and his team. After the election she will become our lead domestic economic reporter, covering the political economy of Washington. -Dean

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