Lindsey Boerma to cover 2012 GOP presidential campaign for National Journal and CBS

[July 08, 2011]  At 22 years old, Lincoln native Lindsey Boerma has already landed her dream job. After 10 months as a National Journal staff reporter in Washington, D.C., the 2006 LCHS grad has been tapped as one of two journalists from the political magazine to hit the 2012 presidential campaign trail with its broadcast partner, CBS News.

Lindsey, on left, interviews Michele Bachmann in the underground tunnels of Congress.

Boerma will be trained by CBS later this month on shooting and editing video, as well as how to do live reporting shots from debates and campaign sites. She will leave the capital at the end of August for more than a year, during which she will live in a series of hotels, candidates' buses and campaign planes. 

"I will literally be living out of a suitcase -- and packing lightly is a skill I neither possess nor desire," she laughed. "But I guess that's just one more item to add to the insane tally of things to learn before I hit the road." 

Last year, Boerma received bachelor's degrees in broadcast news and political science from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. In college, she was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, lead anchor and politics producer for the campus TV station, host of a local radio show during the 2008 presidential campaign, and intern in New York City for MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Her first job post-graduation was as a reporter for LDN. 

Before she leaves, Boerma will be making a stop in Illinois next weekend for the Emden Homecoming, which she says she hasn't missed since birth.

"My brother once gave me a tractor keychain and told me no matter where I go in life, never forget where I came from," Boerma said. "And I never will." 

You can follow Boerma's campaign travels on Twitter at @lboermaNJ and read her articles at NationalJournal.com and at CBS News' campaign "hotsheet." 

[Text from file received]

(For links to a 2010 LDN series by Lindsey Boerma on the Healthy Communities Partnership, click here.)