AP Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee announced to reporters and editors this afternoon that the political editing desk will soon be fully operational. She reported that Michele Salcedo will anchor the desk and outlines how coverage will break down in coming months. For one thing, more editors are on the horizon. She also outlines which reporters will handle each aspect of  Washington coverage as well as beats on the trail such as Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada.

See the internal memo…

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An internal AP memo to editorial staff from Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee spells out the assignments in the D.C. bureau. Here, we let you in on the details.

See the assignments…

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Senior editor and former White House correspondent Terence Hunt has been named deputy bureau chief for AP Washington. Hunt’s experience includes 25 years on the White House beat, from Ronald Reagan’s presidency through George W. Bush’s administration, reporting from about 90 countries and every state.  He has covered Cold War summits, Reagan’s “tear down this wall” speech at the Berlin Wall, G-8 meetings, political conventions and campaigns, plus the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the impreachment of Bill Clinton, Mideast peacemaking, George H.W. Bush’s Gulf War to liberate Kuwait and George W. Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The announcement was made today by Washington bureau chief Sally Buzbee.  Hunt’s promotion follows yesterday’s news that Wendy Benjaminson will take the role of AP’s assistant Washington bureau chief.

Wendy Benjaminson, a Houston-based Texas news editor for the Associated Press has been named assistant Washington bureau chief.  Benjaminson, who currently leads the AP’s coverage of the drug war on the U.S.-Mexican border, will run the Washington bureau’s regional reporting team and work closely with the AP’s state bureaus and regional editing desks in her new position.

Prior to joining the AP in 1990, Benjaminson reported for The Washington Times, UPI and Market News Service.  As an assistant bureau chief in Washington, she will be charged with spotting trends and coordinating reporting from the states and the nation’s capital on issues such as state spending and deficits, immigration, pensions and Medicaid.  Wendy will report to Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee.

Jim Kuhnhenn has been named White House correspondent for the AP. Kuhnhenn had been covering campaign finance and other political topics for the wire service. Many know Kuhnhenn from his days covering politics and presidential campaigns for the now defunct (largely absorbed by McLatchy) Knight Ridder bureau in DC.

From an internal memo from D.C. Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee…

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Yahoo! News’s Michael Calderone is  reporting tonight that the AP is set to name Sally Buzbee as its new Washington Bureau Chief. The announcement is expected Friday. She has been at AP since 1988.

Read the story here.

> Update: Read the official AP announcement here.