A native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Vicki Iseman graduated in 1985 from the Homer-Center High School, where she was a cheerleader and a member of the student council. She went on to attend the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education in 1990. In 2006, she delivered the commencement address at her old high school, and would lobby for both that school and her alma mater during her career. Her family still lives in Indiana County, where she is recalled as a "hometown girl who made good".
Career
Within months of graduation, Iseman joined a friend in Washington, D.C. and initially got a job as a receptionist at Alcalde & Fay. After a few months, she approached the president of Alcalde & Fay and said "I’m a college graduate and I’d like you to consider me for a secretarial or an administrative position." The president agreed to a three-month trial and within a year she became his special assistant. From this position, Iseman learned about lobbying from the firm's president, and soon became a lobbyist in her own right. Eight years later, she became the youngest partner in the history of Alcalde & Fay.
On behalf of these clients, she lobbied both the House Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee. In the course of hearings on communications bills in 1992 and 1996 which eventually led to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, she argued that cable TV should have to carry broadcast television. She also represented her clients' interests with respect to the upcoming conversion to digital television; satellite reception; and telecommunications ownership provisions. Her other activities as a lobbyist included public organizing on behalf of clients interested in the allocation of Federal Highway Administration trust funds, assisting clients interested in securing government contracts and government appropriations, and participating in political fundraising. In February 2015, Politico reported that based on a press release, Iseman and fellow Acalde & Fay attorney Tatanya Szeliga formed Iseman & Szelinga, a new "spinoff" of Acalde & Fay focusing on government affairs and public relations, intending to maintain a "strategic alliance" with the previous firm.
In December 2008, Iseman filed a US$27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging that the paper, in the course of describing circumstances of her lobbying activity, had falsely implied an illicit romantic relationship between her and Senator John McCain. The Times said they "fully stood behind the article" and the story was "true and accurate". The suit was subsequently settled without payment in February 2009. As part of the settlement, Ms. Iseman accepted the Times’ explanation, which appeared in a "Note to Readers" published in the newspaper. The "Note to Readers" said: "The article did not state, and The Times did not intend to conclude, that Ms. Iseman had engaged in a romantic affair with Senator McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of the public trust." The article that prompted the lawsuit was published on February 21, 2008. McCain's presidential campaign called the article "a hit-and-run smear campaign" and "gutter politics."
