Stanford attended
Lewis & Clark College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in
Russian in 1992. He studied Russian because he wanted to become a spy. Stanford worked at the
Moscow Guardian following his graduation and later at the
Los Angeles Times Moscow bureau, where he worked as an investigative reporter under the byline J. Andrew Stanford. While at the Times, Stanford helped uncover the diversion of American funds from privatization efforts to then-Russian president
Boris Yeltsin's political party. Stanford became involved in politics following his introduction to members of
Ann Richards' 1994 Texas gubernatorial campaign staff by his editor at the
Moscow Guardian, Billy Rogers, who was formerly a Texas-based Democratic operative. Ryan left the company in 1999 and it became Stanford Research. Stanford later served as campaign manager for Chris Bell's
2006 Texas gubernatorial campaign. Jason has three film credits. He is credited as appearing in "
Bush's Brain," a documentary about
Karl Rove. Though he was interviewed by the filmmakers after he was quoted in the book that the documentary was based on, footage of his interview was not used in the film. He did appear in
All About Ann, an
HBO documentary about the life of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, as well as in
Along Came Kinky, a film that documented
Kinky Friedman's campaign during that gubernatorial election. ==Publications==