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Civil Beat will open a Washington, D.C., office next month, making it the only Hawaii-based news organization with a full-time reporter in the nation’s capital.

The bureau will be staffed by Adrienne LaFrance, who has distinguished herself as Civil Beat’s Honolulu reporter. Before joining Civil Beat, LaFrance also worked for Hawaii Public Radio, the Honolulu Weekly and as a freelance writer. She will bring the same tenacity and energy to reporting on Hawaii issues from Washington that she brought to Honolulu Hale, where she regularly broke stories, most recently on the City Council shake-up and a HUD investigation of the possible misuse of $7.9 million in federal funds.

“A little over a year ago, Civil Beat was launched to provide a new perspective on the issues facing Hawaii and to provide a forum through which potential solutions might be discovered,” Civil Beat co-founder and Publisher Pierre Omidyar said. “Our Washington Bureau is another indication of how seriously Civil Beat takes its mission and will bring a much-needed national perspective to local issues.”

LaFrance will report on the state’s congressional delegation and federal agencies, just the way Civil Beat reporter-hosts cover state and local politicians and agencies in Hawaii. She’ll focus on the connection between Hawaii and Washington, the 2012 elections and placing issues in Hawaii in a national context.

Civil Beat land reporter Michael Levine will succeed LaFrance on the Honolulu beat. Levine has been with the news organization since Day 1 and has been a leader in investigating some of the most critical issues for the city, such as the proposed $5.3 billion rail project and the operations of the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.