Wolf taps insider as new chief of staff

HARRISBURG - Gov. Wolf on Thursday named Mary Isenhour, a key aide and Democratic Party veteran, to be his new chief of staff, one day after Katie McGinty resigned for what many observers believe will be a U.S. Senate campaign.

A former state Democratic Party leader and political strategist, Isenhour had been Wolf's director of legislative affairs.

"She is stepping into some very big shoes," the governor said during a Capitol news conference. But he said she knows how to manage people and has the ability to work with the Republican-controlled legislature.

"Mary comes to this position with a lot of skills," Wolf said. "She has done a really good job of building relationships with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House over the last six months. . . . She understands how the politics of this place actually works."

Her appointment comes as the governor and Republican leaders in the legislature remain at odds over a state budget now more than three weeks late.

McGinty, who as chief of staff earned a salary of about $168,000, was considered a lightning rod by some Republicans, who said she was too political for the job.

The 52-year-old Philadelphia native had been in Wolf's inner circle since he beat her in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary election. Standing beside the governor on Thursday, she called working with him a privilege and "a highlight of my career."

McGinty, who lives in Wayne, has not publicly disclosed her plans and stopped short of doing so Thursday.

Asked why she was resigning, McGinty said, "I am resigning in order to give due and appropriate consideration to a potential U.S. Senate run, to potentially other public service."

She is widely expected to challenge former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak for the 2016 Democratic Senate nomination. The winner in that primary will try to oust Republican Pat Toomey in a Senate race expected to be among the country's most watched.

Wolf sidestepped the speculation about McGinty's plans, saying only, "She has other things she wants to do with her life - and I respect that."

The governor also said he did not believe McGinty's exit would set back talks, which have yielded little progress. As legislative liaison, Isenhour has been a staple at negotiating sessions and key to planning the governor's budget strategy.

Before joining the Wolf administration, she had spent more than two decades in government and politics, staring her career as a top staffer in the Kansas House of Representatives.

She gravitated to the political side in the mid-1990s. In Pennsylvania, she became the executive director of the state Democratic Party, ran Gov. Ed Rendell's 2006 reelection campaign, and later served as state director for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign.

Isenhour was also a senior strategist on Wolf's campaign last year.

"Katie has built a tremendous foundation for the governor's administration and I hope to build on that administration," she said.