Stalberg leaving Committee of Seventy

Zack Stalberg announced today he is leaving his post as president and CEO of The Committee of Seventy, a high-profile, nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that monitors politics and elections in Philadelphia.

Stalberg, 67, said in a statement released by the Committee of Seventy that he would leave in July. A successor has not been named.

"I spent 45 years in two similar high-wire acts, which seems like plenty to me," he said in the statement. "As the Redford character says at a point in 'The Electric Horseman,' 'I have just retired from public life.'

"The decision is a purely personal one. But I would not mind if it caused other members of the permanent establishment in this town to think about giving way to a younger and more change-oriented set of players."

Stalberg has been the public face of the Committee of Seventy since taking the helm in 2005 after leaving as editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. Stalberg, who also served in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, will depart Philadelphia with his wife, Deb Lock Stalberg, for New Mexico.

Stalberg helped heighten the profile of the Committee of Seventy and broaden its mission.

"Zack Stalberg was the face and soul of Seventy," Mike Carbone, chairman of the board of directors of the Committee of Seventy, and a regional president of TD Bank, said in the statement. "His leadership of Seventy invigorated this century-old organization.

He continued: "I have enjoyed working with Zack and will miss him. We thank him and wish him well."

Check back for details as they develop.