Rybak shakes up city staff and hires a campaign manager

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is shaking up his political and official staff to seed his campaign for governor.

The DFLer today announced that Jeremy Hanson Willis, who had been his MInneapolis communications director, will become his chief of staff, freeing up current chief of staff Tina Smith to manage his 2010 statewide run.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's manager for his re-election campaign John Stiles will become Rybak's official communications director. Stiles had also served as the communications director for the DFL Party. Coleman had been considering a run for governor but decided last month that he would not run.

Smith's move to the gubernatorial campaign is not unexpected.

She came into Rybak's official office four years ago at a time when the mayor had been told he needed more politically savvy folks in city hall. Smith, who left a gig as the vice president for external affairs at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas to work in city hall, had previously worked with former chairman of the Metropolitan Council Ted Mondale at the council and ran Mondale's 1998 gubernatorial campaign. She also signed onto the former Vice President Walter Mondale's abbreviated 2002 campaign for U.S. Senate. The vice president ran for Senate after former U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash.

Update:

Tina Smith sent out the following letter to supporters today.

Today Mayor Rybak announced that I will take a leave of absence from my position in City Hall in order to lead the Rybak for Governor campaign. I'm incredibly excited about this move, and grateful for this opportunity.

I hope to talk to you in person in the near future to talk about this opportunity for me, but since news travels fast, I wanted to share the news via email in the meantime.

I also want to say a word about the team coming into place for the Governor's race. Julie Hottinger will serve as Deputy Campaign Manager, with responsibility for overall campaign operations.

Julie's depth of campaign experience, from field to finance, as well as her knowledge of statewide politics, is terrific. Our finance team is lead by the effective, smart Dinah Dale, who comes to us most recently from the Franken Campaign. Our Field Director is Alex Falconner, who most recently headed up the Minneapolis Coordinated Campaign and also brings great experience and energy. His team is already working to organize for the caucuses.

You may also be interested in our consultant team. We are very happy to be working with Dawn Laguens (LKK Partners, lkkpartners.com) for media, Al Quinlan (Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, gprr.com) on strategic message research and polling, and Trish Hoppey (MHSC Partners, mshcpartners.com) on direct mail. All are proven winners with deep experience in Minnesota.

Working for R.T. at City Hall has been a privilege. I feel just as honored to have the chance to run the campaign to elect Minnesota's next Governor. I look forward to working with all of you – as legally appropriate – in this new capacity.