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Corbett Camp Staffs Up

Tom-Corbett-portrait-loresMeet the campaign staffers who will work to re-elect Governor Tom Corbett to a second term.

1. Mike Barley, Campaign Manager

Mike Barley has been running the Corbett-Cawley re-elect effort since April and has a deep history of ties with the state Republican Party. Prior to joining the Corbett campaign, Barley had been Executive Director of the PA GOP for two years. Before that he served as Communications Director and head of the Technology Department for the state party. Mike is a Hummelstown native and graduated from Millersville University. He currently lives in Palmyra.

2. Nan McLaughlin, Finance Director

Nan McLaughlin and Tom Corbett go back a long way. She worked on the Governor’s 2004 campaign for Attorney General in 2004 as a senior advisor and returned in the same role for his 2008 re-election. McLaughlin then went on to become the Finance Director for Corbett’s initial 2010 campaign for Governor. She will be back again in that position for the Governor’s re-election effort. McLaughlin served as a Deputy Chief of Staff back in the Ridge Administration.

3. Mike Downing, Political Director

Mike Downing is a long-time Corbett staffer who is making the jump from Harrisburg to the campaign staff. Downing was most recently a Deputy Director in the Governor’s Public Liaison office. In 2011, Downing served as the Governor’s Director of Correspondence. Prior to that, he was deputy political director for the state Republican Party.

4. Ashley Jordan, Deputy Finance Director

Ashley Jordan has been Deputy Finance Director to the Corbett-Cawley re-elect team since the 2010 campaign ended. She started working for the Governor back during his first gubernatorial race in 2010 as a public policy intern. Additionally, she served on Corbett’s Inaugural Committee in 2011.

5. Doug Rickards, Comptroller

Rickards is another long-time Corbett aide. He worked for then-Attorney General Corbett during his first bid for Governor in 2010.

6. Billy Pitman, Press Secretary

Pitman was promoted to the position of campaign press secretary last month. He was previously a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Republican Party and worked in 2012 for the RNC in their unsuccessful effort to carry the Keystone State for Mitt Romney. Pitman is a North Carolina native and a graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne University. In the immortal feud between Duke and UNC, Pitman supports the Blue Devils.

7. Jake Felker, Staffer

Felker got his start as an intern for Tom Corbett’s first campaign for governor in 2010. He also worked for Corbett’s Inaugural Committee. In 2011, he became the state Republican Party South Central Regional Field Director. He graduated from Penn State University in 2012 and is a native of Middletown.

8. Vince Paese, Staff Assistant

Paese is a relative newcomer to the staff. He began interning with the campaign over the summer after graduating from American University last spring. As of the fall, Paese is joining the campaign full-time as a staff assistant. He is from the Harrisburg area.

P.S. Valerie Caras, former PAGOP spokeswoman

While it is not a campaign job, Valerie Caras started today at her new position in the Governor’s Office of Press and Communications. Caras had previously been the Communications and Technology Director for the Pennsylvania Republican Party. In 2009, she became Executive Director of the Dauphin County GOP and before that was the Youth Outreach Director for the party. She started as Northeast PA field worker for the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. A Delaware native, she got her degree at Dickinson College. Caras was named one of PoliticsPA’s 30 under 30 list in 2010 and 2012.

15 Responses

  1. Dear Another Former Op,
    Thank you for your service and comment. In our political culture, newly elected politicians have traditionally brought their best and brightest campaign people into their elected office. A qualified campaign worker knows the candidate, the issues that got the candidate elected and knows the constituents. It has been part of our political culture for decades and is most obvious in Washington DC with the White House staffing, i.e. Robert Gibbs..

    Tom Corbett, ignoring his own use of political operatives on his Attorney General and Gubernatorial staffs, decided our political culture was wrong and attacked the legislature. He changed the “rules” for everyone but himself. The question is, did Fina and his prosecutors have any idea what was going on in Corbett’s Executive Office?

  2. Mr. Hirsch,
    The only “hypocracy” here would be your not in the same breath recognition of another, perfectly legal, public hiring of Robert Gibbs.

  3. Let’s stop and observe what Politics PA just reported. Valerie Caras is now on the state payroll and is a former political operative for the GOP. Caras has proved herself on the political battlefield and now she is on the state payroll working to get a Governor re-elected. Sounds like Rep. Mike Vereb now a GOP political leader on the state payroll. Corbett and Fina put legislators in jail for mixing politics and state work. What do we call this? Looks like Corbett is putting political people on the state payroll. Corbett and company should be ashamed of their hypocracy.

  4. This is a whole lot of crow from the nameless-faceless crowd. Let me pile on: my money is on McCord until the Governor solves his Paterno problem. (I’m pulling for Schwartz–the Gosnell referrer–in the primary).

  5. Talk about a list of people that were desperate to work because of the way Corbett made unemployment jump over the course of four years. Just remember Mr. Governor, you can have the brightest people on your staff with the most prestigious institutions tied to their name-but if they don’t know what Pennsylvanians want, you can kiss your re-election goodbye. Wait, you already did that. Never mind.

  6. Dear John Brabender: Consigliere to Santorum, Tom Corbett and WV Senatorial Candidate Moore Capito, the next time you troll on MSMBC on Chris Matthew’s HardBall or Melissa Harris-Perry’s show, can you denounce alleged MONTCO Date Rape by GOP MONTCO leadership. Your client Tom Corbett cannot afford another Jerry Sandusky situation. No more Sandusky’s-Ok?, Acting PA Governor Brabender? JUST SAY NO TO PAGOP SEPA Date Rape!!!

    Ex-GOP chair Kerns released on bail after night in jail
    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20131128_Ex-GOP_chair_Kerns_released_on_bail_after_night_in_jail.html#F6sZt5u6zcEhoCfR.03

  7. Dear Mike Barley and Valerie Caras: Does the Tom Corbett team have a plan to win in 2014, including a spanking in MONTCO? According to my researchers, Signor Ferarri of casablancapa.com is inquiring if Baby Caveman MIKE VEREB has some blemishes that while acceptable in the PA Harrisburg State House and MONTCO, might be the nail in the coffin for Governor Tom Corbett in MONTCO. Valerie Caras don’t you think the MONTCO PAGOP should authorize some anti-date rate PSAs? Villanova, Bryn Mayr, Rosemount, Haverford are all premier institutions of higher Ed in MONTCO County. The next victim of a date rape of by PAGOP MONTCO CAVEMAN COULD BE YOUR DAUGHTER, Valerie Caras? OMERTA PAGOP AND TOM CORBETT CAVEGIRLS-JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!!

  8. Tom Corbett is dead meat if he can’t run well in MONTCO. I call upon Susy Corbett, COS Leslie GROMIS- Baker, PAGOP Committeewoman Chris Toretti to call upon Baby Caveman and acting MONTCO PAGOP Chair Mike Vereb and State Comitteeman Bob Asher to use GOP MONTCO funds to run anti-date rape PSAs. John Brabender and Baby Brian Nutt produce those anti-date rape ads. It is time to take a stand to protect SEPA women from SEPA GOP Cavemen; and give PA Governor Tom Corbett, a fighting chance in MONTCO.

  9. Well it is easy to see what’s going on here. The heavy weight operatives are all working for Brabender’s Moore-Capito Senate race in West Viriginia. Well the Dark Prince gets his cut no matter how bad the train wreck is. GOP donors stop enabling the Dark Prince with your dollars. This will be Santorum 2006 all over again. New Spokesperson Valarie Caras: Would you please disclose how many advertising and Strategic political advisory contracts Acting Governor Brabender has with the Cyber Charter Corporate Welfare Queen mafia working in our fair state to improve our kids education?

  10. Thanks for the list of losers who will accept any political job, even one with a candidate with NO chance of winning. Cash that paycheck fast, boys!

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