Gubernatorial hopeful Katie McGinty named her campaign manager Monday: Mike Mikus, who most recently lead the congressional campaigns of Mark Critz.

He managed Critz’s successful 2010 campaigns as well as his 2012 loss to Rep. Keith Rothfus.

“Mike Mikus knows Pennsylvania. He not only has won some of Western Pennsylvania’s toughest races, but Mike also grew up in a union household and understands how we must defeat Tom Corbett to improve the lives of Pennsylvania families,” McGinty said.

“I wouldn’t have made it to Congress if it wasn’t for Mike Mikus,” Critz said. “There is no better operative in Pennsylvania. Simply put, Mike knows how to win tough races and Katie is smart to hire him to manage her campaign.”

PoliticsPA named Mikus one of our top political operatives for 2012.

He is an expert at winning Democratic primaries in western Pa. He helped guide Critz over Rep. Jason Altmire in 2012. He managed Rich Fitzgerald’s tight primary contest for Allegheny County Executive in 2011.

His hiring reflects an understanding by McGinty that the race will be a battle for the west. None of the declared or likely candidates lives west of the Susquehanna River valley, and most of them live in the Philadelphia media market.

McGinty, 49, served as Pa. Secretary of Environmental Protection from 2003 to 2008 under Gov. Ed Rendell. The Chester County resident previously served as Chairperson of the Council on Environmental Quality for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1998

She already has hired Fred Yang, a pollster who worked for Sen. Bob Casey, and former Pa. Dems chair TJ Rooney, who is her campaign adviser.