Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — attempting to regain his political footing after a devastating special election defeat this month — has begun a shakeup of his administration by replacing his chief of staff with a former state Democratic Party official and top adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, Democratic and Republican sources said Tuesday.
The hiring of Susan Kennedy, widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento as a workhorse operative for Davis, is expected to be announced officially as early as today. The move could kick off major protests from conservative Republicans.
Appointed by Davis to the California Public Utilities Commission in 2003, Kennedy had made her name as a political operative as the head of the California branch of the National Abortion Rights Action League. A longtime gay rights activist, Kennedy married her partner, Vicki Marti, in a 1999 ceremony in Hawaii attended by many California political insiders.
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