St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has selected a new chief of staff: Dana Bailey, who’s been a longtime advisor to Gov. Mark Dayton.
Bailey has worked for Dayton for more than 15 years, from his days as a U.S. Senator. She was his campaign manager in 2010, when he was first elected governor. Since then, Coleman’s office said, she’s “led crucial projects for the state, planned and executed multiple multi-billion dollar budgets and overseen a number of departments during her tenure in the Governor’s Office.”
There’s been a fair amount of back and forth of staff between the Dayton and Chris Coleman camps: Bob Hume left Coleman’s team in 2011 to work for the governor; so did Keith Hovis a few months later, leading the governor to worry that he might be angering the mayor by raiding the Capitol City’s workforce.
And last year Coleman hired Tonya Tennessen as communications director; she’d been Dayton’s press secretary for a year when he was in the Senate.
Bailey replaces Erin Dady, who left the St. Paul job earlier this month to work for University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler as head of the U’s Office of Government and Community Relations.
Bailey grew up on St. Paul’s East Side and majored in English Literature and Mass Communications at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
She’ll start the St. Paul job next week.
Coleman praised his new hire in a statement:
“Dana’s extensive experience working in a leadership capacity with the governor’s office on some of the state’s most complex issues, paired with her dedication and passion to her hometown of Saint Paul make her a fantastic fit for chief of staff. Her ability to build and maintain strong relationships – not to mention growing up on the East Side – will serve us well in City Hall.”
