Teer leaves Statehouse to speak for Romney at PAC
BOSTON --Julie Teer, who has served as Gov. Mitt Romney's spokeswoman for the past year, is leaving the Statehouse to assume expanded duties at the political action committee he has been using to assess a presidential campaign.
The 30-year-old Michigan native will serve as political director and spokesman for the Commonwealth PAC. In the former role, Teer will replace Trent Wisecup, a fellow Michigander who resigned as political director on Friday. In the latter role, she will continue to serve as Romney's voice, a job she similarly held in the 2002 Sununu for Senate campaign in New Hampshire and for former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan.
In addition, Teer was state director for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign in New Hampshire.
"I am very excited about this new opportunity with Gov. Romney," Teer said Monday.
Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, said: "Julie has done an excellent job as press secretary and while she will no longer be working out of the Statehouse, she remains a part of the team in an important political role."
He said he would not fill Teer's $120,000-per-year Statehouse job and would instead divvy her responsibilities between himself and two deputies, Felix Browne and Corbie Kiernan.
The appointment is somewhat surprising given that Teer has close ties to Michael Murphy, the political consultant with whom Romney parted ways in December. Wisecup was also a Murphy protege, and his resignation came at a time when others have emerged as principal political advisers.
Teer, however, has experience in Washington and connections to the Bush White House, both invaluable to Romney as he completes his final year in office, serves simultaneously as chairman of the Republican Governors Association and courts political activists and strategists in Washington and beyond.
The governor announced in December he was not seeking a second term and has been assessing a bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.
Romney created the Commonwealth PAC in 2004 to allow him to travel nationally and to support like-minded political candidates at the state and local level. In 2004, it distributed $225,000 to candidates or party committees in 18 states.
The committee has largely been run by Spencer Zwick, an aide who serves as the committee's finance director, and will soon be staffed by Teer and Sally Canfield, a former aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. She will serve as Romney's policy director, similar to the role she played for George W. Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign.
Teer begins her new job later this month.
------
EDITOR'S NOTE -- Glen Johnson has covered local, state and national politics since 1985. He can be reached at glenjohnson(at)ap.org.
