Turnover continues in Corbett Administration

Another chief of staff is leaving Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s Administration.

Steve Aichele is on the way out just about a year after he was hired for the job. Replacing him is longtime GOP political operative and fundraiser Leslie Gromis Baker.

Aichele, Corbett’s second chief of staff, was hired to help Corbett right a foundering ship.

But, as Franklin & Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna notes, the governor still faces persistently low poll ratings and is fresh off an all-around failure to secure his top legislative priorities.

“When you end up with three chiefs of staff in three years, you’re looking at an administration in search of a way to deliver its message and to deliver its policy agenda,” Madonna said Wednesday.

Also leaving is the governor’s legislative director, Chris Carusone. Aichele’s wife, Department of State Secretary Carol Aichele, will stay in her post.

Corbett’s cabinet has also seen a great deal of turnover in the past two years, with five agency secretaries resigning their posts.

Madonna says the turnover isn’t necessarily unique to Corbett’s administration.

“Now, Governor Rendell had a larger number of cabinet officers leave than has Governor Corbett in his first two and a half, three years, but Rendell was also delivering on his agenda,” Madonna said.