Jess McIntosh is leaving Al Franken but joining Stephanie Schriock.
McIntosh, who began working for Franken's Senate in 2007 and then switched to his Senate office in 2009, will become Deputy Communications Director at EMILY's List, a national group that supports female candidates who back abortion access. Franken's former campaign manager Stephanie Schriock, who joined the campaign in 2008 and oversaw much of the 2009 recount effort, is president of EMILY's List.
Before she worked for Franken, McIntosh was the communications director at the Minnesota DFL.
update:
McIntosh's last day with Franken will be July 16. That allows her to see Franken through his one-year anniversary in the Senate. He was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, just one week after the 2008 Senate recount, contest and appeal was finally finished.
Her hiring at EMILY's List is a signal that the national group may be playing big in the Gopher state. It has endorsed both DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher, who faces a tough August primary, and state Sen. Tarryl Clark, D-St. Cloud, in her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.
Jen Bluestein Lamb said McIntosh wasn't hired because she worked in Minnesota but that she expects the soon-to-be-former Franken staffer's "deep knowledge of Minnesota politics...will be a huge asset."
