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California Republican Governor's Chief of Staff -- and Cigar-Smoking Partner -- Is a Key Player in Budget Negotiations
Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2009-07-01
Author: STU WOO
Intro: Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his effort to end the partisan bickering that is pushing California to the brink of insolvency, is deploying Susan Kennedy, his cigar-smoking, paintball-playing Democratic chief of staff, to get the job done.
The 48-year-old Ms. Kennedy has built a reputation as a pragmatic leader equally inclined to work with -- and lambaste -- lawmakers from both parties. Such a regard would have been unthinkable five years ago, when Republicans viewed her as a stereotypical Democrat -- a former director of the state party and top aide to Gov. Gray Davis who lives in famously liberal Marin County with her partner.
She is now Mr. Schwarzenegger's closest adviser and "partner," as the governor called her in an interview in his smoking tent in the Capitol courtyard, where the two often enjoy stogies in the afternoon.
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