Cheney aide to be Bush chief of staff

Kathleen M. Shanahan currently serves as the vice president-elect's chief of staff.

By LUCY MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 3, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Kathleen M. Shanahan, a longtime government worker who now works for Vice President-elect Richard Cheney, will become Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's new chief of staff.

Shanahan will report for duty in Florida after Cheney and President-elect George W. Bush take office Jan. 20.

"It's an exciting time," Shanahan said Tuesday in a telephone interview from her office in Washington, D.C. "I'm a huge believer in the challenge and the opportunity. You can come in with an idea or thought and see it implemented. And Jeb is one of those governors who is setting the trend."

Shanahan has known Jeb Bush since the mid 1980s when she worked for his father, then thevice president.

She said she does not expect the highly publicized election turmoil of the past two months to have long lasting impact on Jeb Bush's ability to govern.

"Jeb is committed to representing all of the people of the state," Shanahan said. "The focus of the last few months will abate over time."

She will replace Sally Bradshaw, who left Jeb Bush's staff last month after serving as his top manager for 10 years on campaigns, a private foundation and in the state office.

Bradshaw resigned to await the birth of her second child and does not plan to return to work for at least six months after her baby is born sometime this month. Many political observers expect Bradshaw to shift to the Bush re-election campaign in 2002 if he decides to seek re-election.

Shanahan and Bradshaw are also longtime friends and previously worked together in President George Bush's White House.

Shanahan will be paid $115,000 a year, slightly less than the $118,000 Bradshaw made.

Shanahan, 41, was born in Oxnard, Calif., and raised in Ventura, Calif. She has a long track record of working for members of the Bush family and associated Republicans. She took a leave of absence from her job as Paine Webber's vice president of public affairs and government relations in New York to join the Bush-Cheney campaign.

She is currently serving as Cheney's chief of staff during the transition and organizing teams to help the Bush cabinet nominees during the transition.

Before joining Paine Webber in 1996, Shanahan worked as a staff assistant for the National Security Council and for Jeb Bush's father when he was vice president. She also worked on the 1988 Bush-Quayle campaign and was deputy director of the Bush-Quayle re-election campaign in 1992. She also worked on California Gov. Pete Wilson's 1994 re-election campaign.

In California, Shanahan also served as deputy secretary for economic development at the California Trade and Commerce Agency.

Shanahan isn't the only newcomer to the governor's staff:Ex-U.S. Rep. Charles Canady will take over as general counsel to the governor as he leaves the U.S. House of Representatives this month.

Canady, 46, is a former state legislator who left the state House of Representatives in 1992 to run for Congress. He decided not to seek re-election last year, imposing on himself the eight-year term limit applying to state lawmakers, despite court rulings permitting members of Congress to serve if they are re-elected.

He will be paid $110,000 a year.

His father, also Charles Canady, served as the chief of staff for former Gov. Lawton Chiles while he was in the U.S. Senate.

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