Frangione to be Murphy’s acting chief of staff

Kathleen Frangione will serve as Gov. Phil Murphy’s acting chief of staff while the governor searches for a permanent replacement for Peter Cammarano.

Cammarano is due to leave on Friday.

Frangione, a former top aide to U.S. Senator John Kerry, currently serves as Murphy’s chief policy advisor.  She asked not to be considered for the post on a permanent basis.

She was a legislative staffer in Kerry’s Senate office, and then a senior policy advisor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  She left Kerry in 2010 to become Executive Vice President of Signal Group Consulting, a government relations and public affairs firm with an impressive book of business.   She is a graduate of Harvard College and received her M.A. in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale.

Frangione had a temporary assignment earlier this year when she served as acting Commissioner of Environmental Protection when Catherine McCabe was out of the country for a month on personal business.

Murphy has been mulling chief of staff candidates for more than a month since Cammarano announced that he would step down after the State of the State address.