Koren will run Valerie Plame campaign in New Mexico

Alex Koren, who managed the State Assembly races of Lisa Mandelblatt and Stacey Gunderman in the 21st district last year, has signed on as campaign manager for Valerie Plame, the former CIA operative who is running for Congress in New Mexico.

Koren had spent seven years as a pollster before working on a 2018 House race.

Plame, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for an open House seat, was publicly identified as a covert Central Intelligence Agency operative by journalist Robert Novak in 2003.  Novak had cited two senior Bush administration officials as his source.

The event, known as the “Plame Affair,” led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, for lying to investigators.  President Donald Trump pardoned Libby in 2018.

Mandelblatt and Gunderman were defeated by Republican incumbents Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) and Nancy Munoz (R-Summit).