Lilo Stainton

Sean Darcy, a former spokesman for Gov. Richard Codey, will be Gov. Jon Corzine's new press secretary. Corzine is expected to announce on Monday that Darcy, a former Department of Community Affairs staffer who now works for the Governor, will replace Lilo Stainton as his press secretary.

More movement in Governor Jon Corzine’s office:  Lilo Stainton, the former Gannett statehouse reporter who has served as Corzine’s press secretary since last June, is leaving for another state post.  She’ll be the Communications Director for the Meadowlands Commission.  Stainton took over for Anthony Coley (now Senator Ted Kennedy’s press secretary) when Coley moved up to Communications Director following the departure (under not-so-great terms) of Ivette Mendez.  When Coley left earlier this year, Corzine (after taking some time to mull his options) hired a reporter who covered him for the Star-Ledger, Deborah Howlett.

Governor Corzine’s new communications director, Deborah Howlett, took some time during her brief hiatus to answer our questions about her new role, the job offer and her transition from reporter to public servant. The Q&A conversation was on the record, but is not a verbatim transcript of the interview.

How do you go from aggressively covering the governor to aggressively defending the governor?

First of all, if his communications staff is defending him, there’s a problem. What he’s trying to do shouldn’t need defending.

And that’s not why he hired me.

With apologies to Don Henley, I don’t make my living off the evening news.

I really do want to know what’s going on.

The folks at PoliticsNJ.com feel the same way. So they asked me to blog about political reporting, with an emphasis on potential biases by the media, actual conflicts, factual errors, and shortcomings in news stories.

‘Cause sometimes when it’s said and done the press hasn’t told us a thing.

Okay, enough with the ‘80’s rock lyrics.

For a couple of decades, I was in the State House press food chain. I fed ‘em and occasionally got chewed on by them. I’ve also gagged on plenty of smoke in those back rooms where the “people’s business” really gets done.

Lilo Stainton, a former Gannett statehouse reporter, will be Governor Jon Corzine's new Press Secretary.  She will replace Anthony Coley, who became the Governor’s Communications Director in April.