A Des Moines doctor who helped craft Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated health care reform initiative will become the new administrative chief for Iowa’s Governor. The day after being re-elected to a second term, Vilsack said he’d shakeup his administration to address problems identified during the campaign. The first changes, announced late yesterday, come in his personal staff. John Cacciatore is out as Chief of Staff. Dr. Steven Gleason, the current director of the Department of Public Health and a former hospital administrator, will be Vilsack’s new chief of staff. Cacciatore — the out-going chief of staff — is being given a new assignment of lobbying Congress on key issues, like getting bigger Medicaid payments for Iowa hospitals and doctors. Ron Parker, Vilsack’s current press secretary, took the job as a “temp” back in June and to promised work through the election. His replacement as press secretary will be John Lapp, who was Vilsack’s campaign manager.
