Top aide leaving Wolf administration

Mary Wilson

Recent Stories

Mary Wilson covered Pennsylvania’s state Capitol for public radio stations across the state for WITF until 2016. She reported on state politics, budgets, and legislative undertakings large and small. She also followed the brief but wondrous life of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law. She has written about public pension debt and design. She has overdosed on crosstabs. She previously worked for a Maryland state senator and at public radio station WFUV in the Bronx, where she interviewed academics and witnessed a small chunk of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s life behind podiums.

The Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.

For more information about Tony May, click here.

February 19, 2016 | 3:36 PM

Former DEP Secretary John Hanger announced Friday he is stepping down from his job as Gov. Tom Wolf's Secretary of Planning and Policy.

Kimberly Paynter/WHYY

Former DEP Secretary John Hanger is stepping down from his job as Governor Tom Wolf’s Secretary of Planning and Policy.

John Hanger, a top policy adviser and rhetorical brawler for Governor Tom Wolf, is stepping down from his post, the administration announced Friday.
Hanger said he’s leaving the governor’s office to spend more time with his family in Massachusetts, where his wife has worked since 2010. Keeping two homes and a demanding job, he said, have worn on him.
“My back is giving out,” said Hanger. “I’m not the kind of person, frankly, that can throttle back very well.”
Throughout the state budget impasse, Hanger was seen as the governor’s in-house flamethrower. Just last month, during an interview on WITF’s Smart Talk, Hanger referred to the Legislature as irresponsible and called GOP House Speaker Mike Turzai part of the “radical right.”
“I don’t apologize for obviously advancing the governor’s positions strongly and hopefully clearly,” said Hanger. “That’s part of the job here.”
Drew Crompton, a top Senate GOP aide, said Hanger is not unlike policy advisers in prior administrations that have been strident. But in the Wolf administration, Crompton said, fierce personalities have sometimes gone unchecked.
“John Hanger doesn’t give a damn about being liked. He cares about propelling the governor’s agenda,” said Crompton. “That’s at times good, and at times it’s detrimental to what they’re trying to advance.”
Before joining the governor’s staff, Hanger was Wolf’s opponent in the Democratic primary for governor. He is also a former state environmental protection secretary, an ex-member of the Public Utility Commission, and head of the environmental advocacy group known as PennFuture.
Sarah Galbally will take Hanger’s place as Wolf’s top policy aide.
Hanger’s departure comes a little less than a year after the Wolf administration bid adieu to another attack dog and former Democratic primary rival, Katie McGinty. She left her post as chief of staff last July to run for U.S. Senate.