Maviglio to manage Kevin Johnson's mayoral campaign

Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson: Getty Images PhotoFormer Assembly Speaker press spokesman Steve Maviglio has been named campaign manager for Kevin Johnson's runoff race to be mayor of Sacramento.

Maviglio, who will take a leave of absence from his current position as Deputy Chief of Staff to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), will manage the campaign against incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo.

Maviglio will not leave to work for Johnson full-time until a state budget is passed.

In a press release posted on his site, Johnson said Maviglio's experience in Sacramento politics should help Johnson's efforts.

"Our campaign has attracted the best and brightest in our city that wants to make this a city that works for everyone," Johnson wrote.

For his part, Maviglio said in the release that he was encouraged by Johnson's proposals on improving education, promoting economic development and improving public safety.

Johnson, a Sacramento native and former NBA star, is making his first run for public office against Fargo. In the June 3 primary, Johnson received more votes than Fargo, but not enough to avoid a November runoff against the two-term mayor, who has first elected to the Sacramento City Council in 1989.

Maviglio is a veteran of Democratic politics at all levels. Before working for Bass, he was spokesman for then-Speaker Fabian Nunez and earlier the press contact for then-Gov. Gray Davis.

He also worked on legislative campaigns for state Democrats in 2004 and 2006 and in the effort to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives in the special statewide election in 2005.

Maviglio also publishes and writes for the California Majority Report, a Democratic news and opinion Web site.

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