Holden spokeswoman rejoining AG

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden's chief spokeswoman will be going back to work for Attorney General Jay Nixon within the next couple of weeks.

Mary Still had served as Nixon's director of policy and communications until becoming Holden's communications director in September 2003.

But Holden was defeated in this year's Democratic gubernatorial primary, while Nixon, also a Democrat, was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term as attorney general.

Holden's term ends Jan. 10, and Still will be rejoining Nixon's staff that week as his senior policy adviser, Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said Wednesday.

"Mary was a trusted adviser as part of the inner circle for almost 10 years with the attorney general, and he felt this was a good opportunity to have her come back and serve the people of Missouri," said Holste, who has assumed part of Still's previous role as Nixon's communications director.

Still was not in the governor's office Wednesday and did not return calls to her home and cell phone.

The position of senior policy adviser is a new one in Nixon's office, but Still will be filling a salary slot vacated by another employee, Holste said. Still had earned more than $84,000 when previously working for Nixon and made $90,000 annually in Holden's office. She will earn $75,421 annually in her new role, Holste said.

Still, of Columbia, first joined Nixon's staff when he became attorney general in 1993. Before that, she was director of the news bureau at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the communications director for the Department of Natural Resources.