Jindal chief of staff leaving the administration

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. Bobby Jindal is losing his chief of staff.

Paul Rainwater, who has worked in several major roles for the administration since Jindal took office in 2008, is resigning to “pursue opportunities in the private sector,” the governor’s office announced Tuesday.

Rainwater’s resignation will take effect on March 3, a week before the regular legislative session begins. Jindal’s communications director, Kyle Plotkin, has been named to succeed Rainwater as chief of staff.

“Paul is a good friend, and what I admire most about him is his willingness to serve no matter what the position is or what the work entails,” Jindal said in a statement. “From leading our state through multiple storm recoveries to helping make state government more effective and less expensive for taxpayers, he has approached every job with a servant’s heart.”

Rainwater held four different positions in the Republican administration, at one point working as the governor’s top budget adviser, the commissioner of administration. Before that, he was Jindal’s deputy chief of staff and had worked as executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state’s former hurricane response agency.

Plotkin has worked for Jindal since November 2008, first as press secretary. The governor called him a trusted adviser. Before working in the Jindal administration, Plotkin worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of state Treasurer John Kennedy and on Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. He’ll be Jindal’s fourth chief of staff as governor.

Plotkin will be paid a $165,880 salary, less than the $204,697 that Rainwater received.

The resignation also will lead to a reshuffling of communications staff, with deputy communications director Michael Reed taking over Plotkin’s old job and Shannon Bates moving into Reed’s position.