Daniel Zingale, a senior Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aide who works on health care issues and serves as chief of staff to First Lady Maria Shriver, will leave the Governor's Office in January, he said Monday.
Zingale will become a senior vice president for policy and communications for The California Endowment, a leading health care foundation based in Los Angeles. He will remain based in Sacramento, where he will be charged in part with establishing the foundation's presence here.
A Democrat who once worked for Gov. Gray Davis, Zingale became Shriver's chief of staff in 2005 shortly before the special election that year. He also became a senior adviser to Schwarzenegger in 2006, a move that along with the appointment of chief of staff Susan Kennedy was considered part of the governor's shift to the political center.
Zingale emerged as a principal figure in developing Schwarzenegger's universal health care proposal in 2007. That plan failed to win enough legislative support, and lawmakers now are focused on smaller pieces of health care reform, such as ensuring that all children are covered.
Zingale also has worked on key health bills signed by Schwarzenegger to ban trans fats in California restaurants by 2010 and require chain restaurants to post the caloric content of their menu items.
"I had the honor of being able to craft a great framework for reform here in the Governor's Office, and obviously the Endowment is a key player for accomplishing comprehensive reform here in California," Zingale said.
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