Just three months after announcing he was joining the powerhouse law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Rick Palacio is stepping into a new role, albeit temporarily: chief of staff to Gov. Jared Polis.

Polis announced Thursday morning that Palacio will serve as interim chief of staff while Lisa Kaufmann, who’s been Polis’ chief of staff since he was inaugurated last year, is on maternity leave.

Kaufmann is due to return in early November. 

Palacio steps into the top administrative job on August 1. He said he will suspend his contract with Brownstein Hyatt.

Palacio, 45, is a founding partner of polling and political research firm Majority Institute and owns PS Group, a consulting firm that works with progressive clients. Last year, he played key roles in John Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign and the Giddy Up leadership PAC formed by the former governor in advance of his run.

The sixth-generation Pueblo native won election to the first of three two-year terms as state party chairman in 2011. He was the first Latino and first openly gay Democrat to chair the Colorado party. Following an unsuccessful run for a vice chair position on the Democratic National Committee in 2017, he was named to a transition advisory committee created by the newly elected DNC chair, Thomas Perez.

Prior to heading the party, Palacio worked as a legislative aide in the Colorado House of Representatives and in Congress for former U.S. Rep. John Salazar and as deputy director of member services for then-Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. House.

Kaufmann has been with Polis for more than 13 years, serving as his Colorado Chief of Staff when he was in Congress and as chair of his 2018 run for governor. 

“We’re excited for Rick to join the team in the interim and know his wealth of experience will be a great asset,” Polis said in a statement Thursday.

Rick lives in Denver with his husband, Graham, and their two dogs.

Tapping Brownstein Hyatt has become a standard for Democratic governors. Hickenlooper brought in Doug Friednash, who was then with Brownstein Hyatt, in January 2015. Friednash served as chief of staff for until November 2017, when he went back to Brownstein Hyatt and was replaced in the governor’s office by Pat Meyers. Friednash had chaired Hickenlooper’s 2014 re-election bid. 

Palacio will join a team in the governor’s office that includes former state treasurer and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Cary Kennedy, a senior advisor to the governor on fiscal policy. Palacio ran Bold Colorado, a big-money PAC that supported Polis for governor in 2018 and went after Kennedy for a negative ad run by her supporters during the primary.