John Frew, a Denver lawyer with experience working for Sen. Tom Harkin and former Sen. John Culver, has been named Gov. Chet Culver’s new chief of staff.

Frew was raised in Des Moines. He is a graduate of Dowling High School, and received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Iowa. He is also a graduate of the Creighton University School of Law. His first experience in politics and government was working in 1979 and 1980 for Governor Culver’s father. He has played key roles in several campaigns around the nation, including managing two back-to-back winning U.S. Senate campaigns – Tom Harkin in Iowa, in 1984, and Tim Wirth in Colorado, in 1986.

“John not only brings a great combination of experience in both the public and private sector to this position, but a career that has been committed to improving the quality of life everyplace he goes,” said Governor Culver. “I’m not only glad to have John back home in Iowa, but to have someone with his skill and stature working with the Culver/Judge Administration as we move our state forward.”

Frew will begin as Chief of Staff on September 28th. In the interim, the Governor’s general counsel and senior advisor, Jim Larew, will serve as Acting Chief of Staff.

In addition to Frew, Culver’s 2010 campaign added Teresa Vilmain as a senior adviser. Also a former aide to Culver’s father and to Harkin, Vilmain was general consultant to Gov. Tom Vilsack’s campaigns in 1998 and 2002, as well as the Vilsack for President campaign. She later served as the Iowa state director of Hillary Clinton for President.

Most recently, Vilmain was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.