WASHINGTON – CUNA President Bill Cheney is considering moving chief lobbyist John Magill into the $450,000-a-year job of chief of staff upon the retirement of Richard McBride at next month’s GAC, according to several sources.
Under the plan, Magill would be replaced as chief lobbyist by senior lobbyist Ryan Donovan, who worked as Congressional lobbyist when Cheney ran the California CU League, and Donovan by senior CUNA lobbyist Michelle Johnson, the sources said.
CUNA declined to confirm the plans, saying only that nothing is final yet.
McBride is a lifelong friend of former CUNA President Dan Mica who came to CUNA with Mica in 1996. He served as chief administrator at CUNA and Mica’s chief of staff and closest confidante, the same role he served Mica while Mica was in Congress. The two men grew up together and attended the same high school and college in Florida.
Magill, hired by CUNA in 2006 when CUNA’s chief lobbyist John McKechnie left to work at NCUA, spent 30 years on Capitol Hill, then 19 years as chief of staff for California Congressman Wally Herger. Magill’s wife also was a congressional chief of staff, to Sen. John Warner of Virginia.
