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Caught Our Eye

Former chief of staff returns to the fray

Posted by Sean Myers on Feb. 10, 2016

A longtime staff member for retired Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.) has returned — again — to the Hill from a prolonged hiatus.

MacArthur "Mac" Zimmerman is the new chief of staff for Rep. Ken Buck (R-Col.) following a seven-year absence from Congress.

The story of Zimmerman's exodus from politics is like a soap opera. After Zimmerman climbed the ranks of Tancredo's staff over nine years, the congressman retired. Zimmerman returned home to Colorado and joined the campaign of Republican candidate Scott McInnis in the 2010 Colorado gubernatorial election. Tancredo, however, came out of retirement to run against McInnis and publicly demanded his opponent drop out amid a plagiarism scandal. With only weeks before the Republican primary, Zimmerman and two other staffers jumped from McInnis' doomed campaign. Tancredo, having missed the filing deadline to join the Republicans, ran as a Constitutional Party candidate and eventually lost to the Democratic challenger and now Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Zimmerman waited until 2014 to return to politics, this time as a lobbyist for Americans for Prosperity.

After a stint on K Street, Zimmerman passed through the revolving door this month, returning to Capitol Hill to become Buck's chief of staff, resuming his old role in the office of a Colorado representative.