One of Gov. Martin O'Malley's top political advisers will take a job with another politician next year.
As O'Malley weighs a presidential bid in 2016 after his term ends in January, he'll do so without having his current political director Stephen Neuman at his side.
Before O'Malley leaves office in January, Neuman will begin work as chief of staff for Rhode Island's governor-elect, Democrat Gina Raimondo.
Neuman, 38, has been O'Malley's political affairs director for the past two years, a period that covered some of the term-limited governor's most prolific travel and fundraising for Democrats across the country.
O'Malley has been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential bid, deploying staffers to help Democrats in early primary states and making multiple visits to those states to meet with key party activists. The governor's road to a presidential nomination would be steep. He consistently polls far behind presumed candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden in a hypothetical matchup for the Democratic nomination.
In a statement annoucing Neuman's new job, O'Malley said Neuman was key to raising the minimum wage in Maryland and enacting the gas tax increase to pay for transportation projects.