Charlie Mahtesian, currently politics editor at NPR, is rejoining Politico as the outlet’s senior politics editor, according to a Friday morning staff memo from Politico editor Susan Glasser.
At Politico, Mahtesian will be responsible for supervising Politico’s coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign and help lead the outlet’s editorial team.
Mahtesian was previously national politics editor at Politico before he left in 2013 to coordinate NPR’s online political coverage.
Glasser also announced a number of appointments:
- Mike Zapler, formerly politics editor at Politico, will be congressional editor.
- Nahal Toosi, deputy politics editor at Politico, will be a foreign policy and national security reporter there.
- Tarini Parti will be a money and politics reporter at Politico.
Here’s the memo:
Dear Politicos — Breaking news this morning: Charlie Mahtesian is returning to Politico, to the job for which he was born: senior politics editor. In that role Charlie will oversee our coverage of the 2016 campaign and join our editorial leadership team as in-house expert on just about everything that matters in American politics. Charlie comes back to us after spending the last several years very successfully at NPR, where he has been political editor and deputy Washington Desk chief. A political junkie’s political junkie, Charlie literally wrote the book on this stuff as the three-time editor of the definitive Almanac of American Politics. A Philly native, he also happens to be a lawyer who made the smart decision to return to his first love of journalism, and he comes by his competitive zeal to win on a story from the playing fields (he was a two-sport athlete in college) as well as immersion in the 24-hour news cycle. He’ll start February 24 — and in the meantime I hope you can join us at our 12:15 pm staff meeting today to meet him in person and hear a bit about his theory of the 2016 case.
We’re also pleased to announce that Mike Zapler, politics editor for the last couple years, is becoming our congressional editor. Mike is a terrific politico, a smart and talented editor of copy, and we are very much looking forward to his long-term stewardship of Politico’s best-in-class congressional team, which has been on an incredible tear lately in the hands of Capitol Hill bureau chief John Bresnahan and the super-able help of acting editor Bob King, who will return to his previously scheduled obsession with the Keystone Pipeline, oil prices and all things energy as our great Pro energy editor. Mike has previously served with this Hill team as deputy Congress editor, and because of the role he’s been playing with the politics team should be a great partner and collaborator for Charlie as we cover a robust 2016 cycle that will include not only a very competitive fight for control of the Senate but also features several would-be 2016 presidential candidates running for the White House every day from their Senate platform. At the same time, Mike’s deputy, assistant politics editor Nahal Toosi will make the leap from editing back to her first love of reporting, joining Maura’s team as a foreign policy and national security reporter and working alongside our senior foreign affairs correspondent Michael Crowley. A veteran of the AP in Pakistan (do read her terrific account published last year in Politico Mag of being in Abbottabad the day of the Osama bin Laden raid), Halley is raring to go on her new beat — and even breaking stories on it already as she did with a scoop Thursday about the president’s new, long-delayed National Security Strategy.
In more campaign news, we’re also standing up deputy editor Marilyn Thompson’s new money and politics and investigative team, which looks to be a pretty formidable juggernaut with senior investigative reporter Ken Vogel on the money beat and Josh Gerstein moving over from the White House to spend full-time on his incredible strength as an investigative digger with a specialty in justice and national security issues. Tarini Parti will officially join the team as a money and politics reporter, and Marilyn is also looking to hire a great lobbying reporter as well so let her know if you have any thoughts. Both Charlie and Mike are in the market for editors to work with them on our politics and Congress coverage, and while there are strong candidates, they would also love any ideas or names you can surface.
In the meantime, please join us in congratulating everyone on their new assignments!
Susan & Peter
