Pa. Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn to step down

Jim Burn, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party since 2010, said Tuesday that he is resigning and told party leaders they will elect a new chairman when they meet in September.

Burn, in a YouTube video e-mailed to state Democratic Committee members, said his decision was driven by the controversy that flared last summer when he refused to step aside to let Tom Wolf, then the Democratic nominee for governor, install his own party leader.

That controversy continues to "resonate," said Burn, who raised the possibility of resigning last month when party leaders met in Allentown.

"When I go across the state and when I talk to others outside the state, this becomes the first question," Burn said in the 21/2-minute video. "We cannot afford that. We cannot afford to have the story be about Jim Burn and the decisions you made last year, which were the right decisions."

Wolf, who went on to defeat Gov. Tom Corbett in November, created his own political action committee last year to work on that election.

Marcel Groen, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, said at the time that Wolf's move made the Democratic State Committee "irrelevant in this campaign."

Wolf put Katie McGinty in charge of his PAC, Committee for a Fresh Start, last year while the state party kept Burn at the helm.

Wolf's PAC took control of many functions - fund-raising, communications, voter turnout - typically handled by the party.

McGinty, who had sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014, is now Wolf's chief of staff. She is considering a run for the U.S. Senate next year.

Wolf and his administration had been publicly silent on Burn's status as party chairman since the Allentown meeting.

Mike Mikus, a spokesman for Rebuild Pennsylvania, a new political action committee launched last month by Wolf, said Tuesday that the governor thanked Burn and was "grateful for his service."

"The governor looks forward to working with the members of the Democratic Committee to continue to build the party into the future," Mikus said.

Burn's resignation will become effective when party leaders gather in Gettysburg on Sept. 11 and 12, just two months before the statewide general election for the state Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth Court.

Political control of the Supreme Court, held by Republicans since 1999, is up for grabs in a heavily contested race.

Wolf has been drumming up support for Groen to be the new state party chairman. Groen on Tuesday said he would be a candidate for party chairman.

"The important thing is, the party comes out of this united and is ready for a significant battle before the November election," Groen said.

Burn's resignation also comes one year before the country's Democrats descend on Philadelphia to nominate a candidate for president at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

View Burn's video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKryjsblN.