The Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce is hiring a top aide for U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, to run its policy initiatives.

Andrew LaBarre will serve as the chamber's vice president of government relations, officials announced today. He replaces Kyle Mazurek, who left the chamber in late 2010 to become a government affairs associate for Comcast.

The chamber's vice president for government relations carries out the business group's policy initiatives, including its efforts to influence state and local politics.

LaBarre is well known in Michigan's Democratic Party. He worked for Dingell for six years, serving as a personal assistant, legislative correspondent, campaign manager and district administrator at various times. He also worked as a press assistant for U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan and worked for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak.

His hiring is particularly noteworthy because the chamber is leaning rightward on the political spectrum. In 2010, the chamber endorsed Republicans Rick Snyder for governor and Mark Ouimet for state representative.

John Petz, chairman of the chamber's Board of Directors, said LaBarre's hiring should not be viewed as a shift in policy.

"I don’t think that is a factor," he said. "The fact that he has established connections across the aisle ... is only going to be help us accomplish our goals more effectively. People on both sides of the aisle already know Andy and already respect him. I think that’s going to be a huge plus for us."

Petz said the chamber is in the process of establishing a standard process for handling endorsements of political candidates.

"There’s a direction that’s come from the board to identify a process," he said. "Last year we had a unique situation of two individuals who were both extremely well-known to the chamber on a personal level but also from a position standpoint. What their platforms were couldn’t have been more in line. It was a clear cut case for us to support Rick Snyder and Mark Ouimet. That’s not always going to be the case. We’re not going to know the candidates like we’ve known those two and worked with them. So we’ve asked for a process to be identified."

The hiring also comes about a year after the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti chambers merged. The groups represent 1,400 businesses.

Diane Keller, president of the A2Y Chamber, said LaBarre brings a "high level of expertise" to boost the chamber's joint policy efforts.

"We were really looking to take the public policy to the next level now that we’ve got a merged chamber. We’re really looking at how the chamber can be relevant to our business community and he just got it," Keller said.

She added: "We’re just very bipartisan. We’re just advocating for business. We’re not Republican, we’re not Democrat. We advocate on behalf of the business community on business-related news. If anything, it shows that we are bipartisan."

LaBarre said he did not view the job as a partisan position.

"Folks can look at who I worked for and some of the things I’ve done and know I’m a Democrat, but at the end of the day we are all trying to have a prosperous county and we’ve got Republicans, we’ve got Democrats, we’ve got independents who are all concerned with making sure Washtenaw County ... is thriving," he said.

LaBarre, 28, an Ann Arbor Pioneer High School graduate, said he was "very, very fortunate to work for" Dingell.

"It’s just been a great pleasure and I have an exceeding amount of admiration for him in his record of public service," LaBarre said.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.