Steve Brophy, the longtime political confidante and chief of staff to Brentwood Congressman Marsha Blackburn, has joined Dollar General Corp. as the retailer's new vice president of government affairs.

Claude Chafin, spokesperson for Blackburn, said the congressman has yet to name a new chief of staff and that Brophy's responsibilities are temporarily being handled by other senior staff members.

Brophy's replacement will have large shoes to fill; he was seen as Blackburn's main political adviser and trusted operations manager, both political and governmental.

Brophy joins Dollar General as the company is powering through the recession and prepping to go public again. It rank up $10.5 billion in sales in fiscal 2008 from its more than 8,400 stores in 35 states and posted second-quarter profits of $93 million, more than triple its year-ago number.