Karsting Takes Chief Job with Kohl

Blue Hill native, Phil Karsting, will be the next chief of staff for U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat from Wisconsin. Karsting, 47, will assume the job in September. Since 2006, Karsting has served as Kohl’s deputy chief of staff. Karsting has 18 years of experience in Washington, D.C. His first job in the city came in 1985, when he went to work for Nebraska U.S. Senator Jim Exon as a legislative assistant for agriculture and natural resources. At the time of Exon’s 1997 retirement, Karsting worked as a senior analyst for the Senate Budget Committee, which Exon chaired. Karsting has been interested in politics for a long time. In 1984, he worked as a page in the Nebraska Legislature. He graduated a year later with a degree in agricultural economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Phil is the son of Lamira Karsting and the late Dean Karsting.