Today, Mayor Vince Gray announced two new major senior appointments for his troubled administration — Chris Murphy as his Chief of Staff and Andrea Pringle as his Deputy Chief of Staff.

Murphy, a former Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will take on the position that was first filled by Gerri Mason Hall, who resigned in the wake of the Sulaimon Brown scandal. Pringle, who has worked on a number of national political campaigns, will come on to oversee communications and public engagement, though Gray’s current Director of Communications Linda Wharton Boyd will remain in her position. (And, awkwardly enough, make $40,000 more a year than Pringle).

Murphy’s ascendancy to the job is seen as something of a reset for the Gray administration — during today’s press conference, Gray said that there was “no question we have taken some hits, and some of them are self inflicted” — and with no real links to any local power-brokers, Murphy is seen as the type of guy that could put Gray back on track after a scandal-ridden first nine months in office. Pringle’s role is less well defined, though. Hired to better connect Gray to the community, it remains to be seen how she and Boyd will work together and who ends up being the boss of who.

Moreover, for an administration that’s slapped “One City” on just about everything, Pringle’s hiring is, well, interesting. As the Post’s Mike DeBonis reported earlier this year, Pringle was responsible for one of the hardest-hitting campaign mailers put out during the divisive 2010 mayoral contest. Pictured above, the mailer, which was paid for by one-time mayoral hopeful Don Peebles, not-so-discretely played upon race to encourage Ward 8 residents to vote against Mayor Adrian Fenty. (I’m pretty sure Fenty alone wasn’t responsible for all of Ward 8’s troubles. In fact, I’d bet he wasn’t.) It’s surely an age-old campaign tactic, but probably not the sort of thing you want associated with your new “One City” Deputy Chief of Staff.