INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Pence is turning to a prominent Democrat as the new leader of Indiana’s business-recruitment agency.

Pence on Wednesday named Jim Schellinger as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. That is the agency that Pence turned to for helping improve the state’s image following the national uproar this spring over Indiana’s new religious objections law.

Schellinger is CEO of Indianapolis-based CSO Architects and has been member of the agency’s board of directors of which Pence is chairman. Schellinger narrowly lost the Democratic primary for governor in 2008.

He has given several hundred thousand dollars to Democratic campaigns in recent years and has been chairman of a political action committee supporting state and local Democratic candidates.