Mike McCartney, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawai'i, will step down to become executive director of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association.

The union, which represents more than 13,000 teachers, made the decision to hire McCartney yesterday. He succeeds Joan Husted, who is retiring after four decades as a union negotiator and educator to care for a family member.

"We found that his values on education are similar to what our association believes in and to our goals and objectives," said Roger Takabayashi, the union's president.

McCartney, a former state senator and chief executive of PBS Hawai'i, described his new post as a "dream job." He said his parents were schoolteachers and that he once worked as a negotiations specialist for the union under Husted.

"It's a place where I first started my work career, so it's like coming home," he said.

McCartney will leave as party chairman within the next month. Jeani Withington, of the Big Island, will likely take over until a new chair is selected at the party's convention in May.

Democratic insiders have been speculating that the new chair may give some insight into which of the party's competing factions are positioning for leadership before the 2010 governor's race.

McCartney said his high point as chairman was the 2006 elections, when Democrats held the majority in the state Senate and picked up two seats to add to their majority in the state House. A disappointment, he said, was not doing more to quell a bitter internal leadership struggle in the House before last session.

McCartney has predicted the party will attract new blood during the presidential campaign on the strength of candidates such as Hawai'i-born U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"There will always be tension within the party," he said. "But I think it will be a healthy tension."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.