Governor-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders today named Gretchen Conger as her chief of staff. Conger was deputy chief of staff for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey until August when she joined the Sanders’ campaign as senior adviser.
Conger left Arizona amid a damning reporting from the Arizona Republic about the efforts of a Texas tax firm, led by a major Ducey donor, to pressure the Arizona Revenue Department to issue tax refunds for mining companies worth as much as $100 million. The donor hired three top Ducey deputies to lobby for him, despite state conflict of interest laws. Ducey later fired the top leaders of the revenue department, who said they believed it was retaliatory. One of them told the Arizona Republic the FBI had contacted him.
Meanwhile, Conger lobbied for the tax refunds from within the administration. From the Republic:
Conger pushed for the tax break for nearly a year before reporting she may have a conflict of interest. That’s because the tax break would have resulted in about a $10 million refund for international mining firm Freeport McMoRan, where her father, Harry “Red” Conger, was president and chief operating officer, and also was a major campaign contributor to Ducey.
According to the state’s conflict-of-interest statutes, “any public officer or employee who has, or whose relative has, a substantial interest in any decision of a public agency … shall refrain from participating in any manner as an officer or employee in such decision.”
The law is specific on defining “relative,” which includes any “spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, brother or sister of whole or half blood.”
The Arizona Republic’s initial reporting came out in July; Conger came to Arkansas in August. Here’s a good video summary of the investigation from reporter Craig Harris.