“It is unclear to me why Speaker McCall would try to censor my communication with my friends and colleagues in the House,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement to The Frontier.
In a review of hires and appointments by Stitt, The Frontier found at least half of his cabinet secretaries continue to manage a private business, while some agency directors have also pursued additional private sector opportunities.
The state sought to obtain millions of dollars in equipment from dozens of businesses, including one Florida company that federal investigators said was involved in international drug trafficking, records show.
House Bill 3613 is now awaiting action by the governor, but if approved it could result in the state’s electronic campaign reporting system being taken offline, according to Ashley Kemp, executive director of the state Ethics Commission.
“We were talking about budget, we were talking about ethics and campaigns or whatever, and I said ‘if you want to talk transparency, let’s talk transparency,’” Sen. Roger Thompson said.
Under the replacement language submitted by Sen. Roger Thompson, contributions to a candidate committee, a political action committee, or a political party committee “may be converted by any person to personal use as long as any expenditure from such conversion is reported pursuant to the Rules of the Ethics Commission.”
State officials ordered N95 respirators from a kiteboarding company in California called Wind Over Water Kiteboarding. They found respirators at an industrial hemp company based in Utah, Green Rock Hemp Holdings, LLC..
