By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services via Arizona Daily Star
There’s an argument to be made that Republican Doug Ducey would not be governor today if not for Kirk Adams, who on Monday announced he is quitting as Ducey’s chief of staff.
American Encore, a group linked to the Koch brothers, for whom Adams was working at the time, put $750,000 into ads attacking Ducey’s Democratic rival, Fred DuVal, during the 2014 campaign. The group, which does not disclose donors, also spent another $650,000 promoting Ducey.
Adams’ ties go back even further to 2012, when Ducey, as state treasurer, was leading the campaign to defeat a proposition that would have enacted a permanent 1-cent sales tax, largely to fund education. It would have kept in place a temporary penny levy pushed through by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2010 to help balance the state budget during the recession.
