In Arizona, it pays great dividends to put some time in as a lobbyist before landing a government job.
Several staffers within Governor Katie Hobbs’ office received pay raises amounting to around $200,000 each this year, based on data pulled by the Arizona Republic compared to December salary reporting.
Chief of staff Chad Campbell received a pay raise of $216,000. Per December reporting, Campbell’s annual salary was just shy of $207,000. Now he’ll make closer to half a million per year: over $423,000. That makes him the eighth-highest paid employee by the state of Arizona.
When Campbell joined Hobbs’ office in 2023, his salary was about $199,000. His prior pay raise only amounted to about $8,000.
Prior to joining Hobbs’ office, Campbell was a lobbyist for two firms: Lumen Strategies and Strategies 360. His clientele included the Arizona Coyotes, Constellation Energy, and NRG Energy.
Lourdes Pena — the deputy chief of staff of legislative, policy, and external affairs — now makes over $391,000. In December, Pena was reported as making over $192,000. That’s a pay raise of over $199,000. That makes her the eleventh-highest paid employee by the state of Arizona.
When Pena joined Hobbs’ office in 2023, her salary was about $180,000. Her prior pay raise amounted to about $12,000.
Prior to joining Hobbs’ office, Pena was the senior public affairs advisor for Triadvocates, and the minority policy advisor for the Arizona House of Representatives.
Both Campbell and Pena were scrutinized upon their initial hiring back in 2023 since they were former lobbyists, along with seven others:
- Sambo (Bo) Dul, general counsel (former lobbyist, departed Hobbs’ office in August to work for the law firm Coppersmith Brockelman within its elections and public law practice);
- Will Gaona, deputy chief of staff (former lobbyist for the ACLU of Arizona);
- Jennifer Loredo, deputy chief of staff for legislative, policy, and intergovernmental affairs (former lobbyist for the Arizona Education Association);
- May Mgbolu, finance and revenue advisor (former lobbyist for Children’s Action Alliance and Arizona Center for Economic Progress);
- Zaida Dedolph Piecoro (former lobbyist for Arizona’s Oral Health Care Coalition, Children’s Action Alliance, Wildfire, and Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition);
- Andrew Sugrue, human services advisor (former lobbyist for Children’s Action Alliance and Arizona Center for Economic Progress); and
- Whitney Walker (Daniels), listed as senior strategic advisor and hired on as deputy director of policy and civil rights advisor (former lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, the Arizona Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, and Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition)
Per these latest salary reports, these other former lobbyists within Hobbs’ office received slight pay decreases or raises within a range of several thousand dollars.
Exempting those employed within the state’s university and college system, that makes Campbell and Pena among the highest-paid employees in the state.
Last year, Hobbs made sure one of her appointees rejected by the legislature, Dana Allmond, received a $170,000 contract for a newly-created position at the Department of Economic Security (DES) amid staff layoffs. The year prior to her nomination in 2022, Allmond was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the state legislature.
An honest question; who sets the salary rates for state employees, both elected and non-elected? Wouldn’t these rates be set by the legislature, leaving the Executive branch room to apply capped percentage increases/decreases based on performance? Increases of this nature in the private sector are almost unheard of, and I struggle to believe these low-level lobbyist/bureacrats are that much better at what they do than myriad individuals found in the open market of business everywhere.
Seems to me they aren’t working for Arizona, they’re working for the Democratic Party. It’s just that Arizona pays their salary.
Really? “Smells of cronyism”; why the reticence to call it what it is, an elitist, statist, in-your-face middle finger to the electorate trying day-to-day to make a go of it within a corrupt state government, not doing the will of the people.
Providing cover for those with self-enriching agenda’s who have no alignment with the voting block, takes all of who live in Arizona to a dark place, where only a few sycophants can prosper…
IT SMELLS OF EVIL and a brazen disregard for the taxpayer!
Totally and completely corrupt!! Anyone associated with this illegal regime should be investigated and prosecuted for their crimes.
They have done nothing to deserve a raise.
Sure they have. They are all members of the Democrat party and have their lips firmly planted on the Hobbit’s backside as well as the rest of the DNCs
Just one more example of the idiocy and cronyism of the left…..you just can’t make this crap up and just think, you elected her and you get what you deserve.
We didn’t put her in office. She was secretary of state, in charge of her own election. She, Richer, the Maricopa Board of Supervisors and the McCainiacs put her in office. Your vote did not matter.
Theft of tax dollars!
Doesn’t this kind of cronyism need to go through the legislature.
Despicable!
Who says crime doesn’t pay?
PAYOFFS – time to rip the state of whatever we can take.. no telling if we’ll win again so better take the money an RUN!!!
Hmmmm smells of cronyism to me
so now they make twice what the governor and chief justice of the az supreme court makes? i smell something