Tim La Sota, chief of staff to Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, has resigned to join Scottsdale-based Rose Law Group, he said.LaSota has already been moonlighting for the Rose Law Group, working on its defense of SB1070. That isn't a big surprise, since he was one of uber-nativist Andrew Thomas' lobbyists/hangers-on during Thomas' tenure as Maricopa County Attorney.
La Sota, an attorney, became Lane's chief of staff when the mayor's term began in January 2009. He will remain with the city through Nov. 26.
There was also some hubbub recently over certain high-ranking staffers, and LaSota was one, who received lucrative raises when rank-and-file city employees are looking at stagnant or even declining pay and scaled back benefits (or the City passing an increasing portion of the costs of those benefits to the employees). It's possible that Jim Lane/Lamar Whitmer orchestrated this to help minimize political fallout during the next election cycle. Lane will be up for reelection then.
Still, this seems to be more a move to set up a possible electoral run in two or four years than political damage control. In Scottsdale, the only people who care about the average City employee (or resident, for that matter) getting screwed over are the screwees themselves.
As a City employee, however, there would be all sorts of legal, ethical, and practical restrictions on his ability to raise money for and run a campaign for elected office.
Tim LaSota is the son of Jack LaSota, a former AZ attorney general and currently a lawyer and lobbyist. His dad is an insider's insider, and the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree..
The question isn't *if* Tim LaSota is going to run for office, it's "when and where" will LaSota will run.
No comments:
Post a Comment