The Fontes Administration... and more
Who is on Secretary of State Adrian Fontes' staff? I have the answers.
A big reason why I am doing these posts (see Tom Horne and Kris Mayes at the links) is 1. to inform everyone who will be doing the important work in each respective office and 2. because each of these administrations is brand new and will take time before I am able to receive more extensive records I request.
So these posts buy me some time without having to take random days off and I appreciate the swiftness of each office to provide me with the lists of staff and their salaries so far.
Adrian Fontes, the former Maricopa County Recorder, crushed conspiracy theorist, stop-the-stealer and McDonalds McNugget toy lookalike Mark Finchem in the November election and now is a heartbeat away from the governor’s office.
He’s the second highest elected official in Arizona and will oversee the state’s elections for the 2024 presidential election as well as the 2026 midterms at a minimum.
Some of his hiring moves were announced publicly like his number two in Keely Varvel who was his chief deputy in the Recorder’s Office. She’s been around in local government for awhile, too.
Here is the senior staff under Secretary Fontes:
Greg Ensell is a longtime lobbyist who most recently spent 4+ years as Vice President of government relations at the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association. He’s also worked in government relations roles for Cox Communications and was a policy advisor for the Arizona Senate in the early 2000s.
Amy Chan will now be serving under her third secretary of state. She was Republican SOS Ken Bennett’s (now back in the State Senate) elections director and joined Katie Hobbs’ administration on the Seventh Floor as general counsel –– a role she will keep under Fontes. Chan has extensive government experience also previously working for the Arizona Legislature, Arizona Corporation Commission, Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission among other agencies.
Colleen Connor will be the next elections director following Bo Dul (Governor Hobbs’ current general counsel), Kori Lorick, Eric Spencer, Joe Kanefield and Chan as the past several across five administrations. Connor was the first executive director of the Clean Elections Commission, she represented the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office and County Elections Department while at the County Attorney’s Office and was recently a Deputy County Attorney in Yavapai County.
Bill Maaske has held that same role since 2003
Holly Henley has run the State Library, Archives and Public Records since 2009, but has worked there since 2004
An update to Attorney General Kris Mayes’s staff:
As I reported last week, there was some questions I had regarding the office not hiring a communications official to handle media requests. In fact, I was told “we no longer have a Communications Division” by some holdovers from the Mark Brnovich administration.
Amy Love, Mayes’ chief of staff, tweeted at me1 that more staff was coming soon and I was recently informed who their new communications director is. I wasn’t given permission to break this news, but I will say it’s a familiar face and a good hire by the AG’s Office.
Transparency on the Ninth Floor
There is always going to be so much negativity in Arizona government and records showing officials fucking up somehow or catching them doing something they shouldn’t be, so I pledged to call out good governance when it happens and Governor Hobbs sending out her public calendars is exactly that.
Her predecessor of course avoided doing anything close to the sort, and his office even went as far as to not release his months old calendars to me through the state’s public records law until minutes before leaving their jobs.
It’s a long way to go, but I hope Hobbs will keep it up.
I also want to correct the record that I said Love worked at the Supreme Court for nine years, but she said it was 14.