A skilled, smooth political operative, Jason Kreizenbeck (pictured in AP file photo) moved seamlessly from lobbying for Micron Technology into public service. And now, he is allowed to seamlessly move back from the public to the private sector — as if the two are one and the same. Because, in Idaho, they are treated as if they are one and the same. Kreizenbeck, Gov. Butch Otter’s chief of staff for nearly four years, is stepping down. He will take a job with Skip Smyser, a Statehouse lobbyist whose cadre of clients includes AT&T, the private prison firm Corrections Corp. of America, and Idaho Medicaid contractor Molina Healthcare. “I don’t even know if I’m going to be lobbying,” Kreizenbeck told the Statesman’s Dan Popkey this week. Kreizenbeck need not be coy. Under the state’s lax and laissez faire ethics laws, there is nothing stopping him from turning in his resignation at Otter’s second-floor office at the Statehouse, walking down the hallway to Secretary of State Ben Ysursa’s office, and registering as a lobbyist/Idaho Statesman Editorial Board. More here.

Question: Why does Idaho continue to allow such a cozy relationship between those who govern and lobbyists?