Otter’s top aide stepping down

BOISE – Jason Kreizenbeck, Gov. Butch Otter’s chief of staff since 2007, is leaving the two-term Republican’s administration to form a government affairs business with a longtime Idaho lobbyist.

Kreizenbeck, 39, announced his decision Monday to leave the post in an email sent to Otter’s staff and top government agency officials.

“It was not an easy decision for me to leave, but I feel that now is the right time,” Kreizenbeck wrote to colleagues in the email obtained by the Associated Press. He will be out of Otter’s office by week’s end and will be replaced by David Hensley, the governor’s current legal counsel.

Kreizenbeck plans to start a business with Skip Smyser, a former Republican state lawmaker whose lobbying clients include Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, phone company AT&T and oil company ConocoPhillips.

“I’ve done stuff internationally, in Washington, D.C., and locally,” said Kreizenbeck, who worked as a lobbyist for computer chip maker Micron Technology Inc. and was a vice chairman of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, a pro-business lobbying outfit, before joining Otter’s staff four years ago.

Kreizenbeck said the plan with Smyser became concrete about a month ago. They worked together in the late 1990s, when Kreizenbeck was fresh off working for the first U.S. House campaign of Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and joined Smyser’s law firm as a lobbyist.

“Skip’s the first guy I worked for in lobbying,” Kreizenbeck said. Smyser didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

Kreizenbeck was named chief of staff in November 2007, taking over for Jeff Malmen, who left the Otter administration to become the top lobbyist for Idaho Power. Kreizenbeck’s position paid $130,500 a year.

Idaho has no so-called “revolving-door” restrictions such as those in place in Montana that limit former government officials from immediately lobbying their one-time colleagues. As a result, Kreizenbeck can begin lobbying Otter, cabinet officials and the state Legislature after he departs.