LITTLE ROCK -- Former state Sen. Michael Lamoureux is stepping down as Gov. Asa Hutchinson's chief of staff at the end of this month, the Republican governor's office announced Monday.
Hutchinson's office said Lamoureux, the former president pro tempore of the state Senate, submitted his resignation for a new unspecified "professional opportunity." Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said a replacement for Lamoureux hasn't been selected yet.
"Michael has been an essential part of my team from the beginning, and I will greatly miss his counsel and strategic thinking," Hutchinson said in a statement released by his office. "There are very few people who offer the same depth of state government experience as Michael, and his service as my chief of staff has proven key in accomplishing my legislative agenda."
Lamoureux, 39, resigned from the state Senate after Hutchinson's election in 2014 to serve as the governor's transition director and chief of staff. Lamoureux had served in the Senate since 2009 and had previously served six years in the state House.
"Serving under the governor has been a public honor and a privilege," Lamoureux said in a statement. "Although I am leaving for another professional opportunity, I look forward to the continued success of his administration in the years to come."
Lamoureux last year faced questions after The Associated Press reported he received $120,000 in consulting fees from a group largely funded by lobbyists and their clients while he led the Senate. Lamoureux at the time defended his work for Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition as ethical and legal, and said the bulk of the donations received in 2013 were solicited in previous years before he joined the group.
Lamoureux told the AP Monday his resignation wasn't related to questions about the consulting fees. He said the new job hasn't been finalized, but would be in the private sector.
Lamoureux's departure comes as lawmakers near the end of a session that had been marked by a fight over the funding of the state's hybrid Medicaid expansion. The state Senate last week rejected an attempt to override Hutchinson's veto of a budget measure that would ended the program, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for the poor. Lamoureux had been a vocal advocate for the program in the Senate when it was created in 2013 as alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law.
State Desk on 05/03/2016