DeWit up for NASA post
Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit has been nominated to oversee the finances at NASA, the White House announced Wednesday.
Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit has been nominated to oversee the finances at NASA, the White House announced Wednesday.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration job, which is based in Washington, D.C., requires Senate confirmation and involves overseeing an estimated $20 billion budget as well as the agency’s financial operations.
By joining President Donald Trump’s administration, DeWit, who was chief operating officer of Trump’s presidential campaign, ends speculation about his political future, including a potential run for Arizona’s open Senate seat.
The 44-year-old Peoria resident said accepting the nomination wasn’t an easy decision.
“Since the conclusion of last year’s presidential election, there has been much speculation as to what my future was going to be, and my response has been and remains that I truly love Arizona and my current role as state treasurer,” DeWit said in a statement. “However, when the president of the United States asks you to serve your country, it is my duty to answer the call.”
DeWit said he would remain in his current post for now.
DeWit said his “deep love for the state of Arizona and the opportunity to keep serving the wonderful people here at home is something that constantly tugs at my heart. This is definitely a tough decision.”
If DeWit leaves his current post, Gov. Doug Ducey is required to appoint a replacement from the same political party — Republican. DeWit’s successor would have to run in the next primary election if he or she sought to keep the seat, former state elections director Joe Kanefield has said.
Ironically, DeWit’s tenure as treasurer is perhaps most memorable for his clashes with Ducey, his predecessor.
DeWit first met Trump in 2015 at a State Financial Officers Foundation meeting, and became an early and ardent supporter of Trump’s long-shot campaign, frequently appearing on cable news as a campaign surrogate.
Many expected DeWit would immediately join the administration after Trump’s surprise victory. When that didn’t happen, speculation shifted to his running against Sen. Jeff Flake, who had been among the president’s most high-profile GOP critics. Flake has since announced he will not seek reelection.
A Republic review of the notifications DeWit is required to file with the secretary of state when he leaves Arizona show he spent about 50 days, including weekends, outside the state since early October 2016, about a month before the general election. Those dozen or so trips included Washington, D.C., New York and Trump properties.
DeWit’s frequent absences don’t seem to have hurt the state’s finances. The land trust fund grew to $5.6 billion at the end of June, an all-time record, even as it paid out $290 million, also a record high.
“Record funds distributed while still reaching all-time highs in total market value is proof that we are making Arizona’s finances great again!” DeWit said, echoing Trump’s campaign motto.
But DeWit told The Republic last year he would not seek re-election for state treasurer in part because he was fed up what what he saw as politics-as-usual by establishment politicians at the state Capitol.
DeWit clashed with Ducey publicly over Proposition 123, the initiative that narrowly passed in May 2016 and commits an extra $3.5 billion from the state’s century-old land trust fund to public education over a decade.
DeWit said it took too much too quickly from the fund and didn’t offer a permanent funding solution for schools.
At NASA, DeWit will serve an agency largely unscathed by the dramatic cuts the Trump administration has sought elsewhere in the federal budget.
Trump has shown an interest in the space agency and flirted with the idea of sending astronauts to Mars and increasing private-sector investment in space exploration.
Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 would keep NASA nearly level-funded. Most other non-defense agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, were in line for steep cuts.
In February, Trump asked NASA if it could add astronauts to a rocket launch as part of deep-space exploration. The agency said it could not, citing cost constraints.