- State consumer protection and AG leadership developments are unfolding across California, Ohio, and South Dakota, with a familiar face taking the helm of a new consumer protection agency in California, an interim AG appointed in Ohio, and another candidate entering the South Dakota AG race.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed former CFPB Director and FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to lead the state’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency, which comes online on July 1 and will bring together licensing, enforcement, and consumer/business oversight functions across sectors including financial services, real estate, cannabis, alcohol, and consumer affairs. The appointment requires state Senate confirmation.
- In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine selected Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson to serve as Ohio’s interim attorney general, filling the remainder of AG Dave Yost’s term after Yost announced he would resign to join the legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom. Wilson, a former Clark County prosecutor and DeWine criminal justice adviser, will serve through January, when the newly elected AG takes office.
- Former South Dakota Fourth Circuit Court Judge John Fitzgerald announced that he is running for the Republican nomination for South Dakota AG, joining McPherson County State’s Attorney Austin Hoffman and Fall River and Oglala Lakota County State’s Attorney Lance Russell in the race to succeed AG Marty Jackley, who is running for South Dakota’s U.S. House seat. Fitzgerald previously served for more than four decades as a state’s attorney in Butte and Lawrence counties.