Whitley back on Abbott’s payroll

After resigning Monday from his post as interim secretary of state, David Whitley will return to Gov. Greg Abbott’s payroll at his previous salary of $205,000 a year, officials said Friday.

Whitley resigned after the Senate refused to take a vote on his confirmation after a botched voter roll purge led by his office that called into question the citizenship of tens of thousands of Texas voters based on faulty data.

“David Whitley has been an exemplary public servant to the state of Texas for many years and the governor is proud to welcome him back to our organization as a Special Advisor,” John Wittman, an Abbott spokesman, told the Dallas Morning News, which first reported Whitley’s hiring Friday.

Wittman did not respond to the Chronicle’s requests for comment.

The new salary is an increase from what Whitley was making as secretary of state at $197,415 a year, the state comptroller’s office confirmed Friday. It’s also the same salary he made before leaving Abbott’s office to become secretary of state.

Sam Robles, advocacy director for Progress Texas, on Friday expressed her disdain for the move by the governor’s office.

“While Democrats chose to effectively fire Whitley for his actions, Republicans chose to give him a promotion and a raise,” Robles said in a statement. “Whitley’s return to the governor’s office clearly demonstrates Abbott’s priorities.”

The Senate stalled a vote on Whitley’s confirmation this legislative session after he faced harsh rebuke from civil rights groups and legislators for wrongly calling for nearly 100,000 suspected non-citizens to be removed from the voter rolls.

Top Republicans and President Donald Trump immediately upheld the initial advisory as evidence of voter fraud, but just days later, county election officials found thousands were erroneously flagged.

A lawsuit from civil rights groups put an end to the program in April under terms of a settlement agreement. But the next secretary of state could continue efforts to identify and remove non-citizens from the voter rolls once the office revises its screening criteria to ensure more accurate results.

Abbott will have to name a replacement secretary of state, who likely won’t face confirmation hearings at the Legislature until after the 2020 election.