State Revenue Director Karen King Mitchell is the first Nixon cabinet member to leave, seven months into the administration Governor Nixon has made her a judge.
Mitchell was one of Nixon’s top aides when Nixon was the Attorney General. She was one of his first department directorship appointees after his election. Now he’s appointed her to fill a vacancy on the state appeals court in Kansas City.
The appointment is made under the non-partisan court plan. Mitchell is the only non-judge among the three candidates recommended to Nixon by the appellate judicial commission. She knows critics of the non-partisan court system will see her appointment critically. "I’m not a political person and my background is not political," she says. Mitchell says that the process is not political just because Governor Nixon, a lawyer, might know some of the judicial nominees who come before him.
Her last day as revenue director will be Sunday. No date has been set for her to join the appellate court.
Nixon has appointed Alana Barragan-Scott as acting state revenue director.