Oklahoma governor replaces his top attorney, a key staffer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Thursday that he is replacing his top attorney, a key member of his staff.

Stitt said in a press release that his general counsel, Mark Burget, is returning to the private sector and will be replaced by Jason Reese, a former staffer at the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the state Republican Party.

Reese has been a partner since 2014 at the Oklahoma City law firm Edinger, Leonard & Blakley, where he mostly represents employers. Reese also ran unsuccessfully for labor commissioner in 2010, state Senate in 2012 and state House in 2018.

Reese is a 2004 graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Stitt says Burget is returning to Search Ministries, a nondenominational evangelical Christian ministry.

Stitt’s office on Thursday also confirmed the resignation of Chip Keating, the son of former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, as Stitt’s secretary of public safety. In a resignation later dated earlier this month, Chip Keating, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, said he needed to step down to “attend to my business and family.” He was appointed in February 2019.

Keating’s resignation is effective Thursday.