From the ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE 

State Treasurer Martha Shoffner said Tuesday that she fired her predecessor’s two daughters because she wants to take the office in “a new direction.”
   Shoffner, a former Democratic state representative from Newport, was sworn in Tuesday to succeed Delight Democrat Gus Wingfield, who did not seek re-election last year.
   Shoffner said she fired Wingfield’s daughters Valerie Wallace, who was paid $78,915 as the office’s chief operating officer, and Margaret Gutierrez, who was paid $57,968 as a treasurer assistant. She said she fired four employees and hired four new ones. The office has 25 employees.
   Two years ago, Wingfield was reprimanded and fined $750 by the Arkansas Ethics Commission as a result of his decisions to give promotions and pay raises to his daughters in July 2003 after he became treasurer in January 2003.
   “I think there has been some controversy over this office,” Shoffner said in explaining her decision not to retain Wingfield’s daughters. “I want to go in a new direction and I didn’t think that [retaining them] would fit in with that new direction.”
   Wingfield declined to comment.
   Shoffner said she has hired former Rep. Mike Creekmore, a Democrat from East End, as a legislative liaison. His salary hasn’t been determined. She said she’s retaining chief deputy Karla Wise, who is paid $94,409. Wingfield hired Wise as chief deputy last month after she departed as chief deputy from state Auditor Jim Wood’s office.