The chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party has done contract work for Attorney General Jon Bruning since 2005, and his law firm has earned $136,700 representing the state Labor Department in one lawsuit over the past two years.

Mark Fahleson, a partner at the Rembolt Ludtke law firm, lists himself as a “special assistant attorney general since 2005” on his firm’s website.  According to a 2010 letter, Bruning appointed Fahleson and two other lawyers at his firm to represent the state Labor Department in a lawsuit over changes the labor commissioner made to an old Labor Department retirement plan. The letter says the lawyers “are subject to the supervision and direction of the attorney general.”