AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is calling on the Travis County Republican Party chair Matt Mackowiak to resign due to a “conflict of interest.”

In a press release, Miller said Mackowiak is in charge of the Republican primary election, which will be in March 2018. He is also working as a press director for lobbyist Trey Blocker, an opponent of Miller.

According to Miller, the Travis County Republican Party cannot be impartial when the person in charge of the election is working for one of the candidates.

“I have been a Republican all my life and I have never seen such a blatant conflict of interest,” Miller said. “I am calling on Matt Mackowiak to resign immediately as Travis County GOP chair or quit his campaign job. He cannot do both.”

Recently on social media, Mackowiak has been promoting Blocker and attacking Miller. Mackowiak has not commented on if the posts used party computers or state internet access.

“Any Republican county chairman on the payroll of a candidate in a contested primary – if not unethical, then certainly unprincipled – is a violation of the trust to the voters of that county,” said Chad Wilbanks, former executive director of the Republican Party of Texas.