MADISON - Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen hired his campaign field director as a state Justice Department receptionist and has twice promoted him to positions in the agency's criminal bureau.

Agency employment records show Van Hollen, a Republican, appointed Tim Jennings as a part-time office associate on Jan. 26, 2007, days after Van Hollen took office. Jennings worked as a receptionist, sorted mail and handled filing for $11.55 an hour.

In August, Van Hollen appointed Jennings to a part-time analyst position in the Division of Criminal Investigation and bumped his pay to $12.77 an hour. His duties included creating timelines and other analyses in criminal probes.

In March, Van Hollen gave Jennings a temporary DCI analyst post at $16.08 per hour. His duties include studying gang activity in the Fox Valley.

Van Hollen has hired a number of Republican allies since he took office, chief among them Deputy Attorney General Ray Taffora, who served as counsel for former GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson. Last week, the attorney general hired Republican aide Bill Cosh as his new spokesman.

Cosh testified in former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen's misconduct in office trial in 2006 that he did campaign work on state time. The Justice Department helped convict Jensen of misconduct and is assisting Dane County prosecutors in a new case against him after an appeals court granted him a new trial last year.

Personnel changes are common as elected officials surround themselves with party friends and purge holdovers from the defeated administration. They earn that right when they win office, said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Still, Burden said, partisanship has to be watched closely in the Justice Department, an agency that must adhere to the highest standards because it handles legal matters.

"It is the right of the victor to appoint friendly people to positions. It's a partisan office," Burden said. "But it's sometimes a mistake. It sometimes confuses personal loyalty to the office holder with actual merit or competence."

Jennings worked as Van Hollen's statewide field campaign director during Van Hollen's 2006 run for office, according to the resume he submitted to the Justice Department. He worked as regional field director for Republican races in Wisconsin in 2004 too, including the presidential campaign and state Congressional and Senate races.

The resume said Jennings also has worked for Best Buy in Madison and General Motors in Janesville. He has a bachelor's degree from UW-Madison but doesn't say in what field. The resume notes classes in criminal law, constitutional law and legal studies as "relevant coursework."

Jennings didn't immediately return a message Tuesday.

Current Justice Department spokesman Kevin St. John said Jennings is the only one of 21 part-time Justice Department employees who have ties to Van Hollen's campaign. Jennings works in an entry-level support role for which he's perfectly suited, St. John said.

"His performance has been exemplary," he said. "He's perfectly qualified for the position."

St. John also defended Van Hollen's executive staff, saying Taffora is a well-respected attorney with no ties to Van Hollen's campaign. Cosh passed a state-mandated civil service exam and is familiar with state government, St. John said, adding Cosh will be kept out of any decision-making involving Jensen.

"I'd certainly disagree entirely with the hires at the Department of Justice being political," St. John said.

DCI has gone through two major changes since Van Hollen took over.

The division's longtime administrator, Jim Warren, retired in December. He said in e-mails his year under Van Hollen was difficult.

In January, state fire marshal and senior homicide investigator Carolyn Kelly was suspended indefinitely. Kelly's attorney, Dan Bach, has said investigators are looking into whether she used her e-mail inappropriately.