Legislator questions intent of Spanish site

McDaniel replies Hubbard ‘misguided’

— A Jonesboro lawmaker has accused the state attorney general of pandering to Hispanic voters and providing special treatment to the group by offering a Spanish-language version of the office’s website.

The attorney general responded that the legislator could be seen as “an angry, misguided person.”

Rep. Jon Hubbard, a Republican, made the accusations in e-mails to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, between July 12 and Monday that also went to news media, the lieutenant governor (a Republican) and about 30 Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

“Dustin, I regret that youare not as passionate about representing the people of Arkansas as you are about propping up this person masquerading as [the president of the United States],” he wrote in one of them. Hubbard said by phone Tuesday that he believes that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen as required by the U.S. Constitution.

McDaniel said the website update was done by existing staff and did not cost taxpayers anything extra.

McDaniel announced July 12 that his office had updated its Spanish language version of the website, which can be found at arkansasag.gov/ AG_SP/sp. The site mirrors the English language site and has existed since 2007, spokes-man Aaron Sadler said.

Hubbard’s initial e-mail questioned the site’s cost and why it was only available in Spanish.

“Is there a state policy that provides special treatment for Hispanics in Arkansas, while no other ethnic groups are given the same special consideration?” he wrote July 12.

When McDaniel did not respond by Monday, Hubbard e-mailed again, accusing McDaniel of pandering to Hispanic voters and questioning whether other nationalities could challenge the site as discriminatory because they are not provided the same benefit.

“I cannot see any purpose for your pandering to Hispanics in Arkansas, whether it be to those here legally or illegally, unless you think that by doing so you might increase your chances of possibly winning their future vote?” Hubbard wrote.

Sadler said later that the website was created by an employee within her normal duties. He said no extra money was spent.

McDaniel stated in his Monday response that it had been delayed because he was on vacation and his office was treating the e-mails as press inquiries because Hubbard had also sent the e-mails to the Jonesboro Sun newspaper.

He defended the site, pointing to the 2010 Census results that said 186,000 Arkansans reported they are Hispanic.

“We have legal citizens of this state who pay taxes and serve in the military and also speak Spanish,” McDaniel wrote. “Our website has been updated to better serve those citizens.”

McDaniel wrote that he is embarrassed that Hubbard now represents the district that McDaniel represented in the House from 2005-08.

“I find your tone insulting and your premise to be without merit. I will refrain from characterizing your motivation, but one could easily infer that you are simply an angry misguided person,” McDaniel wrote. “No further comment on this issue is warranted, and your future angry e-mails will be forwarded to the press and will go unanswered.”

Hubbard’s reply to McDaniel included criticism for notjoining other states in lawsuits over the federal health-care law and for having his name in the news.

Hubbard said by phone Tuesday that news of the website “just kind of really got under my skin.

“Every time you turn around they’re doing something for Hispanic people but nothing for the other nationalities that are here,” Hubbard said. “I just don’t think it’s fair.”

This is not the first time Hubbard has publicly criticized a constitutional officer through e-mail that he made public.

In February he accused Gov. Mike Beebe of “strongarm” tactics, engineering a “poison pill” “hostile” amendment that likely killed a bill aimed at preventing state funds from being used for abortions in the state health exchange that is to be created under the federal health-care law, and said Beebe had used “less than honorable tactics.”

Beebe said Hubbard didn’t know how the legislative process works.

Hubbard handled a handful of unsuccessful bills in this year’s legislative session aimed at illegal aliens, including halting access to all non-lifesaving, publicly funded services and punishing employers who hire illegal aliens.

Since about 2008, opponents of Obama have argued that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and thus is not legally entitled to be president. He released a copy of his birth certificate three years ago to quell some of the claims, which had thrived on the Internet where it was repeatedly advanced anonymously. Those claims lessened as more and more officials in Hawaii affirmed the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate.

Hubbard said he believes that the president was born in the United States but that the writers of the Constitution meant for a natural-born citizen to have two American-born parents and that citizenship is dependent on the father.

The president’s father was a Kenyan citizen.

The language in question is Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which says: “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President. ...”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/20/2011

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