BETWEEN THE LINES: Shoffner Clash Could Be Trouble

State Treasurer Martha Shoffner just gave Arkansas Democrats a bit more baggage for the November general election.

Shoftner herself won’t be aft ected electorally, at least not immediately. She’s in the middle of her second fouryear term as treasurer.

Term-limited for that off ce, she conceivably might try for a dift erent constitutional offce in two years. We’ll see how this latest controversy plays out before speculating on her chances.

The more immediate impact may be on other Democrats seeking election, or re-election, to the Arkansas Legislature in November.

Republicans expect to control one or both of the state’s legislative chambers next year, if enough of the November elections swing their way. Recent developments might help push that pendulum.

Earlier this month, a Democratic lawmaker, Hudson Hallum, resigned after admitting to election fraud.

The charge to which he pleaded guilty was about what he, not the Democratic Party, did. Voters may not make that distinction.

It’s the same problemwith Shoftner and her recent diff culties with the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee over investment decisions by her off ce.

The dispute is about the investments, not politics; but the key lawmakers on the panel are two Republicans, state Rep. Tim Summers of Bentonville and Sen. Bill Pritchard of Elkins, the cochairmen.

Ironically, neither of them will benefit politically. Both men were defeated in their party’s primary election this year and won’t be returning to the Legislature. That won’t keep Republicans from making hay over Democrat Shoftner’s situation and the role Republicans have played in exposing it.

Shoftner made things worse when she didn’t show Friday for a legislative committee meeting. It wasn’t just any meeting; it was a scheduled discussion of auditfi ndings regarding her off ce.

The committee even issued a subpoena to get her testimony Friday and again Monday. After a state trooper served her in Newport, her hometown, she appeared before the committee Monday, where she apologized to lawmakers and said she wished she could take Friday back.

No doubt she does.

The audit questions are serious ones: Why did Shoftner sell bonds from an investment portfolio before they matured and buy more bonds from the same brokers. The result was a net loss of something like $58,000.

That’s not a great deal of money from the state treasury, but the investment decision is inexplicable. And it isn’t the only example in the audit fi ndings. State auditors had reported another early sale of bonds in 2010 that cost the state almost $836,000. The discovery prompted a closer look at Shoft ner’s practices.

There is bound to be a lot more to these numbers than the declaration they were “losses.” There may even be some explanation.

The problem is Shoft ner couldn’t explain any of it to the legislative panel or to the auditors.

She couldn’t recall getting advice from her own staft member, who testifi ed she had advised Shoftner not to sell the bonds early.

Even a Democrat on the audit panel, a self-declared friend of Shoftner’s, told her, “I love you dearly, but I need to know why these bonds were sold for a loss.”

That was Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, who said, too, “So far, I haven’t heard anything that makes any sense to me.”

Chesterfield is certainly not alone in that assessment.

Shoftner needs to be able to explain any decision she made on behalf of taxpayers.

This dispute really should be about her performance, not about the upcoming legislative elections.

Nevertheless, it sure played into politics, prompting immediate criticism from the state Republican Party of Shoftner’s failure to appear at the audit hearing.

Oh, and as Republican Pritchard suggested, he hopes the committee can meet again to discuss further audit fi ndings.

When? In late October, days away from the general election.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/19/2012

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