HOW WE SEE IT Can Arkansas Electorate Have Votes Back?

State Treasurer Martha Shoffner - a walking, talking free advertisement for term limits - is back in the news.

Making news from one of Arkansas’ lowlevel constitutional oftces like treasurer or auditor or land commissioner is a tall order. Yet Shoff ner’s managed it twice now through a healthy dose of arrogance and a strong whiff of something else.

Back in the summer of 2010, Shoffner made news as one of several state oftcials who failed to claim the taxpayer-provided vehicle she drove as income, thus reducing her own tax bill. She responded to the revelation with an epic faux pas, suggesting that unlike us mere mortals, she was an entitled elected oftcial. She famously went on to deride the governor’s security detail as “manservants.”ner apologized. But the sheer arrogance of her original statement made a lasting impression - one reinforced by recent events.

Two Fridays ago,Shoffner was summoned to a meeting of the Legislative Joint Audit Committee to answer questions about bond-trading practices in her oftce. It seems the committee had some questions about a couple of bond trades that ended up costing the state money. But she skipped the meeting and headed out of town. This drew the ire of the legislators, who subpeonaed her to ensure her presence at a committee meeting on the following Monday.

When she finally showed up, Shoff ner apologized for missing the previous meeting, lamely attempted to dodge responsibility by saying she thought sending staff members in her stead would suft ce and offered she wished she could have had Friday back.

Over the course of Monday’s meeting, we suspect she’ll wish the same for that day.

Shoffner was unable to explain a series of bond transactions that appears to have cost taxpayers in the neighborhood of $800,000. It seems some bonds the state owned were sold before they matured, reducing the amount the state would have received.

All the duly elected state treasurer could say was the decisions on bond trading were made by consensus in her oftce, a claim Shoff ner’s own chief investment oft cer, Autumn Sanson, disputed. Sanson, who asked the committee about whistleblower protection, told lawmakers Shoffner had been advised against the trades, but made them anyway. Shoffner denied that’s what happened, but the damage was done. The legislative committee voted to expand its review of the treasurer’s trading practices.

This is, frankly, hardly a surprise. Shoff ner, a Democrat Party regular and former state legislator, was elected treasurer in 2006, defeating Mac Campbell, an infinitely more qualifi ed candidate with a banking background, in the Democratic primary runoff. Even though Campbell was a better fi t, Shoffner took advantage of her connections within the party to beat him. She went on to beat Republican Chris Morris and Green Party candidate Brock Carpenter in the general election.

One suspects had the news of her tax trouble with a state-owned car broke a few months earlier than it did in 2010, she might have drawn a legitimate opponent in either major party when she ran for re-election. But she didn’t. So, instead of being turned out of oft ce, Shoffner got another term, even as many Democrats ruefully shook their heads in embarrassment.

We’ve never been big fans of term limits, preferring an engaged electorate determine who takes oftce rather than an arbitrary set of rules. In Shoffner’s case, however, all we can say is that a limit of two terms still gave her too much time in the job.