Rep. Lea to run for state auditor

State Rep. Andrea Lea, R-Russellville, said Tuesday that she is seeking the Republican nomination for state auditor, and she wants to run the office in a fair, efficient and transparent manner.

Lea joins Family Council governmental affairs director Ken Yang of Benton in vying for the GOP nomination for state auditor - an office held by Bryant Democrat Charlie Daniels since 2011. Lea is 56; Yang is 24.

Last month, Daniels, 73, said he’s not seeking re-election in 2014 because he’s ready to retire after serving stints as state land commissioner, secretary of state and auditor since 1985.

Former state Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell, who is an aide to Gov. Mike Beebe, said Tuesday that he’ll decide whether to seek the Democratic nomination for state auditor within the next month. In 2012, Hall, 65, lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District.

The primary election is May 20; the general election is Nov. 4.

The state auditor prints more than 3 million state checks a year worth $17 billion and serves on the board of trustees for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System and Arkansas Teacher Retirement System as well as the state Board of Finance.

The auditor is one of the state’s seven constitutional officers. The others are governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, land commissioner and secretary of state.

Lea said she plans to formally announce her bid for state auditor on July 2 in Russellville and Little Rock, as well as somewhere in Northwest Arkansas. She said she decided to wait until then to make her formal announcement because this is the first week that she can raise campaign funds under House rules, and she plan to take a vacation next week.

She has served in the House since 2009. She has been chairman of the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee since January. She was on the Russellville City Council from 2002-2004 and on the Pope County Quorum Court during the previous six years.

Lea received her bachelor’s degree in emergency administration and management from Arkansas Tech University in 2004 after raising three children. She worked as a consultant for a New York-based publisher for a year, and sold a manual of enacted bills that affect law enforcement officers for two sessions prior to her election to the House.

The candidate said she has dug into the details of matters at the city, county and state level and tried to make them transparent and she wants to do the same thing in the state auditor’s office.

Lea said she wants the state auditor’s office to be run in a fair, efficient and transparentfashion and she doesn’t have any particular projects planned for the office at this point. The office has 31 employees in 35 authorized positions, she said.

She said her life and legislative experiences are a major difference between herself and Yang.

So far in his campaign, Yang said he’s promoting his own experience, particularly working in his parents’ small business, the Sin-Sin Restaurant in Benton.

He was campaign manager for Republican Secretary of State Mark Martin in 2010, worked for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich as state field director for Ohio and Alabama, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Ohio. He received his bachelor’s degreein history from Hendrix College in Conway in 2010. He also worked for less than a year as Saline County District Court case coordinator for Prosecuting Attorney Ken Casady.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 06/21/2013

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