Thursday, November 10, 2011
Arkansas Politics Can Martha Shoffner survive?
Posted by Max Brantley on Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 6:48 AM
* Yes, the $10,000 in campaign money she got from lawyers she helps hire as a member of the Teacher Retirement System board came in a single check she picked up on a state-financed trip to New York (extended by another night in a $500 hotel so she could grab the cash and see the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center). She's repaid the money since it didn't come in individual checks from the five donors represented.
* Yes, she says she used a van supposedly paid by a $900 monthly draw from campaign surplus for personal uses, so she's going to pay that back, too. I'd still like to see the checks issued for that old Ford Aero van. I still say you could cruise in a BMW for that kind of dough.
There's more. But the bottom line remains that the state treasurer kept sloppy — possibly dishonest — books of her campaign account and has tried to push responsibility off on aides. It is not a confidence builder in a Democratic official entrusted with billions in state money.
PS — I don't think we should lightly overlook the fact that a bigshot law firm paid big bucks to represent a state agency wrote what appears to be an illegal campaign contribution check to a member of the board of the agency that hires them. Don't care what the "intentions" were or how Shoffner eventually reported it — inaccurately — to comply with the law. A law firm can't legally write a $10,000 check to an Arkansas political candidate's campaign. Did it gather up the money from the individual lawyers Shoffner claimed to have been donors? If not, did it count that as taxable income to the lawyers? This is a messy thing and I hope the Ethics Commission fully investigates it, rather than accept Shoffner's belated jury-rigged effort to make it right.
Comments (25)
Showing 1-25 of 25
She is an embarrassment to the state and the Democratic Party. I hope a quality challenger emerges. I'm especially incensed by her selling her influence as a trustee of the teacher retirement system. What a slime ball.
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She spent another $1000 to "represent the state of Arkansas" at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting. Now that's what I call a bimbo minute. But wait, in Martha's case, it's non-stop bimbo. I would be laughing if I wasn't paying for it.
A direct contribution from multiple donors in a single check to a campaign? You'd think a competent compliance law firm would know better, but as I said before, Shoffner operates like her old boss, Charlie Trie.
A $10,000 donation of co-mingled funds in a single check is a big red flag. Perhaps someone at the law firm tried that old tactic of instructing employees to "donate" the funds with the promise of reimbursement, using them as strawman donors to provide a veneer of legality.
In his book, Lanny Davis recounts Trie's political fundraising methods -
"Specifically, [a Washington Post reporter] wanted to know whether the White House officials attending that meeting had advised Cardozo on what to do about returning hundreds of thousands of dollars in suspicious checks raised by Charlie Trie, a Little Rock restaurateur who knew Bill Clinton from his days a governor of Arkansas. Some of the checks, delivered by Trie in a brown paper bag, seemed to be legal, but many were written in the same handwriting, with the same misspellings, although each was signed with a different person's name."
Shoffner should not be trusted with our state's treasury.
Let's not all act shocked at once. The state treasurer has for years accepted campaign contributions from the banks in which he/she deposits state funds. And we think nothing of this practice? Where do you think all the state funds are deposited? Why, in banks that make the biggest campaign contributions. How better to determine which bank gets the bucks. Why else do you suppose a candidate would spend five times or more of the annual salary for the office to get elected? Nobody is that stupid. Well, Rick Perry maybe, but few else.
Did we ever get an answer from last weeks Democrat-Gazette article on just who is really is responsible for investing the states funds?
Ms. Shoffner stated that she had a person that handled all of that (Autumn Sanson). Ms Sanson referred all investment questions to Chief Deputy Debbie Rogers. Ms. Rogers claims that all investment decisions are made by Ms. Sanson and Treasurer Shoffner.
I mean REALLY?!
Like Eureka will no doubt second, Shoffer is simply the symptom of the disease.
Too much money is required to run for office and thus practically guarantees corruption.
LIGHTBULP FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!!!
Job pays $54,000 a year but campaign requires many times that to compete!
What is wrong with that math?
Who would ever have enough interest to donate to a Treasurer's race besides those with an angle to gain from it?
When you design a card game that is ignorant and get ignorant outcomes, don't blame the deck of cards.
Dear Joe, you clearly don't know Mac if you would ask that question. Mac would have made us proud, not embarrassed. We can only hope he'll run for office again some day.
Martha is a slimeball Dem. in the image of Nick Wilson. Of course the powers in the Dem. party let old Nick waltz out of the state capital on his own time.
The suspicious check written to Shoffner's campaign was apparently recorded as five separate transactions in her financial disclosure report -
http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/filing_search/…
12/02/2009
Robert Kaplan
850 Third Avenue 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, Attorney
$2,000.00
12/02/2009
Fred Fox
850 Third Ave. 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, LLP, Attorney
$2,000.00
12/02/2009
Richard Kilsheimer
850 Third Ave. 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, LLP, Attorney
$2,000.00
12/02/2009
Donald Hall
850 Third Ave. 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, LLP, Attorney
$2,000.00
12/02/2009
Joel Strauss
850 Third Ave. 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, LLP, Attorney
$2,000.00
It would be interesting to see a copy of the $10,000 check from the law firm. Who put their signature is on it?
The purported donors are all listed as partners at the web site for the New York law firm: http://kaplanfox.com/about/attorneysandsta…
For what it's worth, none of the partners or associates listed at the firm's web site were found in a search for Arkansas licensed attorneys.
And you expected an elected official to NOT be fully owned and operated by the wealthy who can afford to write $10K checks?
I bet if 10,000 ordinary people proposed to give her $1 each, she'd show them the door, insulted at their lack of awareness of the free market price for a State Treasurer.
It will be interesting to see how Shoffner reports the return of the suspicious check on her next financial disclosure report. Will it be a single $10,000 refund to the law firm, or five fictional $2,000 refunds? Charlie Trie had the same dilemma with returning his bundled funds.
Is it true that Lord's Ranch jet will be taking her to Chicago to talk about her new book,
"Why a Woman Should Be Governor of Arkansas"
to be followed by a "leadership" workshop in the Cayman Islands?
And Orville is really sure that Boozman isn't owned by Walmart and the NY bankers. He is so 2-faced that he votes against something and then is there with the pictures when they cut the ribbon on teh project he didn't support. Politicians are just liars and Republicans are the ones setting the standard so low!
This is just another example of her throwing an aide under the bus. A few weeks ago it was Ms. Sanson and this week Mr. Rapert. Thank goodness he was actually able to stand up to her.
well...i hope max goes after her with the zeal he has given to mark martin! comeone max...she is gving you lots of opportunity. i am thankful for michael wickline.
Let me not miss this chance to agree with someone using the Conservative moniker.... a very good job, Wickline!
Couldn't be better - Dems set the standard in Arkansas- Steve Let ME buy another round Clark, Jim Guy To Sly Tucker, Nick it's just the children's money Wilson, Dustin Let's sue Remington Arms McDaniel, Bill got any flags McCuen, JW Southern Manifesto Fulbright, Martha by me off Shoffner, Bill let's pardon Marc Rich Clinton, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Repubs too set the standard...Powell, let's sell sone bonds, Clayton, Tim, She's Just on my staff, Hutchinson, Mike, buy me sone velveeta, Wayne Dumond, Huckabee, Doyle, where there's a will there's a, Webb.
I didn't realize until I Googled her today to learn more about her that she is 67 years old. I'll have to say she doesn't look it, and the Treasurer's web site doesn't mention it. but she graduated from Newport high school in 1962, so figure it out. That makes her a contemporary (almost) of Steve Stephens, the Newport native and father of the young man to whom she recently gave the lucrative investment account, as reported by the Arkansas Blog. Wasn't it Hillary who once said that Arkansas is a small state with a lot of incestuous relationships?
It's curious that this time, there have been exactly zero "LEAVE MISS MARTHA ALONE!" posts here, as there were a couple of weeks ago.
Mrs. Frankweiler.........do you suppose it is because she can't find enough loyal staff members anymore who are willing to stick their necks out for her?
Or maybe they figured out that state employees posting on the government's dime can be traced.
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