Monday, January 28, 2013
Arkansas Politics House has nine spouses on payroll
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Old habits die hard. We may have a new Republican majority in the legislature, but like the old Democratic majority, it still doesn't hurt to have a lawmaker spouse to land a part-time job during the legislative session.
Here's the House list of personnel and their pay.
The list includes eight nine legislative spouses: Janie Baltz, Jamie Linck and Dee Holcomb, who work with pages; Susan Altes, Lawanda Dale, Linda Carnine and Tara Douglas, who works as receptionists; and Tom Fite, assistant chief sergeant at arms. Tom Fite is husband of Charlene Fite, a Republican elected this year. You might remember Tom Fite because he mounted a race for legislature two years ago. He was removed from the ballot because of a federal court Medicaid fraud conviction. No disqualifier for maintaining order in the House.
CORRECTION: My original post omitted George Overbey among the spouses. He was not identified as Rep. Betty Overbey's husband on the list provided by the House staff, perhaps because he's a former legislator himself. He's a $475/week sergeant-at-arms. That makes him the third Democratic spouse
The other workers are paid from $482 (for Fite) to $522 (for Baltz) per week.
Of the eight, Baltz and Holcomb are spouses of Democrats.
I have a request for the Senate list.
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