Remember when the Secretary of State’s office and the state Republican Party filed FOIA requests to try to catch the authors of the now-defunct Blue Hog Report blogging and Tweeting on state time? (Republican Party of Arkansas Executive Director Chase Duggar said there was no connection between the SOS office and the FOIA request, although he admitted to meeting with Mark Martin and former press aide Alice Stewart the day before the request was made.) Well, now comes Secretary of State Mark Martin – wait for it – sending out political tweets on state time. Earlier this afternoon, Martin made these three posts to his Twitter account:

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Like how Martin channeled his Nascar namesake? Notice also the tag “via web.” This means the tweets were sent from a computer or the web browser of a phone with an internet connection (although it’s easier to use apps for that sort of thing).

According to spokesman Alex Reed, Martin sent the tweets from his personal cell phone, not a state computer. Martin was at work today, not on vacation. As for sending out political tweets on state time? Reed said the tweets weren’t political.

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I don’t feel like the word liberal is partisan. Partisan, in my mind, would imply one of two parties. I’m sorry if people feel like the word Liberal is synonymous with one of the major parties.

Something tells me the RPA isn’t going to be quite as concerned about Martin’s misuse of state time as they were about the Blue Hog Report – the authors of which never used state time to do their blogging and tweeting, as it turned out.

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