KATV reports that the state Ethics Commission has dismissed complaints filed by Little Rock lawyer Matt Campbell against Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Treasurer Dennis Milligan for campaigning in Iowa for doomed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee during state working hours.
The officials said they took personal leave to campaign. Campbell argued that there’s no provision for personal leave for constitutional offices.
I always thought this was a stretch. The Constitution doesn’t require the attorney general or treasurer to work. They can get elected, be paid and never go to the office, though it helps if they have assistants to actually get assigned tasks of their offices completed.
The Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint for a specific reason, however, apart from what constitutes required work. It said the prohibition on campaigning for a candidate for office applies, by terms of another statute, only to offices in Arkansas, not federal offices.
Campaigning for Mike Huckabee is the real offense, without need of Ethics Commission adjudication.