Donald Trump quietly Wednesday named some members to an ad hoc commission supposed to look into election fraud and they included some unlikely members, including David Dunn, a former Democratic state representative from  Forrest City.

It’s been so quiet, when I first heard about it this morning, I couldn’t find any White House announcement. Since then, Huffington Post has caught up with some of the members of the commission including Dunn.
Dunn is now in government relations as a principal of Capitol Partners. Said Huffington:

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Dunn, who served in the Arkansas legislature from 2005 to 2011 and now runs a government relations firm, said he was eating dinner with his children when the White House sent out a press release announcing the president intended to appoint him to the commission. Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin (R), an old friend of Dunn’s from the legislature, recommended him to the commission, Dunn said. He said he also spoke with Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and the commission’s vice chair, just once about his interest in the role, but didn’t expect much to come of it until he saw the White House’s press release.

The commission is being viewed with some skepticism, because Kobach has been a font of unsubstantiated election fraud hogwash. Mark Martin, too, has joined in some of Kobach’s enterprises, including an error-riddle voter matchup effort.  The commission is supposed to study the election commission, find things that undermine confidence and make recommendations. The suspicion is it’s expected to justify Donald Trump’s claim that voter fraud explains why he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Every credible study ever done has found true voter fraud — vote by impersonation — almost non-existent.

In a Thursday interview, Dunn sounded openly stunned he was chosen for the role and admitted he did not have any expertise in elections or voting issues.

“I don’t know why this has fallen on my shoulders,” he told HuffPost, adding that he was concerned about voters’ access to the polls, particularly in rural areas of the state. “I’m just a very small old country boy from Arkansas in this bigger commission with Vice President Pence, and I’m just going to do the best I can, to be honest.” 

 Dunn told Huffington Post that he didn’t believe millions voted illegally in 2016 and that Kobach had said he wasn’t looking for rubber stamps. He said he didn’t think Russian election interference would be a topic of commission interest.

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Dunn once headed the Forrest City Chamber of Commerce and was an advisor to Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. He formed Capitol Partners with Melissa Moody, who’d been chief of staff to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. Their lobbying clients, according to public reports, include:

Arkansas Agricultural Aviation Association
Arkansas Convenience Store Association
Arkansas Land Title Association
Arkansas Occupational Therapist Association
Arkansas Optometric Association
Boars Head Provisions
Cal Ripken, Sr Foundation
Ross Group
Woodridge Behavioral Health, LLC

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