{"id":701,"date":"2007-11-02T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-02T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=701"},"modified":"2007-11-02T20:50:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-02T20:50:00","slug":"free-transport-huckabee-and-family-p-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=701","title":{"rendered":"Free Transport: Huckabee and family (p. 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“(a)
\nNo constitutional officer or employee of a constitutional officer shall expend
\nfor personal use any moneys <\/span>appropriated by the General Assembly for the maintenance and operation
\nof the office, and the moneys appropriated for <\/span>the maintenance and operation of the offices of
\nthe constitutional officers shall be expended only for official state <\/span>business.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

(b) This subchapter does not
\napply to the purchase, maintenance, and operation of state-owned motor
\nvehicles.”<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nits 1997 opinion the Ethics Commission noted that “if the State Police
\ndetermine that it is in the best interest of the security of the Governor to
\ntransport him in his plane, there are no statutory restrictions preventing the
\nGovernor’s use of the ASP plane, regardless of the nature of the journey.”
\nHowever, there was an important caveat:<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

“That
\nsaid, the Commission is not willing to opine that the ASP plane can be used by
\nthe Governor for any reason. In <\/span>this regard, the Office of the Governor furnished the
\nCommission with a set of voluntarily adopted internal policies that <\/span>restrict the use of state-owned airplanes, to wit:<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

1.  
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>State airplanes do not transport the Governor on journeys that are
\nsolely political in nature.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

2.  
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>State airplanes do not transport the Governor on journeys that are
\nsolely religious in nature.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

3.  
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>State airplanes do not transport the Governor on non-official,
\nout-of-state trips or for any personal trips solely related <\/span>to outside business or investment activities.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\npart of Arkansas law most closely related to the subject was written before the
\nstate owned an airplane and therefore does not address it, allowing the
\ngovernor’s office to utilize the plane without restriction as part of his
\nsecurity needs. However, neither the State Police nor Huckabee will discuss how
\nthose security needs are determined <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d even after
\ntravel is completed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d so it is impossible to know why the airplane is so
\ncrucial for his personal safety.<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nshort, “security” seems to be a magic word that, when uttered,
\neliminates the need for the Huckabee administration to account for the
\nexpenditure of public money. Ask Huckabee how he justifies using the
\nstate-owned plane, and he <\/span>cites “security” and refers additional questions to the State
\nPolice. Ask the State Police how they determine whether the <\/span>plane is necessary for the
\ngovernor’s security, and they cite “security.” Ask in retrospect why
\nin a particular instance <\/span>the plane was
\nnecessary for the governor’s security, and they cite “security.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Most
\nof Huckabee’s out-of-state travel on the state-owned airplane (as documented
\npreviously in the Times) is <\/span>connected to his involvement in the National Governors Association and
\nsimilar organizations, arguably related to his <\/span>public office. However, in August the plane
\nretrieved Huckabee in New Hampshire, where he was making political appearances
\nbefore Republican groups. He did fly on from there to a governor’s meeting in
\nanother state so mat <\/span>Huckabee could
\nperhaps argue this trip was not “exclusively” for political purposes.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“(a) No constitutional officer or employee of a constitutional officer shall expend for personal use any moneys appropriated by the General Assembly for the maintenance and operation of the office, and the moneys appropriated for the maintenance and operation of the offices of the constitutional officers shall be expended only for official state business. (b) … Continue reading Free Transport: Huckabee and family (p. 3)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-state-government-offenses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}