On Monday, an ethics complaint was filed against Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels (D) for producing a state-financed voter guide that many view as nothing more than a reelection advertisement.
The back cover of the "Voting 101 Pocket Guide" distributed to county courthouses statewide bear the words "Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels" beneath "ELECT," an acronym for "Energetic Leadership Educating Citizens Together," which is included in smaller type.
Daniels maintains that it "was never intended for [the guide] to be subtly or otherwise a campaign piece." Moreover, thousands of identical voter guides have been used for educational purposes since 2004, before he was a political candidate.
It should be interesting to see what the Ethics Commission says about the booklet.
And whether or not the guide amounts to an abuse of political office, Daniels may have a tough reelection bid ahead of him. Republican challenger Jim Lagrone has held Daniels responsible for voter machine malfunctions throughout the state during the May primary, citing programming glitches and ballot-counting delays.
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