Jason Tolbert & Matt Campbell
Jason Tolbert with The Tolbert Report and Matt Campbell with Blue Hog Report discuss legislation they’re glad didn’t pass in the recent regular session.
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My problem with Matt Campbell is the same problem that I have with Ernest Dumas and Max Brantley. Don’t get me wrong. I want “The Blue Hog Report” to come back. Nevertheless, there is a problem that I have with these three journalists. Take a look at the article, “Pious Profiteers,” Arkansas Times Blog, April 13, 2011, by Ernest Dumas:
Republicans were elected en masse last year to cut taxes and stop all the socialism and rampant spending…What happened was that an industrious blogger — a Democrat naturally — did something devilish to embarrass the self-styled penny pinchers. He unlocked the poorly kept secret that each of them was collecting far more in illegal salary supplements from the taxpayers…
The problem I have with Matt Campbell, Max Brantley and Ernest Dumas is very simple. They all three believe that Republicans are hypocrites for taking their pay in the same system that the Democratic leadership set up almost twenty years ago. They justify just being critical of the Republicans because they want to cut the size of government!!!!!! It is true they will occasionally mention that Democrats live under the same system, but they spend 99% of their time beating their drum about the Republicans!!!! Remember the control of all the branches of the government in 1993 was in Democratic hands when these changes were made!!!!! The Republicans were just an afterthought.
Also I was interested in why Campbell did not turn over his emails and why his Facebook page was shut down which would have easily shown the times of his posts while his website does not. The real issue is if he did his blogging while on the state’s time, and I think we all know the answer is yes. Why else is he shutting down his website and Facebook page and running for the woods? Again I will repeat that I do want the “Blue Hog Report” to return.
As has been reported, this week Republican Party of Arkansas executive director Chase Dugger filed a Freedom of Information Request regarding the employment records of bloggers Matt Campbell and Jeff Woodmansee…
Dugger confirmed that he filed three requests on behalf of the state party, two on Tuesday regarding Campbell’s current employment with the criminal coordinator’s office of the state Supreme Court and Campbell’s former employment at the Public Defender Commission and another on Thursday for Jeff Woodmansee’s employment at the Pulaski Law Library at UALR.
Campbell runs the website Blue Hog Report and his friend Woodmansee sometimes contributes guest blog posts. The website went off line shortly after the second request came on Woodmansee.
In an interview with the Tolbert Report on Thursday evening, Dugger said the party is still going through the returned documents and at this point is not completely sure what all it includes. He promise to provide copies of the request and the returned document on Friday.
“We wanted to make sure there was not partisan political activity taking place on state time,” said Dugger when asked what the purpose of the request and insisted it was not due to the fact that the bloggers were critical of Republicans. He held he would have filed the request even if Campbell and Woodmansee were conservatives if he believed they were blogging on state time.
When asked how they knew bloggers Campbell and Woodmansee were state employees he responded, “Do you think Matt Campbell and Zac Wright are the only ones that can do research?” When asked to clarify, he said the party had researched this after concerns were raised during the legislative session although he did not say specifically who had raised these concerns.
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I am not saying that Max Brantley, Ernie Dumas and Matt Campbell should not take up the subject of State Represenative and State Senator pay, but they should approach it in a balanced way. Now that Matt Campbell is off the web for a little while, I will continue to read the writings of Brantley and Dumas like I have always done. I am sure Campbell will be back soon. At least I hope so.
