A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
A $19,000 lectern for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sparks call for legislative audit
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is facing scrutiny over the purchase of a $19,000 lectern and the handling or records surrounding it.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders rose to national prominence in part during her time at the lectern as White House press secretary, but the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for the Arkansas governor is undergoing scrutiny and prompting claims that records about it have been altered.
A legislative panel next week will take up a lawmaker’s request for an audit to review the purchase of the lectern, which was bought in June for $19,029.25 with a state credit card. The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
“From my experience, where we’re at with this particular thing is we need to allow legislative audit go in,” Republican Sen. Jimmy Hickey, who requested the audit, said. “Everyone knows them, they do their work, they’re very thorough and then they produce a detailed report that comes to the Legislature through an open committee.”
Arkansas native here. Word on the street is SHS paid for a vacation for a friend using state money. When people started asking questions, suddenly a new lectern appeared, and her government was shielded from FOIA requests. Thats why people are calling for an audit.
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15Hickey was pushed out as state Senate leader, he has an axe to grind and isn't afraid of a primary.
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I've been slacking... I should've posted this over in /c/arkansas long ago.
11Ah, yup, there it is. Good old fashioned embezzlement.
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I'll be honest.. I only clicked on this article because I was curious as to what a $19,000 lectern looks like. 🤷
40You'll have to keep looking because this thing was <$1K on Amazon
6Turns out, extremely yonic
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The Arkansas Republican Party reimbursed the state last month for the wood-paneled and blue lectern, which the state received in August.
Is this typical for the party to reimburse the state for an elected official? If it was reimbursed from campaign funds, wouldn't that be covered by campaign finance laws? Sounds like either the Republican Party is trying to cover it up by reimbursing for it, or they're doing weird accounting to get through a loophole of campaign finance laws.
40It's a coverup. There only defense is "we made an oopsy. This was supposed to be bought with private funds and now it is after it became a clear case of grift. Nothing to see here, tee hee."
16Is there ever a time where it is above board for these types of reimbursements to happen? Seems like it should be something illegal already, but maybe there's something I'm missing?
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So is this how Republicans are supposedly such responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars?
Sheesh, she's even giving the Pentagon a run for their money (no pun intended):
These Toilet Seat Lids Aren’t Gold-Plated but They Cost $14,000
31Working as intended. Having the government overpay tenfold for goods and services is neoliberals favourite method of converting public funds into private profit.
10Lord knows when I think of SHS and The Pentagon I think of neolibs.
5I used to work in aerospace and we had a few government customers. Every single government part was sold to a contractor who then flipped it to the government for like 10x what they paid for it.
It was real annoying when they needed parts for old aircraft with deprecated specifications/components that were no longer available because the contractors had no engineering staff so we couldn't ask them for clarification on which parts/specs to use beyond standard military supercessions which sometimes had no suitable replacements.
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Why on earth would that cost 20 grand? That thing is ugly as fuck
26You sound like someone that doesn't know shit about fancy lecterns.
17Of course it costs 20 grand, look at all that embellishment!
Sorry, I meant embezzlement.
17It’s called money laundering.
10They bought it on Temu. She wanted to shop like a billionaire.
4As a amateur furniture maker, I could totally figure out how to make this thing cost $20k. It'd look so much cooler than this shit though....
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“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Haha so I guess "bold conservative reforms" is their new code phrase for hatred and intolerance.
23And "we had to buy a $19k lectern...it was to good a price to pass up"
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The party of fiscal responsibility!
21I can’t believe someone paid $19,000 for that ugly piece of junk.
20That's the state that just wrecked child labor laws, right?
19It should be removed one day and replaced with four empty boxes and a big lots desktop microphone.
14Republicunts. The original welfare queens.
11lol literally nothing will happen because literally nothing ever does. Everything is farce now.
11This is the best summary I could come up with:
The lectern’s purchase was first uncovered by Matthew Campbell, an attorney and blogger who has sued State Police for withholding records he had requested about Sanders’ travel and security.
Days after Campbell filed his initial suit, Sanders called a special legislative session and proposed broad exemptions to the state’s open records law.
Sanders signed into law a measure restricting the public’s access to her travel and security records after she and lawmakers backed off more widespread exemptions that faced backlash from media groups, transparency advocates and some conservatives.
According to Mars’ letter, the interference includes the governor’s office altering an invoice from Beckett Events LLC, the Virginia firm listed as the seller of the lectern.
“This is nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas,” Henning said in a statement.
Hickey’s request also asks for an audit of all matters regarding security and travel records for the governor or her office that were retroactively made confidential by the law she signed last month.
The original article contains 745 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
7That thing is hideous.
6As befits.
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When you elect stinky fish, don't be surprised when it starts to rot. Let's be real, she should be nowhere in sight of a position of power.
5Ok I thought Lizz Truss' podium was expensive.
4I mean, it is made out of wood. Have you seen lumber prices?
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1Man they got fucking robbed. Amazon has it for only $944 The Amazon review though...
If you are concerned about wasteful spending I highly recommend going with this price from Amazon
EDIT: Yes, I'm pretty sure they paid $1,000 for it and then reported $19,000 pocketing the difference. As someone who has lived their whole life in Tennessee (and has worked for a period of time in State Government), that's Southern politics 101. Days where they aren't fleecing the taxpayer are few and far between here in the Southeastern US.
0Structural integrity and strength is required to support her gunt
0Hopefully it's made with steel I-beams.
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Arkansas could have had an Urban Planner with a Master's Degree as their Governor but he was black and Republicans aren't Racist.
0That wood grain on the front though.
0It's one ugly-ass lectern - but I still wood.
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