Denny Altes: Abuse Of Power?

It seems like every other week a Republican state legislator is in the news for acting badly in some form or another. 

Today in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story, it appears that Republican State Representative Denny Altes (R-Fort Smith) attempted to abuse his power as an elected official to benefit his son’s company.

Robert Altes, owner of Altes Sanitation Services, has a case before the state Court of Appeals involving unemployment benefits for a former employee of his company.  According to the article, Rep. Denny Altes called the Chief Deputy of the Court of Appeals on Monday and threatened to "hold up somebody’s budget" after inquiring about his son’s case.  While he apparently didn’t say whose budget he was referring to, I’d say it’s fair to surmise he was referring to the state Court of Appeals budget since he was talking to the chief employee of that department.

Threatening to hold up a separate branch of government’s budget because your son’s company has a case before the court is a horrible abuse of power. 

At first, Denny Altes told the reporter he didn’t remember threatening to hold up anyone’s budget, but in a later interview his memory was apparently refreshed and Altes said he might have been referring to the state Department of Workforce Services. Yet why was he having this budget conversation with a Court of Appeals employee and not a Department of Workforce Service employee?

It appears that Robert Altes’ company was late in filing appeal paperwork and that the former employee was fired for defending himself after being attacked by a fellow employee of Altes’s company.  All I know about the case is what I read in the paper, but filing paperwork after the legal deadline is grounds enough to grant the former employee unemployment benefits.

Max Brantley over at the Arkansas Blog has a story on how the Republican House Minority Leader John Burris takes issue with someone blowing the whistle on Altes’ abuse of power.  I guess the public shouldn’t hear about it when elected officials attempt to use their influence to benefit their families. 

Denny Altes now joins the ranks of Republican state legislators such as Mark Biviano, Nate Bell, Jon Hubbard & Bruce Holland who have embarrassed the office of state legislator.