John Burris: Kudos For Auditor Andrea Lea

I’ve been thinking that someone ought to say some nice things about Andrea Lea, our Republican Auditor of State. She’s done much over the years but is easy to forget today, as she’s been quietly doing her job and avoiding headlines, not creating them.

With seven constitutional officers, a few are certain to be better than the others. Some of her competition makes it easier to appreciate competence. Hiring family, deleting emails, and seemingly running afoul of other laws or ethical boundaries has defined Dennis Milligan’s short tenure. It’s like Hillary Clinton meets Fredo Corleone from “The Godfather,” meaning the low ethics and insecurity of a Clinton but without the same capacity it takes to conceal it.

But Auditor Lea is the John Thurston of 2015. That means competent and quiet.

She’s made news a couple of times. The first was when she announced she wouldn’t be remodeling her Capitol office, meaning the dated paneling would just have to do. This is despite it being the only constitutional office that hasn’t been recently updated. She would have been justified to spend the money, but she didn’t.

That’s in contrast to Milligan, who announced a major renovation to a perfectly fine office space. The vision – as described to TV stations and newspapers – is to make the place fitting for his employees to wear colonial garb, perhaps passing out trinkets with his face on it.

Again to the contrast, Lea’s most recent headline came as a result of her office’s aggressive efforts to return unclaimed property to its rightful owner, a core task of the Auditor.

The staff discovered that among the unclaimed items from one safety deposit box was a Purple Heart and bronze star for a now deceased Vietnam veteran. They tracked down the family and returned the items to the daughter, who assumed that all were lost forever.

It was the decent thing to do, but it was also good government at its absolute best.

As time goes on, we’ll see more stories of success from this constitutional office. That’s because of Lea’s personality and her qualifications.

Her healthy resume is a helpful thing. Lea served on the quorum court, city council, and in the state legislature. The opinions of Representative Lea certainly differed based on who you asked. She wasn’t furniture.

In the early years, Democrats loved to hate her. But they loved to hate on anyone who was a threat to their now extinct empire. She was an easy target mostly because of how hard she worked.

When I was the House Minority Leader, Lea served as the Caucus secretary. We spent much of our time in the interim working to elect more than the 26 other Republicans we served with. She deserves much of the credit for the election of the 46 Republicans we served with following the 2010 election.

Her personality – I think – is what you’d expect from someone with her life experiences. A Catholic Army-brat who didn’t go to college until her 40’s, Lea wears it on her sleeve, for better or worse.

I’ve known her since I was in college, which means 2004. I was volunteering on Election Day as a College Republican at Arkansas Tech University. She stormed out of the polling site mad at some “liberal asshole lawyer guy” who made her take off her golden elephant broach before voting. He said it was campaign paraphernalia.

She didn’t even introduce herself; she just kept walking. The old county chairman told me that she was Councilwoman Andrea Lea and that I’d get to know her whether I wanted to or not.

As you might imagine, we’ve butted heads from time to time. That’s what happens with two people who are the butting heads type. But overall, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more honest and sincere person.

It’s always nice when things go like they should. In this case, I’m very happy to have Andrea Lea sitting in that un-remodeled, dark-paneled office of the Auditor of State. She’s earned it and is doing the job well.

That won’t get a headline, but it’s the way it’s supposed to be.

And it looks even better when compared to others.