Coleman To Advise Secretary Of State Mark Martin (update)

Secretary of State Mark Martin has had a rocky start to his time in office, but rest assured – help is on the way.  The Tolbert Report confirmed Thursday night that former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Curtis Coleman, is forming a committee that will be reviewing the office processes and advising them on how to make improvements.

According to office spokesman Mark Myers, Secretary Martin approached Coleman about the idea a couple of months ago.  As part of the consulting work from the Soderquist Center, Martin asked Coleman to form a committee that would help review and advise the office. Myers stated that the committee’s mission will be "to make sure everything we do fits inside that conservative framework that we campaigned on."

The committee will be made up of around nine people who will review job descriptions and see if they match up to the person in that position.

"They will be reviewing if our office is doing everything we are constitutionally required to do and also if we are doing anything we should not be doing," said Myers.

Coleman and members of the committee he is heading up will be unpaid volunteers.

UPDATE – The Secretary of State’s office released the full list of the committee today. All ten names have a markedly Republican bent – former Republican state representatives Dan Greenberg and (and Coleman’s brother-in-law) Sid Rosenbaum, former spokesman for Gov. Huckabee (and borther-in-law) Jim Harris, Washington County Republican JP Tom Lumdstrum, and Faulkner County Tea Party organizer David Crow. Two members were contributors to Coleman’s Senate campaign including Tom Bryant and Dan Hebert, and Julie Harris worked for Coleman’s campaign. Hebert and Harris both serve as board members for the Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy. One other committee member John Scott Bull of Fayetteville has contributed to Republicans candidates such as John Boozman and George Bush.

This is nothing against any of these individuals – many of which I know to be fine Arkansans. But it is notable considering Martin campaign pledge to make the Secretary of State’s office non-partisan.