Matt Campbell, the blogger responsible for the liberal-leaning Blue Hog Report blog, is under scrutiny by the Arkansas Republican Party. Campbell works for the state Supreme Court as an assistant criminal coordinator.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Republican Party has requested that Campbell’s employer hand over his employment, telephone and email records. According to Tom Larimer, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, the concern is that Campbell’s blog posts may have been done "on state time, on state equipment."
Chase Dugger, the Republican Party’s executive director, said that the party is not making an accusation and was not looking for the blog to come down. "We just want to make sure that partisan political activity is not going on on state time," Dugger said.
The FOI request was made for any records that could show whether or not that has happened. The inquiry, Dugger said, was prompted by the appearance of several posts to the blog, as well as Facebook and Twitter, that appeared to have been done during work hours.
Though Larimer said that Campbell’s email on the state computers is FOIable, Dugger said that the court has not provided the GOP with his emails, claiming an exemption to the FOIA. "We have got back some information," Dugger said. "We may have to ask for more. We’re still digging through it. We didn’t get back everything we asked for. Some of it they claimed exemption on. But we are still looking and seeing if there is anything else we might want to know before we throw our determination out."
Larimer said that if the GOP can get the emails and determines that Campbell has been posting to his blog on state time, it would be a problem.
If that determination is made, Larimer said, Campbell could be barred from blogging during work hours. Depending on the policy of the department where he works, it may also be grounds for Campbell’s termination.
Dugger said that the party would just be looking for Campbell to stop blogging on state time.
"We disagree with some of the stuff that they put up," Dugger said. "Some of it is very liberal. But we’ve never had an issue with him blogging. Everybody has a right to blog. We just don’t want partisan political activity going on at taxpayers’ expense."
Campbell, who has used the FOIA to his advantage for various blog posts, may now understand that it’s a two-way street. As Larimer said, the GOP "made the decision to exercise their rights under the Freedom of Information Act. It’s hard to be critical of them. The rights are there for everybody."
The Blue Hog Report has been taken down, as has the site’s Facebook page.
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