Arkansas Republicans on Thursday approved an audit of their governor’s purchases after a blogger’s open-records requests unleashed a political storm that has resulted in claims about the state altering public documents.
At the center of the controversy: a $19,000 lectern for Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
What started with raised eyebrows over a hefty price tag has given rise to questions about the state’s handling of public information requests. Now, a Republican legislative panel will audit the lectern purchase, as well as how Sanders’s office handles open-records requests.
In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesperson for Sanders said the governor’s office welcomes the audit, calling the situation “nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the legislature has passed and the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas.”
Yet questions about the timing of the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursing Sanders’s office for the lectern have led to scrutiny of the purchase — including from some in the governor’s political party.
Read More: What to know about Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s $19,000 lectern