Not that you might have noticed, but Alex Reed is no longer in the Arkansas secretary of state's office. He's resigned as "internal communications manager," though exactly what his presence there communicated remains a mystery to us. A political operative who's flitted from job to job before leaving in the wake of a fresh scandal, Mr. Reed hasn't compiled a résumé so much as a list of embarrassments. Mr. Reed is now leaving the secretary of state's office not quite three months after he resigned from Pulaski County's election commission after it was revealed he'd been listed as campaign treasurer for a Republican candidate, which would have made him ineligible to serve as a commissioner.
That unsuccessful candidate for Congress was Ann Clemmer, who removed him as treasurer of her campaign because of what was said to be "unauthorized disbursements" amounting to $22,007.83, though $7,871.73 of that amount was later refunded to him, which the campaign later decided was $538.91 more than it should have refunded to him.
What a tangled web we weave when we get involved with an apparatchik like Alex Reed. Even now we wouldn't swear those were the exact amounts he owed the Clemmer campaign or it owed him. All we know for sure is that he's left a confusing trail behind him in his checkered career.
But now, says Mr. Reed, he has "been given a fantastic opportunity to advance my career and educational opportunities that I cannot pass up." Just what that opportunity is, he wasn't saying at last report, but let's hope it's not fantastic beyond belief. The word is that it's not in Arkansas, which may be a relief for the state's Republican establishment, since he's embarrassed it more than once before. Here's hoping he has better luck wherever he's going, and so does whoever may be hiring him this time.
Editorial on 07/23/2014