State Auditor Andrea Lea, who began her tenure in statewide office with a degree of competence unseen in some other Republican counterparts (think Treasurer Dennis Milligan particularly), is becoming more deeply mired in a political embarrassment.

Reporting by Arkansas Business eventually nailed down the obvious influence of political fixer John Goodson in Lea's choice of a law firm (pals of Goodson) to handle a potentially huge lawsuit over state efforts to capture unclaimed federal savings bonds. Goodson was a campaign contributor to Lea. She ignored another law firm that had pioneered the strategy for going after this potential windfall. We wrote about the political connections last August.

It's smelly, but typical political stuff, to guide business to your contributors or friends of theirs. But the embarrassment deepens. Lea attempted to keep her business secret by instructing staff to conduct business through private e-mail accounts, under the mistaken belief that this would shield the conduct of state business from scrutiny under the Freedom of Information Act. And, still worse, she denied to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that she had instructed anyone to do such a thing. A former staffer has now produced copies of her e-mails instructing use of private accounts.

She is mandating that state business be conducted on state email by all employees. She said she is drafting an email retention policy. She is providing cellphones for administrative staff "for the purposes of accurate record keeping and to prevent inadvertent intermingling of state and personal business," according to a statement.