Official: Email not from Chamber of Commerce

The Texarkana Chamber of Commerce on Thursday disavowed a political email its members received that claimed to be sent on the chamber’s behalf.

An organization called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage sent the email, which sought contact with business people who support a ballot initiative to raise Arkansas’ minimum wage.

It began with “Subject: Referral from Texarkana Chamber of Commerce - 10-24-2018” and ended with “This email has been sent on behalf of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce.”

Chamber President and CEO Michael Malone quickly sent his own emails and wrote a Facebook post informing the membership that the chamber was not involved with the email at all.

“We have not endorsed any ballot issues. Please disregard,” he wrote. He also demanded that the organization stop using the chamber’s name.

Andrew Connor, Business for a Fair Minimum Wage’s director of outreach, said the attribution to the chamber was a mistake he made when trying to use the chamber’s online membership directory.

“That email was an error on my part, and definitely not any effort on the part of myself or the campaign to misrepresent the source of the email or the relationship of the chamber. I made a mistake when using the member directory platform on the chamber’s website, which auto-filled a subject line that I wasn’t aware of when I was trying to test send an email,” he said via email in response to questions from the Gazette.

The organization made the same explanation to Malone and apologized.

“Whether they did it intentionally or whether it was a mistake, I can only go by what they told me, and they said it was a mistake,” Malone said. “Once it’s out there, it’s out there. There isn’t too much I can do about it other than disclaim that we had anything to do with it, and that was conveyed to our general membership and our governing board.”

The chamber does rarely endorse legislation and government policy positions, but only after members initiate a process of deliberation.

“If we have enough groundswell support from our general membership, it will go before the board of directors, and the board of directors will make a decision if they want to endorse it or not. They’re not addressing any of the ballot issues this year,” Malone said.