The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette shined its spotlight on Arkansas Board of Trustees Chair Kelly Eichler for its High Profile feature on Sunday, but it left something out.
The story focused on Eichler’s legal career, her work as a criminal justice advisor for former Gov. Mike Huckabee and her role as the chair of the UA board. The story also noted Eichler’s role as deputy chief of staff for Gov. Sarah Sanders.
Eichler left the governor’s office in December. Sanders praise Eichler for her “instrumental” work on the governor’s legislative achievements.
What the story didn’t include is that Eichler is an owner of Good Day Farm Arkansas, a medical marijuana cultivator that contributed $100,000 to support a ballot measure that would expand the state medical marijuana program. In 2022, the company donated $3.15 million to support an unsuccessful amendment that would have legalized adult-use marijuana in the state.
Eichler became an owner of the business in 2020 when Good Day Farm purchased Natural State Wellness Cultivation and moved the business from Newport to Pine Bluff. According to records with the state Medical Marijuana Commission, Eichler owns 206,121 units of ownership in the business through an entity known as KEMC Capital Investment LLC. Eichler’s ownership stake amounts to less than 1% of the company.
Sanders and her father have been staunchly opposed to marijuana expansion in Arkansas. In 2022, Huckabee made a video for the Family Council Action Committee in which he said a recreational marijuana amendment would have helped drug cartels and that the cannabis industry would “make a buck off gullible people.” That ad, which included dystopian images of homelessness and drug addiction, is no longer available on YouTube.
This year, several Sanders associates, including Sanders’ campaign manager Chris Caldwell, formed a ballot question committee to oppose the amendment that would expand the state medical marijuana program. The group has raised $375,000, and used some of it to push misleading messaging that attempts to tie the amendment to a takeover by Chinese business interests. The director of the Arkansas Cannabis Industry Association, which supports the amendment, called that message “ludicrous” and “ridiculous.”
It’s unclear if Sanders knows that Eichler, the leader of the UA board and a former gubernatorial staffer, is an owner of a medical marijuana business. But it’s clear Eichler is a fan of the governor.
“I continue to support Gov. Sanders and stand ready should she need me in the future,” Eichler told the Democrat-Gazette.
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