Paid off debts but can’t prove it, 1st District candidate says

Saturday, July 31, 2010

— Rick Crawford, a Republican running for the 1st Congressional District seat, said Friday that he paid back every cent of his $12,611.67 debt legally dissolved by his 1994 bankruptcy.

But he doesn’t have the receipts to back up his assertion that he paid back his creditors by 1998, even though underthe Chapter 7 bankruptcy law, he had no obligation to do so.

“There is no way I can prove it,” Crawford said. “It was the right thing to do.”

The lack of proof raised eyebrows among Democrats. Crawford faces Democrat Chad Causey in November for the eastern Arkansas seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Marion Berry.

“That’s curious,” said state Democratic Party Executive Director Mariah Hatta, who said she would “welcome” evidence of Crawford’s claim.

“This is a matter that only our opponent can speak to,” said Candace Martin, Causey’s spokesman.

Crawford didn’t mention that he had paid back his debt in a Wednesday interview with the ArkansasDemocrat-Gazette.

“In responding to what is a very sensitive issue and a troubling time in my past, I responded to direct questions and answered every question that was asked of me,” Crawford said. “I didn’t volunteer the information, and so a follow-up statement was necessary.”

That follow-up statement was given Thursday to JasonTolbert, a conservative blogger. Tolbert quoted Jonah Shumate, Crawford’s campaign manager, saying that Crawford “made good on all his obligations.”

In a Friday news release, state Democratic Party Chairman Todd Turner called on Crawford to clarify Shumate’s comments, asking whether making good on his obliga-tions meant that Crawford had paid his debt or walked away from it.

Turner then blasted Crawford’s campaign.

“Arkansans deserve better leadership than a hypocritical politician who believes declaring bankruptcy and walking away from thousands of dollars of debt is ‘making good’ on financial obligations,” he said in the release.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Thursday that Crawford filed bankruptcy for $12,611.67 in credit-card and medical debt in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Missouri.

Crawford was 28 and living in Springfield, Mo., at the time.

Crawford had told theDemocrat-Gazette that he hadn’t tried to hide his bankruptcy, confirming it to anyone who asked. He said his personal experience with financial failure might help voters identify with him and, perhaps, allow him to help the country avoid the same fate.

Deficit reduction has been Crawford’s biggest issue so far in the campaign. He beat Wynne Republican Princella Smith in the May primary.

Green Party candidate Kenton Adler and independent candidate Richard Walden are also in the race.

Crawford, 44, a Jonesboro resident, owns a farm-news broadcasting service.

Crawford’s campaign issued a statement late Friday criticizing Causey and state Democrats for questioning Crawford’s character.

“Rick paid off all the debtreferred to in the bankruptcy filing. This is the same kind of D.C.-style personal attack Chad Causey used to tear down a good man in Tim Wooldridge. The fact is that Causey is trying to distract from his poor poll numbers, which continue to sag as more Arkansans become aware of the time he’s spent in Washington advancing the Obama-Pelosi agenda,” Shumate wrote in an e-mail.

Causey of Jonesboro beat Wooldridge, a former state senator from Paragould, in a June 8 runoff election that turned nasty in its final days.

Hatta responded to Shumate’s charges by saying she found it “ironic and humorous that the Republican nominee is attacking the Democratic Party that way, as they have time and time again only been involved in smear tactics backed by outside groups.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/31/2010