Bookout resigns his Senate seat

Probe starts on campaign cash

State Sen. Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, resigned from office Tuesday after a Craighead County circuit judge appointed a special prosecutor to review Bookout’s personal use of more than $53,000 in campaign funds.

Circuit Judge Brent Davis on Tuesday appointed Jack McQuary, a former deputy prosecutor in Pulaski and Saline counties, as special prosecutor in Bookout’s case - a day after Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said he’s recusing to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Davis granted McQuary, a special conflict prosecutor in the state’s prosecutor coordinator’s office, full investigatory and prosecutorial authority, including the power to file and prosecute criminal charges.

Bookout tendered his resignation a day after a former state Democratic Party chairman, Jason Willett of Jonesboro, called for him to quit and on the same day that freshman Rep. Joe Jett, D-Success, recommended that Bookout leave.

Jett and Willett said they worried about how Bookout’s actions would affect Democrats running for the Legislature in northeast Arkansas.

Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, received Bookout’s resignation in a fax from the Stanley Law Firm in Jonesboro on Tuesday at 5:20 p.m., according to a copy provided by Lamoureux.

Bookout’s two-sentence letter to Lamoureux stated: “Please be advised that effective immediately I am resigning from my position as Senator for District 21 of the State of Arkansas.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the people of the State of Arkansas,” said Bookout, who had been in the Senate since April 2006 when he was elected to succeed his late father, Jerry Bookout. The younger Bookout was in the state House from 1999-2005.

Bookout said in a written statement that he made Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe and Lamoureux aware of his resignation Tuesday.

“I am thankful and grateful to the people who have allowed me the opportunity to be a voice for them in the State House and the State Senate on the important issues of our day,” said Bookout.

Bookout declined in an email Tuesday to say why he resigned.

Lamoureux, who succeeded Bookout as the Senate president pro tempore, said of Bookout’s resignation, “It is very sad personally.”

Bookout’s resignation is “the right thing for himself, for the Senate and the people of Arkansas,” Lamoureux said.

He’s said he’s not aware what triggered Bookout to tender his resignation Tuesday.

Senate Republican leader Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot said he wasn’t surprised by Bookout’s decision.

“I’m sure he just felt it was time to do it,” he said.

Beebe said through a spokesman that the resignation is “sad, but under the circumstances it was the right thing for Sen. Bookout to do.”

The Arkansas Ethics Commission on Friday fined Bookout $8,000 - the largest fine the commission has levied since it started operating in 1991 - and issued him a public letter of reprimand for four violations of state ethics laws.

Bookout violated state law by making personal use of $53,305.07 of his campaign funds; not keeping campaign funds separate from personal funds; failing to maintain proper records; and not itemizing 93 campaign expenses totaling $39,647, according to the commission. The commission said Bookout transferred more than $18,000 of his campaign funds into his own bank account and withdrew an additional $6,760 in cash from his campaign account, used more than $5,000 in campaign donations to buy women’s clothing and accessories, and $1,306 to purchase gear at the Ridge-Pointe Country Club pro shop.

Bookout said Monday that he would reimburse his campaign about $49,000 and repay contributors 61 cents on the dollar during the next month.

Bookout is the second Democratic state elected official to resign in the past three months.

State Treasurer Martha Shoffner resigned May 21 after she was arrested by FBI agents in her Newport home.

A federal grand jury handed up an indictment in June charging her with extortion and bribery, saying she accepted $36,000 in payments from an unnamed broker who she had given the lion’s share of the state’s bond business. She has pleaded innocent to six counts of extortion, one count of attempted extortion and seven counts of accepting a bribe as an agent of state government. Her trial is set for March 3.

Two months ago, former Democratic Rep. Hudson Hallum of Marion and his father were sentenced to serve three years’ probation with nine months of home detention for taking part in a 2011 scheme to buy votes with cheap alcohol, chicken dinners and cash. Hallum resigned from his District 54 House seat after pleading guilty Sept. 5 to election-fraud charges alongside his father, Kent Hallum, who was once his campaign manager, and two other men.

Willett, a political consultant, said Tuesday that he called for Bookout’s resignation Monday on Twitter because of of his “extreme disappointment in Sen. Bookout’s’ actions and concern for the honest, hardworking public servants in the Democratic Party who will be unfairly tied to this issue.”

He said he worried that “highly ethical Democrats serving northeast Arkansas in the Legislature,” who have done nothing wrong, “will be accused of guilt by association for being in the same political party.”

After Bookout resigned, Willett said Bookout “owed all of us more and should have resigned on Friday.”

Earlier Tuesday, Jett said he was worried Bookout’s actions might affect House Democratic legislative races in northeast Arkansas.

“We have got good candidates up there,” he said.

“We have got people down here in Little Rock that make mistakes and make us all look bad. We are very much concerned about [Democratic Reps.] Harold Copenhaver, Mary Broadaway, Scott Baltz - the northeast Arkansas candidates. It is a sad situation,” Jett said.

Copenhaver, Broadaway and Baltz live in Jonesboro, Paragould, and Pocahontas, respectively.

“I think [Bookout] needs to resign,” Jett had said.

“I think it’s a cloud over this institution. I have had more people call me over this issue than I had over the private option [authorizing the use of federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private insurance through healthcare exchanges for about 250,000 uninsured Arkansans],” Jett said.

Batlz had said Bookout probably needs to resign, but he wasn’t worried about how Bookout’s actions would affect his re-election bid.

Baltz and Jett could not be reached for further comment after Bookout resigned.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said Beebe met Monday with some members of the House Democratic caucus, who were considering calling for Bookout’s resignation, and the governor advised them to contact Bookout before publicly calling on the senator to quit. He declined to say how many House Democrats Beebe met with.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Curtis Coleman of Little Rock and Debra Hobbs of Rogers, a state representative, and GOP lieutenant governor candidate Charlie Collins of Fayetteville, a state representative, were among those who called for Bookout’s resignation last week.

State Democratic Party spokesman Candace Martin said Bookout’s resignation “is certainly a sad and disappointing situation, but resigning was the right and appropriate thing to do.”

The state Republican Party believes that Bookout “made the appropriate decision in choosing to resign,” said state GOP spokesman David Ray.

“It is important that he be replaced with a common-sense conservative voice who will work to restore trust to that office,” Ray said.

DeCample said Beebe today will begin planning for a special election to fill Bookout’s seat.

With Bookout gone, the Senate is now composed of 21 Republicans and 13 Democrats. The House is made up of 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and a Green Party representative.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/21/2013

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