State Sen.-elect David Wallace, R-Leachville, owed himself $94,402.42 as of Saturday after lending his Senate campaign $130,017.95, according to his latest campaign finance report.
In his ouster of state Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, Wallace reported raising $85,955 in contributions, spending $179,239.13 and earning $8.37 in interest, according to the campaign finance report filed last week with the secretary of state's office.
Wallace is among five legislative candidates in Arkansas to lend their campaigns more than $100,000 during the past several years, based on a search through the Institute on Money in State Politics website.
The others were unsuccessful Senate candidate Chad Niell, a Jonesboro Republican who reported lending his campaign $203,500 in a special primary election in 2013; unsuccessful Senate candidate and former Rep. Dan Greenberg, a Little Rock Republican who reported lending his Senate primary campaign $185,000 in 2010; unsuccessful Senate candidate and former Rep. Ken Cowling, a Texarkana Democrat who reported lending his primary campaign $131,511 in 2010; and unsuccessful Senate candidate R.D. Hopper, a Cabot Republican who reported lending his campaign $117,993 for last year's March primary.
A candidate who lends his campaign money can repay himself from contributions to his campaign, including those given after the election. In Senate District 22, Wallace won with 60.4 percent of the vote to Burnett's 39.6 percent, according to the secretary of state's office. The salary for the legislative job is $39,400 a year, plus per diem and mileage for attending legislative meetings.
Wallace, owner of a disaster recovery company and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said Monday that it's been difficult to raise campaign funds to pay off his debt to himself, despite his victory over Burnett.
He said it would probably take at least a few years to raise money to pay off his campaign debt. "It will take a long time to chew that up," he said.
Wallace said Burnett "probably was better at raising money than I was. It's not been easy."
Wallace has served in the House since 2015. Burnett, an attorney and former circuit judge and prosecutor, has served in the Senate since 2011.
Wallace said he doesn't regret lending his campaign more than $130,000.
"No regrets at all," he said. "I ran to help people who need help. It's a chance to give back."
According to Burnett's latest campaign finance report, filed Dec. 10, he raised $125,375 in contributions and spent $144,981.06, leaving him with a campaign debt of $16,716.65 through Dec. 8.
Burnett said Monday that "everything I owed, I paid for."
"I paid it out of my personal funds -- not out of campaign funds -- because I didn't have any campaign funds [left over]," he said.
Burnett said he would file a final campaign report to show that he used his personal funds to pay off his campaign debt.
According to Burnett and Wallace, each has one ethics complaint filed against him that hasn't been resolved.
In September, Boyd Thomas of Osceola, who described himself as a volunteer for Burnett's campaign, said he mailed a complaint to the Ethics Commission that questions whether Wallace has used funds beyond his own personal funds to lend money to his Senate campaign. Wallace said he has used only his personal funds to make the loans to his campaign.
Wallace said the commission asked for documents that show where his personal funds to make the loans came from and that "I have shown where my money came from."
In September, Craighead County Republican Party Chairman Billie Sue Hoggard filed an ethics complaint against Burnett alleging that he illegally accepted contributions from 14 businesses and entities.
Burnett subsequently reported returning more than a dozen campaign contributions totaling more than $5,800. He has said his campaign made the mistakes unintentionally.
A Section on 01/03/2017