Former Washington County Republican Chairman Jim Reavis of Fayetteville paid $6,350 in cash for 127 people to join the county committee in late 2015, then-county Chairman Lance Johnson said in a letter to the FBI.
"I am not sure what steps to take or if this rises to a level of interest for the FBI," Johnson's letter said. "My goal is to make you aware that we are very suspicious of that amount of cash being used for this purpose." Johnson never heard back from the FBI, he said Wednesday. Reavis said he was never interviewed by investigators about the matter.
Reavis paid the fees in the last hour before filing for office closed at noon the day the fees were paid, the letter states.
The FBI letter and other records shed light on a fight for control of the county's GOP that lasted from late 2015 to August 2016. That fight became public as early as July 2016. Documents, including a copy of Johnson's letter to the FBI, started arriving at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in January.
Reavis disputed paying that much for that many in an interview Wednesday. He was not the only person to pay such fees for others on Nov. 9, 2015, and at the same time, he said. He was not aware of Johnson's Nov. 16, 2015, letter until told about it last week, he said.
The purpose of seeking out committee members and donations to pay their membership fees was to put more "traditional Republicans," he said, in charge of the committee for one of the state's largest counties. The county committee had 110 members on it before Reavis' filings, according to Johnson.
The committee carries out the goals set by the party's county convention, which chooses the leadership. Reavis wanted a change in the party's direction, he said. But many of the committee members he recruited were later declared inactive and the dispute is finished, copies of email and other documents also show.
The state GOP agreed with Johnson's interpretation of party rules and the committee's decision to declare many of its new members inactive and nonvoting until they participated in a meeting.
Reavis said his effort did have the lasting effect of bringing more people to the party and increasing their participation.
Johnson finished his term as county chairman in January. The Washington County party was awarded the "Most Outstanding Republican County Committee for 2016" by the state party, it was announced the same month.
Part of the reasoning for that award, according to a January letter from the state party chairman, was Johnson's leadership through a "sometimes difficult two-year period."
Jim Estes, who succeeded Johnson as chairman, said Friday there are no lingering issues from the dispute.
Johnson confirmed Wednesday he wrote the November 2015 letter to the FBI.
"I sent it, and it is a true story," he said of the letter's account.
In the 2016 GOP primary, Reavis filed for the committee candidates by proxy. Both Johnson and Reavis confirmed this. The new committee member prospects ran unopposed in the March 1, 2016 partisan primaries.
The Washington County Republican convention meets after the primary every election year and at the call of the county chairman thereafter, under party rules. The convention decides the most important matters before the party, such as picking replacement candidates. The committee derives its authority from the convention, under GOP rules. The committee meets monthly to oversee day-to-day operations of the party between conventions.
Reavis said the contributors of the fees came from both within Washington County and around the state, including Sebastian, Faulkner and Pulaski counties. He said outside contributors were interested in the Washington County party because they wanted one of the state's largest county parties to have more moderate leadership.
"It was really a battle between traditional Republicans and the tea party," he said.
The matter came to a head after two Washington County candidates dropped out of their races. Jon Woods of Springdale was an incumbent senator seeking re-election in 2015 when he dropped out on Saturday, Nov. 7, of that year. This was the Saturday before the filing deadline at noon Monday.
The 2016 GOP primary picked then-state Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale as the party's nominee for Washington County judge, with Neal foregoing any re-election bid for his House seat. Then Neal dropped out of the judge's race on June 30.
Both Neal and Woods cited personal reasons at the times they dropped out of their races. Both men had been subjects of a federal kickback investigation since at least July 2014, a recently released federal indictment revealed.
Neal pleaded guilty of public corruption charges on Jan. 4. That plea in federal court was followed by the March 2 federal grand jury indictment of Woods,. Neal pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks in return for his assistance in awarding state grants. Woods was indicted on 13 charges in the same kickback allegations.
"Looking back on this whole process, it is interesting that Neal wasn't campaigning much earlier on," said Tyler Clark, Democratic chairman for Washington County.
Neal's decision to drop out in 2016 caused a GOP scramble to find a replacement. With Neal bowing out, that left the Democrat Mark Kinion of Fayetteville as the only active seeker of the office. A special GOP county convention was scheduled for Aug. 4 to replace Neal.
Woods then announced he would seek to replace Neal as the GOP nominee in the county judge's race.
Reavis told the Democrat-Gazette on July 9 the party was declaring committee members inactive if they had not shown up for three consecutive meetings, and the members he had filed for were primarily the ones being declared inactive. He claimed in that interview the purpose was so the existing leadership could pick the county judge nominee at the convention, an allegation Johnson denied when it was made.
Reavis argued declaring committee members inactive violated party rules. The dispute went to the state party headquarters. The state party's legal counsel and the state chairman concurred with Johnson.
As recently revealed records show, the dispute had been going on months before that. Woods, as a senator, had asked for a state attorney general's legal opinion as early as Feb. 4, 2016, on who could sit on a party committee or in a party convention, and who could be removed from a party committee.
Reavis was one of the constituents who was asking him to request such an opinion, according to copies of Woods' email to the attorney general. The state attorney general issued its opinion on Woods request on Sept. 23, 2016. It stated party rules were party matters, not matters of state law.
Woods lost his bid to become the county judge nominee. The winner over him and former state Sen. Bill Pritchard of Elkins was Joseph Wood of Fayetteville.
Woods' decision to go outside the party in a dispute over party rules did not sit well with state party Chairman Doyle Webb, according to a letter distributed Jan. 17 of this year at a county committee meeting to elect new officers.
"I was disappointed that members of the [Washington County Republican Committee] joined in seeking an attorney general's opinion through Sen. Jon Woods concerning state law and party rules that both our general counsel and I had provided absolutely correct and legal answers for to member of the WCRC," Webb said in his letter.
NW News on 03/19/2017