Arkansas' gubernatorial candidates Wednesday exchanged yet another series of jabs over their plans for ethics changes in state government.
During a news conference at his Little Rock campaign headquarters, Democrat Jared Henderson attacked Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson for being what Henderson said was too passive in addressing corruption at the state Capitol.
At his own news conference 30 minutes earlier, Hutchinson said it wasn't time to "play politics with this issue," adding that he'd released a series of ethics proposals.
The governor also shot back at Henderson, saying the former Teach for America executive should answer questions about his relationship with lobbyist Milton "Rusty" Cranford, who is at the center of a federal corruption probe.
The candidates' back-and-forth came on the same day that ex-state Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, was sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison for his role in a bribery scheme that prosecutors say steered state money to a private Christian college. It also comes a week after Hutchinson's nephew, former state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, resigned after being federally indicted on allegations that he used campaign funds for personal expenses. (The ex-senator has said he plans to fight the charges.)
Henderson on Wednesday touted seven ethics proposals that he released earlier in the summer, ranging from revoking a public official's pensions for committing any crime relating to an abuse of power, to requiring lawmakers to disclose and itemize during each week of a legislative session all employment or professional services and compensation they have or had in the previous year with registered lobbyists or companies that employ professional lobbyists.
In addition to Jeremy Hutchinson, Henderson referred to the June arrest of Rep. Mickey Gates, R-Hot Springs, who, according to court documents, failed to file state income tax returns between 2003 and 2017. The governor has called on Gates to resign, but Gates has not heeded calls from the governor and other prominent Republicans to vacate his House seat, saying he plans to plead innocent in the case.
"I can imagine the governor's office would say that these instances I am citing are not his fault, and that might be true," Henderson said. "But in my philosophy of leadership, it is still your responsibility to take action when you see wrong things happening so that you can minimize the chances in which they happen in the future."
Indeed, Gov. Hutchinson said many of the allegations of wrongdoing that led to convictions of several former lawmakers pre-date his time in the Governor's Mansion. He also pointed to several ethics changes he proposed in June, including empowering the state Ethics Commission to levy larger penalties for serious ethical breaches. The commission now is limited to penalizing violators $2,000 per infraction.
"The challenge that we face whenever it comes to bad actors in public service crosses administration, it crosses party lines, and so no one is exempt from that," Hutchinson said. "We just have to make sure that we look within ourselves to make sure we're fulfilling our public duty. And then secondly, that we have a system that gives the maximum amount of public information to make good decisions and to prevent conflicts of interest and opportunities to take advantage of the system."
Neither candidate has been accused of wrongdoing in the federal case involving Cranford and several other ex-lawmakers. However, the governor said Wednesday that Henderson should answer questions about his role in a saga that was described in court documents, involving Cranford, Teach for America and Jeremy Hutchinson as a senator.
In 2015 while Henderson was the nonprofit's Arkansas director, it hired Cranford as a lobbyist. As part of guilty plea, Cranford admitted to bribing Arkansas lawmakers, including "Senator A," later acknowledged as Jeremy Hutchinson by his attorney, to steer state money to non-governmental organizations.
Jeremy Hutchinson, who has not been charged with a crime over his relationship with Cranford, sponsored a pair of bills to send General Improvement Fund money to Teach for America. Jeremy Hutchinson was doing legal work for Cranford at the time.
As a result of that legislation, Gov. Hutchinson pledged $3 million from the governor's discretionary fund to Teach for America, which recruits college graduates from across the U.S. to teach in low-income schools.
A group of private donors, including Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr., also pledged matching funds.
The state and a private group of donors paid only about two-thirds of their commitments after Teach for America failed to recruit the number of teachers it had promised.
"Mr. Henderson certainly needs to answer for the role that he played in hiring a lobbyist that's being convicted, as he represented Teach for America that put in jeopardy, really, $3 million in taxpayers' money," Hutchinson said Wednesday. He added that he thought at the time that it "was a very genuine effort to help bring teachers from out of state into Arkansas."
Henderson on Wednesday said he regretted hiring Cranford, but that everything the nonprofit did under his leadership was "aboveboard."
"In terms of Rusty Cranford, I have answered every question by the press that has ever been put in front of me," Henderson said. "We didn't do a thing wrong. I'm proud of the work that we did at Teach for America. We got thousands of kids good teachers that wouldn't have had them otherwise. I think it is important to say that for every minute I spent working with Rusty Cranford on this, I probably spent 10 or 15 working with someone on his staff to make this happen."
Henderson and Hutchinson will face each other in the Nov. 6 general election. Libertarian Mark West of Batesville is also seeking the office.
Metro on 09/06/2018