Fine story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today by Michael Wickline about the crafty way in which several legislators — all Republicans it happens — have devised a way to make a mockery of ethics rules.

According to the story, Sens. Michael Lamoureux, Bill Sample, Johnny Key, Eddie Joe Williams and Cecile Bledsoe gave almost $30,000 from their campaign funds to the campaigns of other Republican legislative candidates.

Advertisement

Former and incoming Republicans House leaders John Burris and Bruce Westerman also gave hundreds of dollars from their surpluses to other Republican legislative candidates.

The ethics rules prohibit giving campaign funds to another campaign. It’s deemed a personal use of campaign money, which is prohibited.

Advertisement

Yes, there’s a potential loophole, but the use here looks shaky. The law gives candidates some leeway to buy tickets to other campaigns’ “ticketed events” if they can demonstrate it advances their own campaign. It helps to attend the event to prove this. Several of the candidates passing money around have no opposition this year so it’s hard to see their gain from giving money to others, except in the gratefulness they’ll get in return in the legislative process if their investment is rewarded. It’s also hard to see how, for example, Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot could argue that giving $2,000 to a Republican candidate in El Dorado advances his Senate campaign. Though the givers in this article claim to have tickets for the events, it’s not clear from the story if all attended all the events for which they purchased tickets.

Lamoureux and Burris seem to concede the law is a little ambiguous and could use some fine-tuning. Meaning: if they did wrong it was an honest mistake. I’m not optimistic about what fine-tuning they’d produce if given the chance. (Lamoureux, by the way, also gave contributions that seem problematic on a couple of fronts as personal contributions to congressional campaign funds of Reps. Griffin, Womack and Crawford. The Lamoureux money included corporate contributions, not allowed in federal campaigns. He even gave money to retire campaign debt of Mark Darr and Jim Keet from 2010. How can that be legal? UPDATE: Lamoureux contends legal advice is that, if he had sufficient personal contributions to offset, he can give that amount to congressional candidates. As for the other, why they were “ticketed” events. If you can subvert the law under the guise that tickets are sold, the law is an ass.)

Advertisement

The law should explicitly bar any contribution of campaign money to another campaign. There’s no demonstrated need for the loophole Republicans are merrily exploiting. There’s also a huge need to end the incumbents’ exemption that allows them to retain surplus campaign money equal to their annual salary rather than refund it, give it to the state, a political party or charity. The incumbents’ slush fund benefits all — Republican and Democrat — unduly.

The political untouchables with little or no opposition are the ones that pile up cash to enhance the fund-raising of their political soulmates. It amounts, often, to a laundering of the corporate cash, a way for lobby groups to enhance giving to one candidate by effectively funneling it through another.

Advertisement

The Republicans hankering to take control this year, by their deeds, don’t seem a good bet for stricter ethics laws.

A couple of Republican legislators dodged complaints in past years about paying money to “ticketed events” of other legislators, though the events were more conventional public events with low ticket prices, as opposed to small gatherings designed specifically as rule workarounds to produce high-dollar checks from others’ campaigns. The Ethics Commission also signed off on contributions from political campaigns to a debt retirement event for Jimmie Lou Fisher, long after her gubernatorial race under the theory it was an opportunity for candidates to get together with a lot of people who could potentially be campaign supporters in coming races.

Advertisement

ALSO: Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, unopposed for re-election in 2010 and sitting on a huge pile of cash, passed out $26,000, generally at $1,000 a pop, for campaign event tickets for Democratic legislative candidates.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. If the Ethics Commission doesn’t end the dodge, they might as well cancel the rule that says using campaign money to give to another campaign is a personal expenditure.

Advertisement

On the jump, some specifics of the law:

Help to Keep Great Journalism Alive in Arkansas

Join the fight for truth and become a subscriber of the Arkansas Times. We've been battling powerful forces for 50 years through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, our readers value great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing and supporting our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage. Together, we can continue to hold the powerful accountable and bring important stories to light. Subscribe now or donate for as little as $1 and be a part of the Arkansas Times community.

Previous article Sunday night: Do you know where you database is? Next article Legislative ethics, Part II