Former state Rep. Hudson Hallum admitted in documents released Monday that he violated several state election laws during and after his 2011 special election campaign, including incorrectly reporting a $50,000 contribution from his father as a bank loan to his campaign.
Hallum’s admissions came as part of a settlement agreement with the Arkansas Ethics Commission in which the former Democratic legislator from Marion agreed to pay a $2,500 fine and accept the commission’s issuance of a public letter of caution and a public letter of warning for the violations.
Hallum, 30, signed the settlement agreement Thursday, about a week after the commission voted 5-0 that probable cause existed for finding that he committed eight election law violations.
Reached Monday, Hallum said he agreed with the commission’s findings and intended to pay the fine as soon as possible.
“Most of the problems in the complaint were things that I did. They were not reported accurately or the paperwork wasn’t done like it was supposed to be. I didn’t deny it. There was no challenging it or questioning it,” he said.
The ethics panel began looking into Hallum’s campaign finance reports after Jason Tolbert, a conservative blogger and accountant from Benton, filed an ethics complaint against him in September.
Reached Monday, Tolbert said he was satisfied with the fine levied by the commission.
“I think it’s sufficient for the items that I raised in my complaint and the investigation that the Ethics Commission launched,” he said.
Tolbert said he “believes there’s a strong probability” Hallum may have failed to disclose other campaign expenditures outside of those noted in his complaint, but he hadn’t decided whether he would continue to look into Hallum’s campaign spending and file additional complaints with the commission.
In the settlement, Hallum admitted he failed to file various campaign reports during 2011, including those pertaining to unpaid loans, outstanding campaign debts and loan repayment; submitted facsimile copies of his campaign finance reports to the secretary of state’s office but not originals; and that he accepted a campaign contribution in excess of the legal limit from Crittenden EMS, which Hallum’s father owns.
The panel also found Hallum had failed to disclose expenditures regarding campaign consulting work performed by The Markham Group and had failed to disclose statutorily required information about contributors to his campaign such as occupation, the amount contributed, the date of the contribution and the total amount contributed during his 2011 and 2012 campaigns.
Most of the violations were lodged in Tolbert’s complaint filed Sept. 8, but the ethics panel expanded its investigation after it discovered Hallum had inaccurately listed the $50,000 as a loan.
On Monday, Hallum said most of the violations came from his ignorance of state campaign finance law, including errors he made in reporting the $50,000 contribution, which he initially reported as a loan from Fidelity National Bank.
The money actually was loaned to Hallum’s father, Kent Hallum, who was his campaign manager, Hudson Hallum said.
“The loan was written up in my dad’s name, and then the money was just deposited directly into the campaign, so I listed it as a loan …There was no attempt to hide the money or the loan. It was reported. It was just reported inaccurately,” he said.
State law caps the amount of money that an individual other than the candidate can contribute to a campaign at $2,000 per person, per election, which made the contribution from Hallum’s father illegal. Hudson Hallum said he didn’t notice the error until the ethics commission began its investigation.
Earlier this month, Hallum listed the debt on amended campaign finance reports. He also listed a $2,000 debt to Crittenden EMS, regarding the improper contribution noted in the settlement, and reported a $17,183.09 campaign finance expense to The Markham Group on March 1, 2011.
Hallum said he failed to report The Markham Group expenditure because he didn’t pay it until after the election, when he had already filed his reports.
“It was omitted because I didn’t submit the right reports after that. It wasn’t intentional,” he said.
Hallum said he has repaid all of his campaign debt including the $50,000 from his father. The debts were repaid by taking out a bank loan in his name, he said.
The settlement agreement comes about six months after a federal judge sentenced Hallum and his father to serve three years’ probation with nine months of home detention for taking part in a 2011 scheme to buy votes for the younger Hallum with cheap alcohol, chicken dinners and cash. The father and son also were fined and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Hallum resigned from his District 54 House seat after pleading guilty Sept. 5, 2012, to election-fraud charges. His father and two other men also pleaded guilty to charges that day.
The four admitted they engaged in a scheme involving absentee ballots to ensure that Hudson Hallum won three special elections in 2011 - a Democratic primary April 20, a runoff May 10 and the general election July 12. The seat had been vacated by Fred Smith, who resigned in January 2011 after learning a theft charge from his past was a felony, making him ineligible for public office.
Hallum, who has 30 days from Dec. 26 to pay the fine, said Monday that he didn’t know of any other errors he had made with his campaign finance reporting outside those listed in the settlement agreement.
“As far as I know there’s nothing else unless someone else finds faults or has additional complaints with the ethics commission. I think Mr. Tolbert did a pretty thorough job of reviewing everything and finding the majority of the fault with it. I will hope to have the matter put to rest after this,” he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/31/2013