An attorney for the state Democratic Party said Tuesday that he’s asking the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, a U.S. Senate candidate, violated House rules for campaign fundraising.
Cotton’s campaign manager, Justin Brasell, said that “we’re confident this partisan publicity stunt complaint will be dismissed.”
Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, is seeking to oust Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor of Little Rock in the 2014 general election.
Pryor’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, declined to comment about the complaint from state Democratic Party attorney Benton Smith of Jonesboro.
At a news conference at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Smith said he has sent his complaint alleging that there is “substantial reason” to believe that Cotton violated laws, rules and standards of conduct prohibiting the use of public resources by conducting a campaign-related radio interview from the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 30.
Among other things, Smith’s complaint also charged that Cotton violated House rules by engaging in conduct that “reflected discreditably” on the House by allowing a nationwide talk-radio host to give the impression that Cotton was making a campaign fundraising appeal from the U.S. Capitol.
Smith asks the board of the Office of Congressional Ethics in his undated four page complaint to start an immediate review and to refer the matter to the U.S. House Committee on Ethics, and to federal law enforcement “as it deems appropriate.”
While the House of Representatives met Sept. 30, Cotton gave at least three live interviews on a talk-radio program, The Hugh Hewitt Show, and Hewitt repeatedly said Cotton was speaking from inside the Capitol building, specifically from the House Republican Cloakroom, which is adjacent to the House floor, according to Smith’s complaint.
In the first interview of Cotton, Hewitt said he and his wife had contributed to Cotton’s campaign and asked whether others could do so before the end of the Sept. 30 fundraising period, and Cotton said “…they can do that,” and made reference to his campaign website, the complaint states.
A left-leaning website originally broke the story.
Cotton spokesman Caroline Rabbitt said in an email dated Oct. 4 to the Huffington Post that Cotton “started the first interview that evening in the cloakroom, but walked outside to get away from noise before Hugh’s question about the web site.
“The later two interviews occurred away from the Capitol (one as he was at dinner and one was [as] he was heading back toward the Capitol for votes) … He isn’t responsible for correcting Hugh’s misstatements about his location,” according to a copy of Rabbit’s email provided by his campaign.
Smith’s complaint states that Hewitt told the Huffington Post that he misspoke, and Hewitt’s producer told the publication that Hewitt “just screwed up” and that “Cotton never told me he was in the cloakroom.”
Asked about Hewitt insisting that he misspoke about Cotton’s location, Smith said Cotton has an obligation under House rules “to address that, and he failed to do it at that time.”
“The facts have already proven this to be a false accusation,” Brasell said of Smith’s complaint in a statement.
“This is a good example of what’s wrong with Washington. Sen. Mark Pryor knows he loses to Tom Cotton on any campaign on the issues because Senator Pryor has voted with President Obama 95% of the time,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/30/2013