Democratic U.S. House of Representatives candidate Patrick Henry Hays on Monday signed a pledge to not accept what he calls "congressional perks" and challenged his Republican opponent French Hill to do so, too.
Hays, a former North Little Rock mayor, said the pledge that he signed rejects taxpayer-funded first-class airfare, salaries for congressmen if Congress doesn't pass a budget, pay raises for congressmen until Congress balances the federal budget, campaign-style mailers to constituents, subsidies for health care that the American people don't also get and overseas trips, except to U.S. military installations.
"The pledge is simple. The perks that are listed are used, and in many instances, abused by Congress to the significant detriment of the taxpayer," he said at a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Little Rock.
Hays -- who first said he wouldn't accept these type of perks during a May 16 speech to the Political Animals Club in Little Rock -- said Monday that he challenged Hill not to accept these perks after Hill won the May 20 Republican primary.
"We have not heard anything from French or his campaign," he said.
Hill's campaign manager, Jack Sisson, said, "We'll happily review this pledge."
"But after decades in office, Patrick Hays should first refund all his taxpayer-funded junkets to Istanbul, Copenhagen, Spain, Italy, South Korea, and the Bahamas as well as the tens of thousands of dollars of personal pay and pension increases he's received as a career politician," Sisson said in a written statement.
Hays' campaign manager, David Furr, said later that it's clear to him that Hill doesn't intend to sign the pledge.
At his news conference, Hays said the pledge he signed addresses the concerns of voters in the 2nd Congressional District who "wonder how Congress tries to put itself in a second class that the American people are not a part of."
"I am proud to make this pledge to the people of the 2nd District, and I am not going to Washington to work for anything other than for solutions that will help bring jobs to central Arkansas and make America stronger for now and future generations," he said.
Hays said he came up with pledge on his own, and he's not aware of any other Democratic congressional candidates who have signed a similar pledge.
He also said Congress needs "new leadership," and he wouldn't vote for House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, or House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California to be House speaker if he's elected to Congress.
"Things have been too stale. It is bad up there. Look at the approval ratings of Congress ... and they continue to be in the cellar," Hays said. "Folks need fresh faces."
But a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Katie Prill, said Hays is the fourth congressional candidate to copy "this perks idea" from Pelosi's Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Democrats in New York, California and New Jersey also have promised in recent days to reject congressional perks, according to media reports and the candidates' own websites.
"As mayor, Hays abused the taxpayers' trust by giving himself pay raises and a lucrative retirement package instead of doing what's right and giving the taxpayer funds back to the taxpayers," Prill said in a written statement.
She said North Little Rock aldermen in December 2012 approved pay raises retroactive to mid-2012 that boosted Hays' retirement benefits, and Hays received 10 pay raises increasing his salary by nearly $30,000, and overall compensation by almost $40,000, from 2000-2012.
Furr said that Hill cites his experience in Washington, D.C., as a Senate staff member and aide to President George H.W. Bush as reasons people should vote for him.
"I guess that's why he wants folks in Washington to speak for him on this issue, instead of saying anything himself," Furr said. "Patrick Henry Hays balanced 24 budgets as mayor, cut the city's debt by more than half and eliminated waste. His fiscally conservative record is beyond reproach."
Metro on 07/01/2014