Editorials

The lowest blow yet

Pat Hays scrapes the bottom

Pat Hays should be ashamed of himself. When we first saw his attack ad against his opponent, French Hill, we assumed it had come from some outside outfit with an ax to grind in the race for Congress in this state's Second District. The TV commercial was that unfair, vitriolic, badly researched--and dishonest.

But, no, there was the candidate himself, saying: "I am Pat Hays, and I approve of this message." In short, a full confession.

In case you were lucky enough to miss it, here is the text of the commercial:

"It was French Hill's best investment. French Hill and his fellow bank executives donated thousands of dollars to state Treasurer Martha Shoffner. It paid off big time. Shoffner directed 700 million tax dollars to French Hill's bank. Shoffner was convicted of 14 counts of bribery and extortion, and forced to resign. But French Hill's bank got to keep the money. French Hill: Getting rich with your money."

This political season has already produced some mighty nasty TV commercials, but this one has got to be the nastiest yet.

From the very sentence, "It was French Hill's best investment," Pat Hays portrays his opponent as some kind of crooked banker connected to a crooked state treasurer. Even though French Hill, like many another banker in Arkansas, made a perfectly legal campaign donation at a time when no one could have known state Treasurer Martha Shoffner was taking bribes from a bond dealer.

To state the obvious, making a legal campaign contribution does not ensure any amount of business from the state. But if a public official asks for a campaign donation, and a bank declines to donate, it's only natural for the banker to wonder if he's running the risk that the official might dig up some technicality and use it as an excuse to withhold state business from his bank. So the pressure to donate to a campaign is there.

But when Pat Hays says, "It paid off big time" for French Hill to donate to Martha Shoffner's campaign, he comes entirely too close to claiming there was a quid pro quo here, and that Mr. Hill picked up $700 million in exchange for his campaign contribution. That is, Pat Hays comes entirely too close to calling French Hill a crook.

Pat Hays' ad is a low attempt to mislead viewers by noting that Treasurer Shoffner was convicted on 14 counts of bribery and extortion, as though her conviction had something to do with French Hill and his bank. It didn't. Indeed, his campaign contribution had nothing at all to do with the wheeler-dealer at St. Bernard Financial Services who bribed Ms. Shoffner (repeatedly).

This commercial's most outrageous attempt to mislead the viewer is saved for the very end, when it claims: "But French Hill's bank got to keep the money." Got to keep the money? All $700 million? And for just a small campaign contribution? Really?

The fact is that the bank never got to keep the money. Delta Trust was one of 16 banks and financial institutions in Arkansas that the state used as a broker-dealer to make its own investments. And the state took competitive bids from all those firms. What Delta Trust and the other firms earned was a small percentage fee for making an investment the state requested. Delta Trust was just one of many such firms, with others getting more brokerage business from the state, including other reputable firms like Morgan Keegan and Crews & Associates. Delta Trust didn't even serve as custodian of any of those securities, which were held at First National Bankers Bank.

What is so sad and disappointing about this attack ad is that Pat Hays has to know it was dishonest--a cheap attempt to mislead the voters. Like so many others in this state, he's also got to know that French Hill is an honest and reputable banker and businessman, someone Pat Hays himself must have respected before this campaign got the better of him. Just as he must know Delta Trust has a fine reputation as a bank and trust company. It's hard to believe this is the same Pat Hays who as mayor of North Little Rock for years did a good job governing that city, which grew and prospered during his long tenure.

What takes hold of some folks when they run for political office is just plain mystifying. Perfectly reputable people stoop to just slinging mud. Maybe they're so ambitious for higher political office that they'll say and do almost anything to get elected. Which is telling. If a candidate will stoop as low as Pat Hays has just done in this commercial, he certainly doesn't deserve to represent the good people of the Second Congressional District in Congress; they deserve better, so much better.

Pat Hays needs to apologize--not only to French Hill and Delta Trust, but to the voters of the Second District for insulting their intelligence. That way, he might yet save a shred of the reputation he's squandered by running so scurrilous an ad.

Editorial on 10/01/2014

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