The amicable television ad campaigns for 2nd Congressional District candidates Patrick Hays and French Hill ended this week.
Hill, a Little Rock Republican, started airing a television ad Monday that calls Hays "a big-government career politician" who raised taxes to pay for his salary increases and traveled at taxpayer expense to help pass Democratic President Barack Obama's agenda. Hill also says Hays is falsely attacking him.
The ad largely echoes written statements previously made by Hill's campaign manager, Jack Sisson.
Hays, a North Little Rock Democrat, said Hill's ad surprised him because he doesn't recall attacking Hill and that the ad is "a distortion" of his record as North Little Rock's mayor.
For his part, Hays began airing an ad Thursday that says Hill and his fellow bank executives donated thousands of dollars to former state Treasurer Martha Shoffner and "it paid off big time," with Shoffner directing $700 million in tax dollars to Hill's bank, Delta Trust & Bank.
The ad says Shoffner was convicted on 14 counts of bribery and extortion, "but French Hill's bank got to keep the money."
Hays' ad partly resurrects criticism of Hill first made last spring by Hill's unsuccessful Republican opponents, Ann Clemmer of Benton and Conrad Reynolds of Conway, about Hill and his bank's contributions to Shoffner.
Shoffner was caught on camera accepting bribes from bond broker Steele Stephens. During Shoffner's trial, Stephens testified that he secretly gave Shoffner $36,000 in cash over a 2½-year period, during which time his share of the state's bond business increased exponentially.
Hays' latest ad prompted Hill to declare Friday that: "The bottom line is, Patrick Hays is a liar. He should take the ad down."
"It is 100 percent false and dishonest," Hill said, adding that Hays is lying to voters to hide his support for Obama's agenda.
Hill said Delta Trust & Bank "never received" $700 million from the treasurer's office; and the treasurer's office invested in $700 million in bonds with the bank acting only as the bond broker.
Hays late Friday afternoon said that the only agenda he supports is the one that's in the best interest of his three grandchildren, future generations and the people in the 2nd Congressional District.
Hays' campaign manager, David Furr, added, "We have the entire ad sourced with the facts.
"The difference between French Hill and our ad is our ad is factual. You cannot deny that Martha Shoffner directed $700 million in state business to his bank," Furr said.
The dueling ads come nearly two months after a Talk Business/Hendrix College poll showed Hill with 44 percent of the vote and Hays with 43 percent, with Libertarian candidate Debbie Standiford of North Little Rock at 3 percent and the other 10 percent undecided. The poll's margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.
Furr said the conservative group American Crossroads has purchased $1.6 million in television ad time in the 2nd District that he believes is aimed at attacking Hays.
Hays added that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also has reserved $1.6 million in television ad time in the 2nd District before the election.
Hays, Hill and Standiford are vying to succeed U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin in the Nov. 4 general election. Griffin, of Little Rock, is running for lieutenant governor.
Hill said Friday that his television ad's statement about Hays' attacking him for months refers to Hays and his Democratic allies portraying him, among other things, as an "out-of-touch banker."
But Hays said, "I don't know where I have attacked him."
As for the state Democratic Party's criticism of Hill, Hays said, "I don't put words in the Democratic Party's mouth, and they don't put words in my mouth."
Hills' ad says that Hays' increased his government salary more than 20 times and raised taxes to pay for it. It also says Hays spent "big on taxpayer-funded travel to Europe, the Bahamas and to Washington to help pass President Obama's agenda."
Hill says in the ad, "We need a job creator in Congress, not another big government career politician."
Hill said Friday that Hays has even opposed the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Hays said he thought Hill's ad was "hypocritical in many respects," adding that Hill presented him an award for civic achievement in December 2012 before the end of his 24 years as mayor of North Little Rock.
Hays said he initially had concerns about the Keystone pipeline, so he learned more about it. But "my position is I support the Keystone pipeline, and that has been on our website for a long time."
According to Hays' campaign, the North Little Rock City Council votes on city officials' salaries, and Hays' salary of about $100,000 a year as mayor was similar to the salaries of the mayors of Conway, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Rogers and Springdale.
Earlier this year, both Clemmer and Reynolds criticized Hill for collectively contributing $2,250 through his business and himself to Shoffner in 2009, before the state put millions of dollars in bond investments through Delta Trust & Bank.
As for Shoffner, Hill said at that time that he was "disgusted by her performance and her abuse of the trust of the Arkansas people."
Bankers have for years been a major source of campaign contributions for whoever the state treasurer has been.
The office invests in certificates of deposit and has bank accounts through about 40 banks, the office said earlier this year.
Earlier this year, Hill said he gave a $250 personal contribution to Shoffner at a banker fundraiser in 2009. The other $2,000 contributed to Shoffner in 2009 came through Delta Trust & Bank.
Records in the state treasurer's office that were cited by Hays' campaign show that the office purchased $25 million in bonds through Delta Trust in 2008; $25 million in 2009; $200 million in 2010; $230 million in 2011; $235 million in 2012; $100 million in 2013; and $25 million through the end of June in 2014.
"There is a marked spike in the amount of business that his bank did with the state treasurer's office after they made those donations to Martha Shoffner's campaign," Furr said.
Deputy Legislative Auditor Jon Moore said auditors found no evidence that the state treasurer's office bond investments through Delta Trust & Bank were tied to campaign contributions by Hill and the bank.
"We didn't have any indication of that," he said.
The Legislative Audit Division said the state's treasury totaled $3 billion on June 30, 2012, and 30 bonds valued at over $615 million were sold and replaced with similar bonds between September 2009 and May 2012. The treasurer's office purchased more bonds through five bond brokers other than Delta Trust & Bank in the period from July 1, 2008, through March 31, 2012.
The audit division said Delta Trust was the broker on one bond investment in which the state sold a bond before its maturity date, and the net economic loss from the transaction was $7,733.
Moore said the net economic loss is the difference between what the state would have earned if it had kept the bond until maturity and how much the state made from the bond sale before maturity, plus the interest earned on the proceeds.
Rogers wrote in an email that the $25 million bond was purchased April 20, 2009, with a maturity date of April 20, 2011, and an interest rate of 1.65 percent.
The bond was sold on April 13, 2010, for $25 million and was a replaced with a $25 million bond with an interest rate of 2.25 percent, she said.
A section on 09/27/2014