The Arkansas Ethics Commission will investigate a complaint that state Treasurer Dennis Milligan's deputy chief of staff violated state law in his previous job as a lobbyist in 2013 and 2014 by failing to include on his lobbyist disclosure reports that he purchased Facebook advertising for Milligan's candidacy, commission Director Graham Sloan said.
Jason Brady, Milligan's deputy chief of staff, served as his campaign manager. He also worked previously as a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
The commission will investigate whether Brady violated state law by making campaign contributions in excess of $2,000 per election to Milligan by performing campaign management duties at the same time he was a lobbyist for the Cancer Action Network and using its resources, Sloan said in a letter dated Oct. 27 to White Hall Republican Susan Over. Over filed an ethics complaint against Brady.
Over also alleged a violation of an American Cancer Society Code of Ethics and Conflict of Interest Policy, but the enforcement jurisdiction of the ethics commission does not include that corporate policy, so the allegation won't be part of the commission's investigation, Sloan said.
Over is a member of the Jefferson County Republican Committee, which voted to call for Milligan's resignation on the same day in late May that committee member David Singer of White Hall, the former outreach manager for Milligan, filed a defamation lawsuit against Milligan's chief of staff, Jim Harris.
Milligan is a Republican from Benton, a former Saline County circuit clerk and a former chairman of the state Republican Party. Milligan spokesman Grant Wallace declined to comment about the commission's investigation.
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network employed Brady as a lobbyist for several years, including during the 2014 election. The nonprofit group said Brady violated its internal policies by working on Milligan's campaign during work hours and by using office resources to promote the candidate.
When questions were raised in late April about Brady's prior work for Milligan's campaign, Milligan said he and Brady would make a donation to the Cancer Action Network to compensate it for any costs resulting from Brady's campaign work. In June, officials with the nonprofit said they received the donation but that they planned to return it. Neither Milligan nor the nonprofit's spokesman has revealed the amount of money that had been sent.
In July, Ray Carson, a spokesman for the nonprofit group, said it was "able to verify less than $20 in direct costs as a result of the misuse [of the nonprofit's resources by Brady], but [was] unable to quantify indirect costs, such as misuse of our email system. We cannot quantify the time Mr. Brady spent on personal business."
The group doesn't plan to ask Brady to pay back money because "any effort at reimbursement would almost certainly necessitate additional resources that far exceed the costs themselves," Carson said in July.
Milligan briefly gave Brady a paid leave of absence after evidence surfaced in late April that Brady had been doing campaign work during his hours at the nonprofit. After a review, Milligan had Brady return to work, saying there was no evidence Brady had broken campaign laws.
Metro on 11/08/2015