Another GOP peer presses senator to quit

Hendren unveils ethics plan to ‘change the culture’

State Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, a Republican from Pocahontas, on Tuesday called on state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson to resign immediately, saying his staying in the Senate is a disservice to his constituents and the people of Arkansas.

And for the second consecutive day, Hutchinson’s attorney, Tim Dudley, said Tuesday his client won’t resign, because public officials shouldn’t quit over unfounded and unproven allegations.

Dudley has acknowledged his client was “Senator A,” an unidentified lawmaker in a lobbyist’s guilty plea document released last week in a federal case. That document claims “Senator A,” who hasn’t been charged, and other lawmakers accepted bribes.

Collins- Smith became the second member of the eight-member Senate Judiciary Committee to recommend Hutchinson, a Republican from Little Rock who heads that committee, depart the legislative body.

On Monday, another committee member, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, said Hutchinson should tender his resignation immediately.

Also Tuesday, state Senate leaders announced they would hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday at the state Capitol to unveil a draft of proposed ethics rules.

Sen. Jim Hendren, a Republican from Sulphur Springs who is line to be Senate president pro tempore from 2019-21, said the proposed rule changes would increase reporting requirements for senators and impose prohibitions regarding conflicts of interest. Hendren and Hutchinson are cousins, and both are nephews of Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Hendren said the rule changes are being proposed because there has been a string of incidents involving various lawmakers in Arkansas over many years.

“I am determined to change the culture” as the Senate’s future leader because “Arkansas deserves better,” he said.

“We are going to do what we can all agree upon, what we know will, I hope, stop the worst part of it immediately, but we’re also going to put in place a committee that begins to study this and have authority to deal with this and over the next four or five months, I think you’ll see a process where a lot more changes are made,” Hendren said.

“There’s going to be some rules changes with regard to attorneys and conflicts of interest and disclosure when you represent something that is before the Legislature for somebody,” Hendren said. “There is going to be some disclosure requirements about people who do business with the state, whether it be through Medicaid or anything else.”

Senate leaders said the proposed rules changes will be considered during a business meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday when two newly elected senators, Breanne Davis of Russellville and Ricky Hill of Cabot, take their oaths of office in the Senate chamber. Both are Republicans who are filling vacated seats.

In her news release, Collins-Smith said she wants Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson to resign because the “recent documentation of his conduct, revealed in the Information filed in the District Court for the Western District of Missouri, in taking bribes in his official capacity as a Senator, makes him unfit to continue to serve.”

“Senator Hutchinson should immediately resign this office,” she said.

Hutchinson, an attorney, has served in the Senate since 2011 and was in the House previously. His four-year term will end in mid-January because he isn’t seeking re-election. He represents Senate District 33, which includes parts of Pulaski and Saline counties.

Dudley said Tuesday that Collins-Smith is “another longtime political opponent of Sen. Hutchinson,” adding his client denies he accepted any bribe or is otherwise guilty of any allegations made by lobbyist Rusty Cranford.

“Mr. Cranford is a convicted felon who, according to the government, attempted to murder someone and is merely trying to get his sentence reduced,” Dudley wrote in a message.

Cranford pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one count of federal program bribery for his role in bribing Arkansas lawmakers from 2010-17.

In his plea statement, Cranford said “Senator A” accepted payoffs, along with former state lawmakers Hank Wilkins, a Democrat from Pine Bluff, and Jon Woods, a Republican from Springdale. Hutchinson was an attorney under contract with Preferred Family Healthcare, Cranford’s client and employer, until last year, the company has said.

The plea documents describe $ 500,000 in payoffs made to “Senator A,” through bribes, fees and gifts that included tickets to the 2013 World Series. He was paid $7,500 a month as an attorney by Preferred Family Healthcare beginning in 2013, and that amount was raised to $9,000 a month in 2014, according to the plea.