Democratic Party chairman agrees to pay $100 ethics fine

State Democratic Party Chairman Michael John Gray of Augusta agreed to pay a $100 fine and receive a public letter of caution from the Arkansas Ethics Commission in a settlement of a complaint filed by attorney and blogger Matt Campbell of Little Rock, according to commission records released Friday.

As part of the settlement, Gray agreed with the commission finding that, as a candidate for state representative during the 2018 election cycle, he violated Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-207 by failing to timely file a final campaign finance report, commission Director Graham Sloan said Friday in a letter to Gray.

In the 2018 general election, Gray was ousted by Bald Knob Republican Craig Christiansen from the House District 47 seat Gray had represented since 2015.

Sloan also noted in his letter at the Ethics Commission’s Sept. 20 meeting, Gray presented evidence on whether alleged reporting errors regarding loans were unintentional and whether the filing of any amendments occurred with the required 30-day period.

Sloan’s letter said Gray and his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig,

“presented bank records reflecting that you had paid an expenditure on behalf of the campaign with personal funds, intending it to be treated as a loan, and that you later repaid said loan from campaign funds, but failed to timely report each step of the loan, expenditure, and repayment.

“You have since filed [an amendment to his campaign finance report] for March of 2018 disclosing the $5,000 loan from yourself to your campaign,” Sloan said in his letter to Gray.

The Ethics Commission concluded the “affirmative defense provision” provided under Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-229 had been met with respect to an alleged

violation of Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-203 (f) regarding Gray’s failure to report his loan to his campaign and his failure to reduce the amount of loans by the amount of the $5,000 payment which his campaign made to him.

“Accordingly no further action or investigation took place with respect to allegation numbers 2 and 3 and you shall not be considered to have taken campaign funds as personal income in connection with those allegations,” Sloan said.

Campbell said Friday “at the end of the day, that doover provision rears its ugly head,” by enabling the commission to find Gray didn’t violate state law in one instance.

But he said at least the commission found Gray violated state law by failing to timely file his final campaign finance report for the 2018 election cycle.

“It would be helpful if the Ethics Commission would [impose] fines on people that have an actual impact,” said Campbell, who has been a critic of Gray’s stewardship of the state Democratic Party.

Gray said, “I am happy with the outcome.”

He said he mistakenly thought he filed his final campaign finance report for the

2018 general election over the holidays, and “it’s on me that it wasn’t filed.”

Gray said the Ethics Commission found no improper use of campaign money.

In a separate case, the Change Arkansas PAC agreed to pay a $50 fine and receive a public letter of caution from the Ethics Commission, Sloan said Friday in a letter to the group’s chairman, Sylvester Smith, and officer Chalmer Wayland.

Wayland signed a settlement on behalf of the Change Arkansas PAC under which it was agreed the commission would find the PAC violated Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-215 (a) (1) (B) by failing to timely file a PAC registration for calendar year 2019 and Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6215 (d) (1) by failing to timely file PAC reports for the first and second quarters of 2019, Sloan said.

In another case, the Democratic Party of Saline County agreed to receive a public letter of caution, Sloan said Friday in a letter to the group’s treasurer, Amanda Bradley of Benton.

Bradly signed a settlement on behalf of the county organization in which it was agreed the commission would find the group violated Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-215 (d) (1) by failing to timely file a PAC report for the second quarter of 2019, Sloan said.