Fort Smith’s Files won’t run

House majority leader says he’ll seek senator’s seat in ’18

Fort Smith will have a new state senator in 2019.

Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, said in a statement Tuesday that he will not seek re-election to his Senate District 8 seat. House Majority Leader Mathew Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, had announced hours earlier that he would run for the seat.

Files, who has been in the construction business and is chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, said in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he will be spending more time with Texas-based EnviroSolar as a solar consultant.

“I will not be running for re-election to the Senate in 2018,” he said. “It has been a distinct honor to serve and be a leader in making our Region relevant in Little Rock again. I have taken a new job recently and will most likely be moving to take advantage of that promising opportunity, and I will not be able to dedicate the time needed to serving in the Senate.”

Files has been the subject of news articles regarding finances and his construction business.

In 2015, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report-

ed that Files took a $30,000 loan from the lobbying firm founded by former state Rep. Bruce Hawkins. Files has said it was to pay off a hot check of more than $6,800, for “working capital” for his construction businesses and to purchase material for other construction jobs.

The practice of accepting loans from lobbyists was banned during the 2017 regular session with Act 1108 of 2017, sponsored by Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis.

In March, Fort Smith City Director Keith Lau filed a police report against Files over a dispute involving a $33,206 payment for shingles for an apartment complex. The report lists the offense as theft by deception of more than $2,500.

Lau said Files bought shingles from a discount supply store and not Home Depot as promised. Lau is the head of KCP Real Estate in Fort Smith and said he was managing the apartment complex for the owner, who lives in California.

Files has said he fulfilled the terms of the contract but was not paid for the work he performed. No charges were filed in the case.

Work began on the roofing job on Feb. 8 — the day after Fort Smith city directors voted to terminate a contract with Files and Sebastian County Election Commissioner Lee Webb for failing to meet a deadline on construction of a complex of eight tournament-quality ball fields on city property at Chaffee Crossing.

Files and Webb had assured city directors in 2014 that they could build the River Valley Sports Complex, estimated at between $4 million and $6 million, for $1.6 million from the city and the rest from donations of materials and labor.

Fort Smith subsequently sued the pair claiming breach of contract in their failed attempt to build a sports complex on city property.

Files has said the suit was filed against River Valley Sports Complex and not against him and Webb personally, and that “there was no misappropriation of funds, simply just a timeline issue.”

Pitsch declined to comment on Files’ legal troubles.

“Those really aren’t in the political realm,” he said. “For me to comment, I just think is inappropriate.”

If elected to the Senate, Pitsch said his focus would be economic development and transportation.

“In my district, in Fort Smith, we’ve had a lot of productive strategies with transportation infrastructure. We’ve had Chaffee Crossing, which has had a profound economic development in the last eight to 10 years,” he said. “We want to just keep that momentum going.”

He said he spoke to Files before making the announcement.

“We had a cordial, decent discussion. It really wasn’t so much about whether Sen. Files ran or didn’t run,” Pitsch said. “It was analyzing the situation from where I stood and I felt like it was my time.”

Pitsch, 53, is married and has four children. He is serving his second term in the Arkansas House.

He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering management from the University of Missouri, Rolla. He began his career at the Whirlpool factory in Fort Smith in 1987. That factory — which once employed more than 4,500 workers — closed in 2012.

Pitsch joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, in 2001 and was eventually named dean of the College of Applied Sciences.

In 2007, he served an an economic developer for the Greater Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce.

Pitsch now heads the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority of Western Arkansas, which coordinates transportation infrastructure improvements.

During the 2017 regular session, Pitsch said he was proud to sponsor Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to cut income taxes for 657,000 Arkansans with less than $21,000 in annual income.

Pitsch said he supported an effort to increase fuel sales taxes during the session, but that he would prefer to spend general revenue dollars on highways.

“I think we need to build highways based on a set, known entity. That’s the engineer in me,” he said. “I think it’s hard to build a highway based on a one-year decision.”

As a senator, Pitsch said he would like to help more communities get involved in economic development efforts.

He said Chaffee Crossing — which boasts 12 corporate and regional headquarters — is a model for economic development because it has a number of companies with 100 to 300 employees instead of a single employer with more than 1,000 workers.

“They’re fast, flexible. They’re the new company of the future,” he said. “A community is not completely exposed if one of those companies leave, yet they reap huge benefits.”