In state Senate race, rivals stick to issues
Chesterfield, Pendleton keep it civil
In his bid to oust state Sen. Linda Chesterfield, challenger Andre Pendleton is taking the unusual tack of not criticizing her record.
The two candidates, both of Little Rock, face each other in the May 22 Democratic primary for Senate District 30, which includes part of Pulaski County. The winner will be unopposed in the Nov. 6 general election.
“I do not want to do or say anything that is going to be perceived as a negative comment about anybody,” Pendleton said in an interview. “I don’t know a whole lot about Miss Chesterfield. She is probably a nice lady, and I wish her well in whatever. But I don’t hate her. I don’t dislike her. I don’t know anything about her.”
Chesterfield, who served three terms in the House, has been in the Senate since 2011.
When asked, Pendleton
said he had no comment about Chesterfield’s personal finance disclosure report, filed in January 2017, that shows that in 2016 she was paid more than $12,500 by Springfield, Mo.-based Preferred Family Healthcare to be a diversity outreach coordinator. Financial disclosure reports include ranges of compensation, not specific amounts.
On Jan. 11 of this year, Chesterfield filed a report that in 2017 she was again paid more than $12,500 by the firm.
Two weeks later, she amended that out of her report because, she said, it was a mistake. This spring, the Arkansas Times blog reported on Chesterfield’s work for the company.
While Pendleton doesn’t want to comment on the payment, his cousin, retired Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey of Little Rock, said he questions why Chesterfield earmarked $25,000 of her allotment of General Improvement Fund monies in 2015 to the Missouri-based company rather than to a local group in Senate District 30. In the end, the money didn’t go to the company.
Chesterfield said Preferred Family Health has 47 sites across the state to provide turkeys and hams to children during the holidays and she believed it was a good cause to fund, but “I didn’t know that the $25,000 wasn’t picked up.”
Records at the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District show that Chesterfield also was involved with General Improvement Fund grant awards totaling more than $100,000 to Our House Inc., Shorter College, Arkansas Baptist College, Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas, Gaines House Inc., Central Arkansas Volunteers in Medicine Clinic Inc., Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, Watershed Human and Community Development Agency and People Helping Others by Example.
Under the system in use at the time, each lawmaker was allocated a portion of General Improvement Fund money and would recommend to a planning and development district how the money should be granted. The system has since been ruled unconstitutional.
Chesterfield said Bontiea Goss, then chief operating officer for Preferred Family Healthcare, asked her to provide workshops to try to help train Goss’ corporate staff because
a large number of her clients “were African-American, where her staff was not.” Chesterfield said she was hired in either June or July 2016.
“I put together a training manual. I presented that training in Batesville and in Little Rock,” Chesterfield said in an interview. “She also wanted me to help her recruit minorities. … I tried to recruit as many as I could to the new school that they just opened up in west Little Rock, so I made recommendations and, by the end of November, my tenure was over.”
Chesterfield said a caveat of her employment with Preferred Family Healthcare was, “I will not advocate for nor vote on any matter that has to do with Preferred Family Health.”
She said former Preferred Family Healthcare lobbyist Milton “Rusty” Cranford wasn’t involved in her hiring, and federal investigators haven’t talked to her about the company’s payment to her.
Chesterfield said she was paid $3,000 a month by the firm, but she’s not sure how much more than $12,500 she was paid.
Preferred Family Healthcare spokesman Reginald McElhannon said Chesterfield was hired as “an outside vendor/consultant to provide diversity training,” and her vendor agreement was terminated by the firm in 2017.
“While we are not in a position to provide specific financial details, Ms. Chesterfield received contractual payments from June 1, 2016, through December 16, 2016. That contract to provide diversity training was terminated in early 2017,” McElhannon said. “Ms. Goss was placed on administrative leave in 2017 and has since been terminated.”
In late 2015, Chesterfield, along with two House members, supported awarding a $40,000 General Improvement Fund grant to Preferred Family Healthcare, doing business as Dayspring Behavioral Health Services, according to grant records at the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District.
A General Improvement Fund project information sheet lists Chesterfield as a supporting legislator with $25,000; Rep. Karilyn Brown, R-Sherwood, as a supporting legislator with $10,000; and state Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, as a supporting legislator with $5,000.
Brown said in an email this week that “I have no knowledge of this.”
Love said in an email this week that “Preferred Health is not an organization for which I am familiar. … I supported a $5000 grant to Daysprings Treatment to benefit feeding children in my district.”
Cranford, who was an Arkansas lobbyist and executive with the nonprofit, filled out the grant application paperwork.
Cranford was charged in February in federal court in western Missouri in connection with a $1 million bribery conspiracy linked to Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield, Mo. Federal prosecutors say the goal was to obtain state and federal funds for the mental health and substance abuse care provider, in exchange for bribes and kickbacks to state legislators, lobbyists and others.
Cranford has pleaded innocent. Former Arkansas state Sen. Eddie Cooper, a Democrat from Melbourne, has pleaded guilty. Chesterfield hasn’t been charged with any crime.
The Central Arkansas Planning and Development District approved the $40,000 grant to provide free Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to needy families in Little Rock and central Arkansas. But planning district officials said they didn’t hear more from the applicant group and never issued the money.
McElhannon said, in a written statement, “why the leadership of the organization at that time chose not to utilize these particular funds is unknown to our current leadership.”
Chesterfield said she doesn’t know why Preferred Family Healthcare didn’t pick up the money.
Pendleton, who has owned a State Farm Insurance agency for 26 years, is making his second try for elected office. In 2010, he lost a bid for Pulaski County justice of the peace to
Little Rock Democrat Judy Green.
He said voters should cast their ballots for him because “I have prepared myself and I am ready, willing and able to serve.
“I have got the experience in running a business and dealing with people across the aisles. I have to deal with people all day every day from all walks of life. I hear concerns that people have. I think I would be a very effective voice for the people of the district,” he said.
Pendleton, 60, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He worked in various jobs for Kroger Co. before becoming an insurance agent. He is divorced and has one son.
Chesterfield said voters should re-elect her because “I have been a good steward for the people.
“I have sought to bring resources to the district. I have championed public education. I have been a part of the expansion of Medicaid that has had a definite impact on those individuals in my district, and I have fought for job creation as well,” she said.
Chesterfield reported serving as an education consultant for G4S, the former contractor for the Alexander Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center, from 201016.
Chesterfield, 70, received a bachelor’s degree in history and political science in 1969 as the first black graduate of Hendrix College in Conway. She later received a master’s degree in education from Ouachita Baptist University.
She is a retired teacher and was president of the Arkansas Education Association from 1997-2001 and served on the Little Rock School Board from 1994-97. She is married with six children.
If elected, Pendleton said his top priorities would include making the state’s pre-kindergarten program accessible to more students, persuading the state Board of Education to give up control of the Little Rock School District to the local community, and creating more good-paying jobs.
“I think everybody should have health insurance,” he said when asked his position on the state’s version of Medicaid expansion that provides health insurance to about 280,000 low-income Arkansans.
Chesterfield said her top priorities would include public schools, and educating juveniles and adults who are incarcerated, seeking more funding for the state’s Arkansas Better Chance pre-kindergarten program, and continuing to support the state’s Medicaid expansion.
She said she wants to expand Internet access and continue to fight to get the state Board of Education to restore local control of the Little Rock School District, just like she did for the Pulaski County Special School District.