RPA: Gates likely to run
The Republican Party of Arkansas said Friday that state Rep. Mickey Gates, R-District 22, is likely to run in the November general election despite pending felony charges alleging he has not paid state income taxes or filed a return in six years.
An email the state committee sent The Sentinel-Record said it “believes Rep. Gates intends to run this November.” Gates did not respond to a request for confirmation before presstime. The two-term lawmaker will
face Democratic nominee Kevin Rogers in the Nov. 6 general election for the right to represent eastern Garland and northern Saline counties in the state House.
The state Constitution stipulates an “infamous crime” conviction is a bar to serving in the Legislature, but the state election code does not include a criminal charge or conviction as a circumstance giving rise to a vacancy in nomination allowing a party to replace a nominee on the general election ballot.
Daniel J. Shults, legal counsel for the state board of election commissioners, said the election code’s vacancy in nomination provision is the controlling statute for placing a candidate on the general election ballot outside of the regular party nomination process.
Gates defeated Don Pierce 2,327-1,356 in the May 22 Republican primary.
The statute provides that a vacancy in nomination occurs when the person who received the most votes in the preferential primary notifies the state party committee of their intent to refuse the nomination because of “serious illness, moving out of the area from which elected as the party’s nominee or filing for another office.”
Vacancies can be filled by a special primary election or convention, according to the statute. Aug. 8 is the deadline for certificates of nomination issued by state party committees to be filed with the secretary of state’s office, according to the state election calendar.
State Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb said in a statement the party issued last week Gates should resign if he’s convicted. Republicans wield a 76-seat supermajority in the 100-seat chamber.
“All citizens deserve the right to due process, but when a public servant like Mickey Gates is charged with a serious offense he should do the right thing to restore strong, ethical, accountable leadership,” Webb said. “We call on him to relinquish all positions of leadership in the State House until these alleged offenses can be rectified by him, or resolved through the legal process. If he is found by a court to have committed these offenses, he should resign his office immediately.”
The felony information Special Prosecutor Jack McQuary filed Monday in Garland County Circuit Court charged Gates with six counts of willfully failing to pay state income taxes or file a return. Each count is a felony punishable by up to six years in prison.
Gates is alleged to owe $259,841 in back taxes. The affidavit in support of his June 28 arrest said he has not filed a state income tax return since 2003, but a six-year statute of limitations on tax offenses prevents him from being prosecuted for offenses prior to 2012.