Hallum: No Knowledge of Grand Jury Investigation

I caught up with Rep. Hudson Hallum (D-West Memphis) today at the state capitol and asked him about the grand jury convening today in Little Rock and also about some of the questions on his finance reports.

Several Crittenden County election officials received subpoenas last week from FBI agents to appear before a grand jury today in Little Rock.  Prosecutor Scott Ellington previously had begun an investigation into the special election in which Hallum was elected.  Ellington turned this over to special prosecutor H.G. Foster, although it is unclear if the grand jury today is regarding this investigation or something different.

“No one has spoken to me or anyone in my family,” said Hallum.  He said this includes both Foster’s state investigation as well as the federal grand jury.  He said that he was not subpoenaed and first heard about the investigation when someone told him that some employees of the Crittenden County Clerk’s Office had been subpoenaed.

Hallum also discussed his loan balances from his special election cycle.  The largest loan was with Fidelity National Bank of West Memphis who loaned his campaign $8,500 on February 23, 2011 and $50,000 on June 1, 2011, which he co-signed with his father.  Hallum’s campaign reported repaying $8,785.27 on June 7, 2011 leaving a balance of approximately $50,000.  No further report has been made since the report filed last August.

Hallum explained that this is because the balance is still outstanding and no payments have been made.

“The loan is a balloon loan and is not yet due,” said Hallum, who was not completely sure when it would come due but said at some point he will have to either pay it off or work out some sort of installment plan.

Arkansas Ethics rules require that any activity in excess of $500 be reported — including repayment of loans — but if no activity occurs, there is no requirement that a candidate file to report the carrying balance of the loans.

Hallum explained that he does his best to comply with the filing requirements, but admitted they can be confusing and wishes that there was more training available for candidates.

In September, Hallum received a public letter of caution from the Ethics Commission for “failing to timely file a 10-Day Pre-election Report.”  The late report was first reported here and resulted in the Republican Party of Arkansas filing an ethics complaint which lead to the public letter of caution.

Hallum says he is trying to look ahead and is ready to have this stuff behind him.  Right now, no one has announced as an opponent for the upcoming election and filing is only about two weeks away.

One additional footnote: a reader pointed out that Jason Willett’s consulting firm, FJW Consulting, has been hired to run Hallum’s campaign for this cycle.  Hallum loaned his campaign another $10,000 in October apparently to retain him.

Willett is listed as the Democratic Party Designee on the State Board of Election Commissioners.  During the special election, Willett made a motion that the board not send election monitors for the special election. His motion failed by a 3-to-4 vote and monitors were sent anyway.

Hallum chalked this up to coincidence saying that although he had known Willett for years, he did not have any contact with him regarding his action on the board.  He retained him for his campaign because he felt he had the right strategy to help him get re-elected.