Tolbert: Hays’ Shoffner Ads Are Classic ‘Guilt By Association’ Smears

The Patrick Henry Hays for Congress campaign has taken a sudden turn for the negative in recent days. Last week, the Democratic nominee launched an ad called “Best Investment” where Hays sought to connect Republican opponent French Hill to disgraced Democratic former State Treasurer Martha Shoffner. The DCCC supplemented the Hays attacks with their own ad this week, called  “Easy,” in which they make similar charges.

Both ads seek a sketchy “guilty by association” line of attack on Hill.

Their ads seek to tie a $250 contribution Hill made to Shoffner’s campaign to the corruption charges Shoffner currently faces for taking bribes. But this is a connection that simply does not exist.  Autumn Sanson – one of the primary whistleblowers in Shoffner’s Treasurer’s office explained this well in an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article on Tuesday.

“There was only one circumstance (in which the office invested in bonds without taking the best rate submitted by bond brokers under Shoffner) and that was with St. Bernard Financial Services,” Sanson told the ADG.

But the ads state that the contributions made by Hill and others at Delta Trust & Bank “paid off big time – Shoffner directed $700 million tax dollars to French Hill’s bank.”

Such a large amount of funds being “directed” to a bank from the Treasurer must have raised all sorts of red flags from state auditors, right?

Wrong.

State auditors did not find anything improper about the state Treasurer’s bond purchases with Delta Trust. Instead, their findings of improper investments was with a completely different bond broker, as Sanson stated.

Hays is counting on voters lack of understanding on how the State Treasurer’s office works. The Treasurer’s office invests state funds in short-term bonds and investments that allow the state to earn some interest on funds until these funds are needed.  The $700 million mentioned in the ad represents the entire amount of investment purchases made with Delta Trust during the six-and-half years Shoffner was in office.  It does not mean the office gave $700 million to Delta Trust, but rather that the state invested $700 million in the bank where it earned interest.

The ad also fails to mention that almost all state Treasurers’ campaigns (not only Shoffner’s campaign) rely heavily on two sources of campaign funds – party organizations and bank donors.  This is quite similar to a judge’s campaign being funded largely by attorneys. Quite frankly, no one else besides bankers and the party loyalists really care who the treasurer is. I would imagine most Arkansans never even knew there was an elected state Treasurer before the Shoffner scandal.

“Washington is dysfunctional, while health care costs keep rising and middle-class families are hurting,” said French Hill in a statement on Tuesday. “Instead of focusing on the issues, Patrick Henry Hays wants to lie to Arkansans with Washington-style gutter politics cooked up by Nancy Pelosi.”

Here is the bottom line.

Shoffner – a Democrat – was corrupt and has been indicted for taking bribes and removed from office. These bribes were hidden in pie boxes from Steele Stephens – a bond broker at a small shop in Russellville – who received a disproportionate amount of business and made questionable investments.

This corruption had nothing to do with Hill and Delta Trust.  But Hayes and his supporters are counting on voters to not understand in hopes they can smear their Republican opponent as well as his former employer with “guilt by association” with a disgraced member of their own Democratic Party.