Tolbert: Bookout Details Show Thousands Spent On Liquor, Lingerie & Luxury Car

You may recall last month former State Sen. Paul Bookout agreed to pay $4,000 in fines to the Arkansas Ethics Commission based on a complaint I filed regarding his 2010 campaign expenses.  The investigation found among other things that Bookout used “a significant portion of (his) 2010 campaign funds and carryover funds to make expenditures for items not related to (his) campaign or office as a State Senator.”

Part of the agreement with the Commission was that Bookout would have to file amended reports for his 2010 campaign.  He did so yesterday and the report details around $70,000 in various expenses not related to his campaign.  The report reveals even more details about how the senator was living the high life out of his campaign account.

The largest category of unauthorized expenses, totaling nearly $20,000, was simply taking cash or making payments directly to himself.  The reports detail six payments totaling $3,850 as disbursement taken out as cash.  Another 12 payments totaling $15,400 were made directly to himself.  His campaign also made disbursements to his wife and his mom.

The Bookout campaign spent almost $18,000 on various expenses for his house, including $7,320 to Dennis Heat & Air and $5,210 to Swank Audio Visuals.

Another big expense category – over $12,000 – went to clothing stores, which seemed to be mainly women’s clothing including payments to Victoria’s Secret, Dillard’s, and Steamroller Blues.

Disbursements also include around $4,000 to various sporting goods stores such as Bass Pro Shop, over $1,300 to liquor stores, a $2,000 payment to Mercedes Benz in Little Rock, and even $1,642 to the United States Treasury in April of 2011 for what would appear to be his personal income tax payment.

As I first pointed out back in August, Bookout originally failed to report over $93,000 in campaign expenses including over $51,000 that he failed to report, $15,800 in carryover contributions, and $25,833 that he claimed he gave to charities and political party caucuses.

Last August following Bookout’s resignation from the state senate, a special prosecutor was named to investigate the charges against Bookout for misspending around $50,000 in 2012 campaign funds, but so far no additional information has come out regarding the case.  Perhaps new information on how Bookout was also spending an additional $70,000 in his 2010 campaign to live a luxury lifestyle might add a bit of public pressure to this investigation.

Click here for a listing of his spending from his amended reports filed with the Secretary of State.