Democratic Senatorial candidate Joe White (D-Conway) has called out incumbent rival Sen. Gilbert Baker (R-Conway) on Baker's lack of comment concerning University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin's predicament.
Currently, the race for the District 30 Senate seat is the most expensive in the state.
White's campaign circulated a news release Wednesday saying White was "deeply saddened by the lack of leadership shown by our State Senator, Gilbert Baker, in addressing these controversies."
It was revealed last month that Hardin asked the UCA Board of Trustees to speed up a $300,000 deferred-compensation bonus intended to be paid to Hardin if he stayed at UCA until 2010. It has since been revealed that Hardin used the names of UCA administrators on a memo relating to the deferred-compensation without their knowledge and attempted to shield the payment from Freedom of Information Act scrutiny.
Hardin has since returned the money, and both he and the board of trustees have vowed to maintain complete transparency in such financial matters in the future.
White said that if he was in Baker's shoes, he would not "sit on the sidelines with my finger testing the political winds," but rather publicly investigate the issue.
The political winds, Baker said in response Thursday, don't yet enter into it.
"Just like all the legislators in this area, we will not interfere with the responsibility given to the UCA Board of Trustees," he said.
Baker said that though he hasn't participated in the public discussion of UCA's controversies, if re-elected Nov. 4 he would continue to serve on the joint budget and education legislative committees, as well as chair the Legislative Council Higher Education Sub-Committee.
From these positions, Baker said, "my primary focus will be higher education funding, and personnel issues ... from the president (of a state higher-education institution) on down.
"That is where I'll have the opportunity to demonstrate some leadership."
In response, White said Baker would better serve his constituents by demonstrating such leadership now, not later.
"He's talking about after an election," White said. "I would feel that's my responsibility right now; if you're paying me, I would work now, not after an election.
"One of the differences between Sen. Baker and I is that, as a senator, I would not stand silent on an issue this critical to this district. I think there's an obligation there to stand up and fact-find and work on it to get us moving forward."
In the White campaign's release, the housing arrangements of Baker's son at UCA are also questioned. Both Baker's son and daughter-in-law live in a campus-owned single-family home designated as housing for married students and faculty, which White said Thursday could constitute a special favor not available to the general public and, at any rate, raises "legitimate questions there that the people of District 30 should have answers to."
Firing back at White's release and what he feels was "a series of half-truths and negative misinformation" in a story published this week in a weekly Little Rock publication, Baker's campaign circulated its own release Wednesday in which Baker said his son and daughter-in-law "went through the same process as any other student applying for housing."
"Their application was granted," the release said. "Any attempt to prove political favoritism is negligent and futile because it just is not true."
Baker also said that his son has a "full-ride" scholarship earned through scholastic achievement at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, as does his daughter-in-law for her "extremely high" ACT score. Combined, he said, these scholarships pay the rent on the home with money left over.
Barbara Anderson, UCA executive vice president, explained that UCA homes such as the one Baker's son lives in, as well as another rented by former gubernatorial candidate Sheffield Nelson's grandson, typically are included in parcels of land UCA purchases for future expansion. Efforts are made to rent the homes to students or faculty, Anderson said, for the same reasons any property owner tries to keep a home occupied: lower insurance rates, less chance of theft and the overall upkeep of the home and property.
The university typically does not advertise such property for rent to students and faculty, she said, because UCA is not in the rental property business; but if two married students ask to rent one and one is available, any students may be permitted to live there.
Both Anderson and Hardin emphasized that neither pair of students got to rent the homes because of prominent parents or grandparents.
In Baker's release, he also says he finds it "appalling that the negative campaigning has already started, but even more so that it involves my family."
White maintained that he had not intended to spark negativity in a campaign that has, so far, included more good-natured appearances at community functions than duelling press releases. As for the allegations that political favors may have put Baker's son in a UCA home, White said his release was intended only to communicate his belief that a person in a position of public trust should avoid "any appearance of impropriety."
"I'm not passing judgement," White explained, "but I do think that you really need to be careful. If someone wants to believe a conspiracy-type thing, it lends itself to that. You just need to be careful."
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1238. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
