LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - While leading the Arkansas Senate, former Sen. Michael Lamoureux received $120,000 in consulting fees from a political nonprofit that was largely funded by some of the state’s top lobbying firms and their clients, according to tax documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Lamoureux - now the governor’s chief of staff - received the money through his law firm from the conservative Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition in 2013. Tax documents show that the nonprofit, which billed itself as a voter education group, took in a total of $141,000 in donations that year, and a member of its board of directors said Lamoureux was responsible for raising the money.
At the time, Lamoureux was the Arkansas Senate’s president pro tempore and often dealt with lobbyists seeking his help. The powerful position paid about $17,800 a year.
The documents show that the Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition spent no money on research, advertising or candidate promotion in 2013, unlike in previous years. After Lamoureux’s consulting fee, its remaining expenditures were about $14,000 in rent, payroll taxes, a convention fee and other small expenses.
Lamoureux declined repeated requests for comment from the AP, as did Marvin Parks, the former lawmaker who signed the nonprofit’s tax documents. Parks, who was never paid by the Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the organization was recently dissolved.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s spokesman, J.R. Davis, said Lamoureux’s association with the group “ended long before he came to work for this administration.” Lamoureux resigned from the Senate in November 2014, to join the governor’s office.
Legislators are required to report to the state their sources of income, investments or other employers on Statements of Financial Interest. Lawmakers in some professions, including law, aren’t required to list specific clients, but they must indicate whether their businesses made more or less than $12,500. Lamoureux noted on his 2013 form that he made more than $12,500 from his law firm, which lists him as the only attorney.
Graham Sloan, executive director of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, said he was barred by state law from saying whether the commission was investigating. He noted that if legislators were paid through their businesses as a consultant, the Ethics Commission could look at whether that income was earned for services provided by the business or were for an outside purpose.
If the services were for an outside purpose, they would need to be reported differently, Sloan said.
The Senate’s rules of conduct in 2013 explicitly prohibit senators from discussing or voting on issues that “will specifically relate to a business which employs the senator or in which he or she receives compensation as an attorney or consultant.” If a senator has a financial conflict or financial interest in any legislation, he or she must file a letter in the Senate Journal, a daily record of Senate proceedings. No such notices turned up from Lamoureux in a search of the 2013 journal.
Lamoureux was hired by the Arkansas Faith and Freedom Coalition at the request of its former executive director, Gilbert Baker, a state senator at the time who told board members that Lamoureux could take over his duties when Baker left in 2012, said Rep. Donnie Copeland, a former board chairman and executive director.
“He said Lamoureux was going to be raising money, handling a lot of, maybe some of the legal work,” Copeland said, adding that the board wasn’t active in the group’s day-to-day operations.
Baker, also a lobbyist, did not return multiple phone calls for comment.
Tax documents show that Baker, a state senator at the time, raised more than $225,000 for the group in 2011 and again in 2012. The group spent more than $200,000 on advertising and promotion in 2012, an election year, and nearly $23,000 in 2011. Many of the donors in those years also were lobbying groups or their clients.
Baker’s salary equaled about half of Lamoureux’s consulting fee, according to tax forms, which require nonprofits to identify any consultant they pay more than $100,000.
In 2013, the group’s largest donations came from two cigarette company groups - represented by MEJ Consulting, which lists Baker as one of its two lobbyists, and lobbying firm Mullenix and Associates - that contributed a combined $60,000, and DBH Management, which contributed $30,000. Michael Morton, who owns numerous nursing homes and often contributes to political campaigns, and Reliance Healthcare, which has donated to several judicial candidates, each contributed $12,500.
Julie Mullenix, a partner in Mullenix and Associates, said her firm donated money in one year and its clients, including cigarette group Altria, often contribute to similar organizations.
“This was a group that was identified as a campaign-fundraising group. They were doing third-party advertising and promotion of candidates,” she told the AP. “Other than the contribution to the group, we had no connection to the group. We would not be privy to the other contributors or expenses.”
Morton’s spokesman, Matt DeCample, confirmed that Morton donated but declined to say who solicited the money. Bruce Hawkins, who runs DBH Management, didn’t return requests for comment. A representative of Reliance Healthcare did not immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday.
Arkansas’ campaign finance laws from 2013 capped contributions to candidates from lobbyists and individuals at $2,000 per person, per election. The law has since changed to cap the amount at $2,700, but it more strictly defines who can donate to campaigns.
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