Candidate barred over scandal
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Democratic Party of Arkansas on Saturday barred from running under the party’s name a man who resigned from the state House three years ago over accusations of sexual advances toward a teenage girl.
Party Chairman Bill Gwatney of Little Rock said the move against Dwayne Dobbins was about ensuring “accountability to voters” over a “misuse of public trust.”
The party certified all of the winners of the May 20 Democratic primary with the exception of Dobbins for the Nov. 4 ballot.
The party first changed its rules to ban anyone from running as a Democrat if he had resigned from public office as a part of a plea agreement to avoid felony prosecution, as Dobbins did.
Both actions were passed without objection during the party’s state convention at the Robinson Center in Little Rock. About 700 Democrats from throughout the state were on hand, the party said.
Dobbins, 45, an information technology consultant, and his wife, state Rep. Sharon Dobbins, D-North Little Rock, attended. They greeted people from time to time but for the most part sat by themselves near the Pulaski County delegation.
“My lawyers will be talking,” Dobbins said, declining further comment as he and his wife left the convention hall.
Gwatney said the party on Monday would send a $ 3, 000 check to Dobbins to refund his filing fee. For months, Gwatney had offered to refund the fee if Dobbins would drop out of the state House race for District 39 in North Little Rock. Dobbins refused.
In 1994, the state Republican Party in a similar move refused to accept Dan Ivy of Fayetteville as its nominee for attorney general. Ivy had been convicted in municipal court of third-degree battery, a misdemeanor, after being accused of beating his wife.
In a case filed by Ivy, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza upheld the party’s decision to exclude Ivy, saying that political parties have the right under state law to determine their nominees.
That ruling, however, was overturned by the state Supreme Court in a 5-2 decision.
Ivy remained on the ballot but lost the race. Gwatney said he hadn’t looked into that ruling.
“That’s just something we’re going to have to deal with,” he said. “I cannot make a decision because the Republican Party lost a lawsuit at the Supreme Court. This is the best interest of the Democratic Party.”
Dobbins is black, and initially some black legislators showed support for him, including Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Sen. Irma Hunter Brown, D-Little Rock, and Sen. Tracy Steele, DNorth Little Rock.
Steele said before the vote Saturday that support was from a “personal level” since he had known Dobbins since they were children. He declined to offer an opinion about the party’s proposal because he said he didn’t know the details.
Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel called the way Dobbins filed instead of his wife “a bait and switch.” He declined to comment on whether the party’s actions would be held up in court but said he’d defend the House of Representatives in court should Dobbins challenge the rule change.
McDaniel said the “spirit of his plea agreement was that he was not to return to the Legislature.”
If Dobbins isn’t on the Nov. 4 ballot, then Green Party candidate Richard Carroll, 51, of North Little Rock, a boilermaker for the Union Pacific railroad, will be the only name listed. There is no Republican candidate in the race. The deadline for write-in candidates is Aug. 6, and a candidate stepped forward Thursday.
The party also changed a rule meant to make it harder to file as a candidate by petition instead of a filing fee.
In April, Gwatney had complained about Charles King filing to run for House District 36 in Little Rock by petition. King turned in his signatures on March 10, the last day of the filing period, giving the party no time to verify the names. King lost the primary to Darrin Williams.
Party rules required that if someone wants to file as a hardship case, he must turn in valid signatures from registered voters in the district equal to at least 3 percent of the number of people who voted in the previous Democratic primary in the district.
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