Jason Bollinger, the chairman of the Faulkner County Republican committee, authorized committee Secretary James Quinn to send an email Oct. 7 soliciting support for Linda Hargis, a member of the Conway School Board, who received a DWI on Aug. 25, per her request.
The email said, “Linda Hargis asked for the following to be conveyed to Faulkner County Republicans. ‘Three speakers will ask for Linda Hargis to resign at the school board meeting. A group has started a movement for people to support. All you have to do to support her is send a text message to the number below. Text your name with yes. (501) 908-1504. These names will not be made public. Will be given to the school board in executive session.’”
“This doesn’t define my life,” said Hargis, who is also a member of the Faulkner County Republican committee, at a Conway School Board meeting Oct. 8. “This one incident does not define who I am. I want to move through this to the other side, and I want to come out being a better me.”
Jimmie Cavin, a member of the Faulkner County Republican committee who has been called for removal by the party, said he had a phone conversation in early October with Bollinger after the email was sent out, where he shared his concerns.
He said, “My first concern was that this was done without the committee making the decision to put it out.”
He said the committee only knew about Hargis’ request once the email was sent, and it went to over 100 people.
Cavin said the number of the woman whose number was attached to the email was changed “because of the backlash.”
“It makes it look like the Republican committee is supporting Linda, and that’s not our place as a committee,” Cavin said.
He said, “If you want to individually support Linda, which I do, to stay on the school board, then I can individually do that, but to have our [Faulkner] Republican County committee put that out there makes it look like our whole committee is endorsing her to stay on the school [board].”
He said every committee member has “the entire contact list for the entire committee.”
“Linda can send it out. Not him,” he said.
He said his second concern was that the email said the names of those who texted support would be private.
“That’s a false statement that they made,” he said. “When you give that to a school board member or any person employed by the district, it just became a public record.”
Cavin said, “I gave Jason my concerns, and he admitted that it was his decision to send that out, that he was doing a friend a favor, being Linda, that he told James Quinn to send it out.”
He said, “He actually apologized on the phone, said he took full responsibility, and I encouraged him to make a statement, saying, ‘Look, this was my decision. I didn’t talk to the committee. I made a mistake.’”
Cavin said what Bollinger told KATV for an article differed from what he said in the phone conversation.
According to the article from KATV on Oct. 28, the Faulkner County Republican Executive committee said in a statement, “Per the request of Mrs. Hargis, an elected official and FCRC committee member, the party forwarded a direct communication from Mrs. Hargis to the rest of the committee with no statement of support or opposition to the statement or to Mrs. Hargis. The party merely forwarded the communication verbatim, as the party has done with similar communication requests in the past.”
Bollinger said, “It was sent from the party. It was inner-party communication.”
Cavin said, “Where I’m upset is the committee did not do that. One guy did that. So, now you’re making the whole committee look like they did it when they didn’t. Now, if you bring that vote to a committee, I’m going to vote no. We don’t need to send that out.”
“Our role as a party is to elect Republican candidates and enact Republican policies,” he said. “Our role as a Republican committee is not to rally behind somebody who’s been criminally charged.”
He said he is “as conservative as you get.”
“But, I would never use my position as a member of the Republican committee to support someone in this situation,” he said.
The phone conversation
Within thirty seconds of the phone conversation, Cavin said, “Was that your decision to authorize to put that out?”
Bollinger said Hargis made the request Oct. 6, the night before a school board meeting.
He said, “She lets me know, ‘Hey, there’s people that are coming to the board meeting Monday night, and they’re speaking against me.’ I would like some people —- like my friends from the Republican party to know to come out and support me.’”
Bollinger said a minute and thirty seconds in, “I told her, Linda, ‘Honestly, I am up to my eyeballs with this dinner. I do not have time to think about this, and I certainly don’t have time to write an email or messages to send to people.’ And I told her, ‘If you want something to go out to everybody, you’re a member here, and if you want to communicate with people, type up what you want verbatim. We’ll hit copy and paste and paste the message.’”
Bollinger said at two minutes, “It’s not wise to go out and to sign a list supporting someone who, now she’s not been convicted yet, but on that video, she did admit to driving while drunk.”
He said close to three minutes into the conversation that it was misleading for Hargis’ message to say those who text support would remain private.
“I don’t know what her plan was on that to keep it private, but if it’s handled with any sort of normal channels, I would assume that if that list was FOIA’d, it would be available,” he said.
Bollinger said at five and a half minutes, “My apologies. I’m the chairman, so I take responsibility. Even if I didn’t hit the send button, still my prerogative. I’m still chairman. Should not have gone out. Certainly should not have the Republican party logo. It was bad judgment on multiple levels.”
At about six minutes, Bollinger said he “didn’t even think about it” and wanted to help a friend.
“It was poor judgment on multiple levels, including the actual sending,” he said. “We should have just told her, ‘Sorry, Linda, that’s not a good idea. Here’s why, for all the reasons I just listed and then that.’”
At seven minutes into the call, Cavin said Bollinger should make a statement and apologize.
Nine minutes in, Bollinger said it is similar to how resolutions are emailed among the party but does not necessarily imply endorsement.
Bollinger said, “The most important thing to say in that, Jimmy, would be that even the original email is not an endorsement, saying that Republicans need to do this. This was a courtesy to one of our members who asked for communication to be coming to the other members. And that’s what it was, nothing more, nothing less.”
The lawsuit
Cavin is involved with a lawsuit filed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by Jennifer Lancaster, who chaired the Republican Party’s State Convention this year, and 21 delegates to the convention.
The plaintiffs, including Cavin, allege that Joseph Wood, the party chair, and Secretary of State John Thurston violated the First Amendment’s free speech rights and the 14th Amendment’s due process rights.
Cavin said, “Long story short, we adopted new rules and platform in a convention in June and July. The state chairman declared that null and void, which he doesn’t lawfully have the right to do. It’s a big deal about closed primaries versus open primaries, and so that led to a lawsuit.
“Currently, there are charges or complaints filed against Jennifer trying to remove her from the Republican Party because of that. Even up here in Faulkner County, there were complaints filed against me with the party alleging that me filing that lawsuit is going against the interest of the Republican Party,” he said.
Cavin said there is an effort to remove him from the party due to the lawsuit and because he punched Jon Newcomb, a member of the Saline County Republican committee, during a Sept. 5 meeting.
He said he punched Newcomb after witnessing him heckle a woman named Kandi Cox for her nose ring.
“It was about a guy being ugly and berating and intimating and accosting to a lady,” he said.