Circuit Judge Susan Weaver of Conway on Friday denied an effort by Trent Minner, a Republican candidate for House from Conway, to shut down advertising by Liberty and Justice for Arkansas, an independent campaign committee that he believes is behind messaging critical of him and other Republican candidates.

Also Friday, a dark money campaign Minner is backing to allow minority rule at the ballot box bought $250,000 worth of TV advertising to advance that cause.

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First, Minner’s loss in Faulkner County.

As I observed when the suit was filed Wednesday and as a spokesman for the committee said then, the lawsuit was primarily a political ploy. It raised issues properly before the state Ethics Commission, not a court. Minner contends the committee hasn’t timely filed reports on its campaign activity, allegations the committee has denied.

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Minner’s lawsuit wanted the judge to stop the committee’s advertising and to do so without hearing from them. He hadn’t served the committee with the suit but said an emergency existed that justified a so-called ex parte order.

Thursday afternoon, the committee’s attorney, Peter Shults asked that the judge not rule without hearing from Liberty and Justice for Arkansas. He asked to be given until 5 p.m. Friday to respond.

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The judge ruled at mid-afternoon Friday that no response was necessary. She dunked Minner.  The judge said an ex parte order could be justified only by a showing of “immediate and irreparable injury loss or damage” and only if Minner had certified in writing efforts to give the defendant notice and explained why notice should not be required.

She noted that Minner alleged unreported activities dating back to June 10, 2021.

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The Petitioner states “Defendant’s unlawful actions constitute an immediate and irreparable injury or harm to Plaintiff as well as the people of Arkansas”, but it fails to show this allegation, as required by Ark. R. Civ. P. Rule 64(b)(1)(A) by failing to state why, or what injury or harm will occur if an ex parte and permanent injunctive order is not entered.

Further, the Complainant’s stated reason as why notice should not be required also fails. As stated in the complaint, “Plaintiff should not be required to provide notice of the request, because of the time exigency…”, however, over sixteen (16) months have passed since the initial alleged conduct of Defendant and today, indicating Defendant’s alleged actions have been continuous and ongoing signifying Plaintiff has had sufficient time to have filed a complaint without an ex parte request.

Minner is a lawyer, by the way, who worked recently for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. He’s running for House in a district reconfigured to be more favorable to Republicans to unseat incumbent Democratic Rep. Steve Magie.

Since the judge denied Minner’s request for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction, she said the request by the committee’s lawyer to be heard was moot.

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UPDATE: LJA said:

“LJA appreciates the court’s immediate denial of Trent Minner’s complaint. Trent wasted valuable taxpayer-funded court resources for political gain. The complaint was based on an allegation that LJA had not complied with requirements to file financial reports with the Arkansas Secretary of State. Not only is that factually inaccurate, but the reports were accessed by the media when reporting on his complaint. Additionally, as the Court noted, the complaint lacked the basic proof necessary to prevail on a request for temporary injunctive relief—namely, no proof of irreparable harm. The Court made this conclusion even before LJA had a chance to respond, which it was prepared to do, to explain to the Court how Trent’s material allegations against LJA were not true.

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“It is important to take a step back and look at what Trent was trying to do: 13 days before he was up for election, he requested that a court take the extraordinary step of silencing LJA, an entity critical of Minner’s candidacy, without giving LJA notice of the case or an opportunity to be heard. Even after LJA learned about the case and reached out to him, Minner did not dismiss his inaccurate claims nor did he agree to give LJA an opportunity to be heard. Allowing this type of action to proceed would have a chilling effect on all Americans’ constitutionally protected right of free speech.

“Attorneys must be diligent, and candidates must be tough. Trent is neither. We hope the citizens of Faulkner County are paying attention. -Dawne Vandiver”

Liberty and Justice for Arkansas’s Facebook page only began posting political messages about this year’s election this week. Example:

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The secretary of state’s records show the committee filed a batch of campaign reports Oct. 17, well ahead of Minner’s lawsuit.  The committee reports $119,000 in contributions and $108,000 in expenditures, most of them in 2021. A Darien, Ct., couple, Cheryl and Edward Huffman, accounted for $100,000 of contributions.

Now about Minner’s own dark money foray, which must file a report seven days before the election, but which may not fully reveal backers at the seven-day mark because that report can be closed out 10 days before the election.

Minner is a leader of an independent committee, Protect Our Constitution, created this week to promote Issue 2, the constitutional amendment that would end majority rule on constitutional amendments by requiring a 60 percent vote for approval. His committee has not yet reported the backers of campaign ads that the committee is  running or any specific expenditures.

However, his committee, in which he’s joined with Chris Gonzalez to lead, HAS begun committing money to the race.

FCC documents show the committee on Friday, Oct. 28, contracted to buy $197,200 worth of advertising from KATV; $43,000 from KTVH and $10,000 from KLRT/KARK. A quarter of a million bucks all told. Speculation has been that casino money — from Oaklawn and Southland — is contributing to the effort. Why that speculation? Issue 2 would make it harder for someone to get ballot approval for an amendment to allow additional casino permits in Arkansas. The Constitution limits it to four.

Oaklawn and Southland, incidentally, are affiliates of out-of-state (Missouri and New York respectively) financial empires, exactly the kind of moneyed influence that promoters of Issue 2 say their minority rule proposal is meant to curb.

UPDATE: LR lawyer David Couch has scoured more media FCC filings and found $900,000 spent by this committee counting buys with other Arkansas Tv stations and radio purchases. By my quick checks, I’ve found $68,000 with KAIT in Jonesboro; $85,500 and $12,200 with Fort Smith stations KFSM and KFTA; $45,600 with KNWA in Rogers; $38,000 with KHBS and $13,000 with radio KSSN in Little Rock. Haven’t been able to find the cable buys just yet and there are undoubtedly other TV and riod buys in the mix but these add another $250,000.

I see a theme from a Republican candidate whose work experience includes stints for Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill and Republican state Rep. Robin Lundstrum. Shut down opponents’ voices, by dubious court action if necessary. Stifle popular voices with anti-democratic high barriers to ballot approval. As a Republican, we know, too, where he stands on ease of voting — against.

Free speech for me and mine, not for thee and thine.