Preston Bynum

Preston Conrad Bynum (born June 8, 1939) is a lobbyist in Little Rock, Arkansas, who served as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from January 1969 to December 1980.

With his first election, Bynum was one of only four Republicans in the 100-member House;^[1] when his party's delegation numbered five or six, he became, as senior member, the minority leader.^[2]

Bynum succeeded fellow Republican Jim Sheets, then of Siloam Springs in Benton County, who did not seek a second term because of family business. At the time, Bynum was an automobile dealer in Siloam Springs in a business begun by his father, Homer F. Bynum (1911–2004).^[3] Siloam Springs is one of the northwestern Arkansas towns in Benton County receptive the Republican political message.

Political background

In his third term in the House from 1973 to 1974, Bynum was the only Republican in the chamber but was not considered particularly partisan in demeanor. In 1974, he announced that he would run for governor but withdrew,^[4] and the nomination went to Ken Coon of Little Rock, a steadfast figure in the development of the Arkansas GOP.^[5]

Bynum did not seek reelection in 1980 but instead became chief of staff to Republican Governor Frank D. White. Bynum and House colleague Carolyn Pollan of Fort Smith prepared the state budget by retaining previous figures from the Bill Clinton administration but with 5 percent across-the-board cuts. Pollan continued to serve in the House but also assumed the role of the governor's legislative advisor.^[6]

Bynum represents a number of major Arkansas clients through his Phoenix Investment Group, Inc., of Little Rock.^[7]

Lobbying career

After White left the governorship, Bynum began a successful business and lobbying career. He is a member of the Association of General Contractors.^[8] He gained many clients, including the Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. NWACC president Becky Paneitz said that she "sought and received nothing but positive feedback" before the institution hired Bynum: "He is very well respected in the halls of the State Capitol, he is an effective lobbyist, and he will do a good job representing the college's interests."^[9] A former salesman in his father's automobile dealership, Bynum was named to the government affairs team of the interest group, the Arkansas Independent Automobile Dealers Association, along with Eric Munson, then state director of the National Federation of Independent Business and a former member of the administration of Governor Mike Huckabee.^[10]

Jim Keet, the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nominee, who in 1994 as a state senator from Little Rock, described Bynum as “highly regarded and perceived to be a straight-shooter. He is a very knowledgeable advocate for the interests he represents and is respected among legislators almost universally."^[11]

Legal troubles

In the middle 1990s, Bynum faced serious legal problems. While employed as a lobbyist for the investment banking firm Stephens, Inc., he was indicted for bribery in January 1995 by a federal grand jury. The U.S. government charged that Bynum paid Terry Duwayne Busbee (born 1942), then a commissioner of the Utility Authority of Escambia County, Florida, to steer bond-underwriting business to Stephens, Inc. Two months later, Bynum pleaded guilty to a single count of bribery.^[12] Busbee received $67,200 in loans and cash at a time when Stephens was the senior managing underwriter for several issues of Escambia County securities. ^[13]

According to the 1995 annual report of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, four of the loans to Busbee were arranged through the Worthen National Bank in Little Rock. Though Bynum subsequently repaid the loans, he was charged with securities violations; under a plea bargain, he was fined $25,000 and given a two-year federal prison sentence. He was further forbidden to represent clients in the securities business for the rest of his life.^[14]

Terry Busbee pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and falsification of federal income-tax returns, but he was not fined because of an inability to pay. He also received a two-year sentence. Bynum reported to federal prison in July 1995. In the fall of 1996, he was allowed to finish his sentence at the St. Francis House, a halfway facility in Little Rock. He was given use of his old offices at Stephens, Inc., to prepare for his future employment,^[15] once he was finally released by the Bureau of Prisons on July 1, 1998.^[16]

Busbee was released from prison on February 7, 1997, more than a year ahead of Bynum. Upon release, Bynum quickly resumed his lobbying activities. He has been credited with obtaining the passage of legislation, approved by law enforcement in general, to make it legal for Arkansans to be in possession of knives used for self-defense.

Personal life

In 1937, Homer Bynum married the former Roma May Hays (1920-2011). The senior Bynums also had a daughter, Kay Hays Bynum (1946-2009), an artist and poet from Siloam Springs, who was married at the time of her death to Richard Frideaux. The senior Bynums are interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Benton County.

Since 1987, Bynum has been married to the former Ann Bailey.^[17] Born in 1940, Ann Bynum is a medical educator at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. A native of Siloam Springs, she was married from 1963 to 1972 to William Pickens, from whom she has two daughters and hence the step-daughters of Preston Bynum, Holly Ann Bowles and Susan Heather Fritzormer.

References