Mr. Robinson was first elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984, representing a district that included Little Rock and central Arkansas. He switched parties and became a Republican in 1989 before losing the GOP primary for governor the following year.

But it was Mr. Robinson’s actions and comments during his years as Pulaski County sheriff that gained him national attention. He was elected to the post in 1980 after serving as state director of public safety.

He had complained about a backlog of state inmates being held in the county’s jail and in 1981 had a group of them chained to a gate outside an Arkansas prison.

“The bottom line is, I’m not going to keep state prisoners,” he said at the time. “It’s their problem, not mine.”

Mr. Robinson also clashed with prosecutors and judges during his time as sheriff. He was jailed by a federal judge for contempt for two days after kicking out a special master appointed to oversee conditions at the jail.

Following a string of robberies, Mr. Robinson had deputies hide randomly at convenience stores armed with shotguns to deter would-be robbers.

During his time in Congress, Mr. Robinson aligned with the “boll weevil” bloc of conservative southern Democrats who voted for many of President Ronald Reagan’s policies. When he switched parties in 1989, Arkansas was a predominantly Democratic state, but Mr. Robinson complained that the party had become too liberal.

Mr. Robinson ran for the GOP nomination for governor in 1990, hoping to unseat Gov. Bill Clinton (D). He was defeated by Sheffield Nelson in the Republican primary, and Nelson lost to Clinton that fall. Clinton was elected president in 1992.

Tommy Franklin Robinson was born in Little Rock on March 7, 1942. Early in his career, he served with the North Little Rock Police Department, the Arkansas State Police and the U.S. Marshal Service.

Mr. Robinson remained in the news in the years after leaving Congress. In 1992, he was named as the worst offender in an overdraft scandal involving the House bank. The bank closed in 1991.

Over a 16-month period, he wrote 996 checks on insufficient funds, overdrafts that totaled more than $250,000. A Justice Department report later said no one would be prosecuted for the overdrafts because it was bank policy to routinely honor checks written on insufficient funds.

Mr. Robinson was appointed to the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission and the Parole Board by Gov. Mike Huckabee (R).

Mr. Robinson ran as the Republican nominee in 2002 for the 1st Congressional District in eastern Arkansas and lost to incumbent Marion Berry, a Democrat, in the general election.

A list of survivors was not immediately available.