Arkansas

Arkansas Real Estate Mogul John Bailey Backs Wisconsin Recall Efforts

Published

2 years ago

September 16, 2024

Press Room

Arkansas Real Estate Mogul John Bailey Backs Wisconsin Recall Efforts

John Bailey (Karen E. Segrave)

The speaker of Wisconsin’s house of representatives clearly has a well-heeled opponent in Arkansas.

Spoiler alert: It’s real estate titan John Bailey of Little Rock.

Robin Vos has been speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, which is what the Badger State calls its house of representatives, since 2013. He represents a district in southeast Wisconsin, south of Milwaukee.

While Vos is a Republican, he isn’t Republican enough for some folks. Twice this year he has been the target of recall attempts because he rejected calls to decertify President Joe Biden’s 2020 win in the state by a mere 21,000 votes. According to the Associated Press, he further alienated himself from some in his party by declining to endorse an effort to impeach the state’s top election official.

Both recalls failed because they didn’t get enough valid signatures from Vos’ district as it is currently configured. That doesn’t seem to be because they didn’t have enough money: The two efforts combined reported donations of almost $1.28 million — about $185 for every one of the 6,850 voter signatures that either petition drive needed in order to get the recall on the November ballot.

What may have been lacking was local buy-in. When the two organizations behind the recall attempts finally filed their financial statements — a month late — at the end of August, it turned out that less than $2,500 came from Wisconsin donors while more than $1.2 million came from Bailey.

Identified in the paperwork as a philanthropist from Little Rock, we know Bailey as a major shareholder and former CEO of publicly traded BSR Real Estate Investment Trust. BSR owns multifamily residential properties, mostly in Texas but also in Oklahoma City and Little Rock. BSR’s headquarters at 1400 W. Markham St. was listed as the donor’s address.

“This makes it clear this wasn’t a grassroots, volunteer, local effort,” Vos was quoted by The Journal Times in Racine. “It was an out-of-state paid endeavor engineered to pay those who took part in it.”

Vos was nominated for re-election in the Republican primary last month, getting almost 70% of the vote after his only challenger unofficially withdrew.

It is not clear what would prompt Bailey to invest so much into ousting the Wisconsin speaker — $425,000 to the first recall effort (after an additional $60,000 was returned to him when that effort fizzled) and $785,000 to the second.

Whispers reached out to BSR with no success, and no reporters in Wisconsin seem to have answered the why either.

Bailey isn’t the only Arkansan involved in the efforts to recall Vos. Conrad Reynolds, the retired U.S. Army colonel who has twice sought the Republican nomination for Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, worked with both Wisconsin recall committees.

Reynolds and Bailey were both listed as officers of Restore Election Integrity Arkansas, which abandoned its planned petition initiative to get a paper ballot amendment on this year’s General Election ballot.

Reynolds told Whispers he knew that Bailey was interested in Wisconsin because “it was important to the mission to get their elections right,” but he said he could not speak to Bailey’s motive for donating so much to the Vos recall attempts. Reynold said he had not personally solicited donations to that effort from Bailey or anyone else.

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Arkansas

Arkansas Storm Team Forecast: Rain chances return; low to start but higher next week

Published

2 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas Storm Team Forecast: Rain chances return; low to start but higher next week

No rain in Thursday’s forecast.

The chance of rain will return on Friday, but the chance is going to be very low Friday through Sunday.

Then the chance really picks up early next week as a front approaches. Stronger to severe storms are going to be possible Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

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Arkansas

Staff Members at A-State Honored for Retirement and Years of Service

Published

14 hours ago

May 13, 2026

Press Room

JONESBORO – Staff members at Arkansas State University were honored for their retirement
and milestone accomplishments during the annual Distinguished Performance Awards and
Service Recognition Ceremony in Centennial Hall of Reng Student Union on Monday, May
11.

Those who have or will retire during the current academic year include Malissa Davis,
Ellis Library, 35 years; Jimmy Crocker, Facilities Management, 28 years; Anna Warren,
Childhood Services, 19 years; Cameron Martin, Facilities Management, 14 years; Barbara
Bland, Childhood Services, 14 years; Charlotte Booker, Information Technology Services,
12 years; Mary E. Williams, College of Nursing and Health Professions, 11 years; and
Joe Boon, Facilities Management, 9 years.

Honored for 45 years of service was Sharon Lee, director of community engagement and
outreach for the office of Access and Accommodation Services.

Honored for 40 years of service was Sharon McDaniel, records management supervisor
for the Registrar’s Office.

Those honored for 35 years of service include:
Phillip Ladd, project manager in Construction Services, and Russ Hannah, vice chancellor
for Finance and Administration.

Those honored for 30 years of service include:
Natalie Turney, administrative assistant in the Department of English, Philosophy
and World Languages and Cheryl Richey, custodial coordinator in Facilities Management.

Those honored for 25 years of service include:
Woodie Sue Herlein, out-of-school time projects coordinator in Childhood Services;
Diana Courson, assistant director of Childhood Services; Laura Miller, director of
Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center; Mia Sheppard-Taylor, director
of Custodial Services; Eric Barnett, core network engineer and wireless administrator
of Information Technology Services; Clay Hurn, Mail Center; and Sharon Rye, hardware
engineer in Information Technology Services.

Those honored for 20 years of service include:
April Morris, Michael Glover, Mary Melton, Grady Clark, Amber Long Martin, Kayann
Brown, Dwain Roberts, Randy Wheaton, Amber Jones, Melissa Jackson, Cheryl Wright,
Christy Brinkley, and Jimmy Rousseau.

Those honored for 15 years of service include:
Ronnie Gilley, Christina Kostick, Carol Caldwell, Michael Bradley, Mark Freier, Shea
Harris, Thomas Wilson, Chris Boothman, Lora Gibson, Cary Estes, Stephanie Gibson,
Jesse Blankenship, Violeta Lugo, Alyssa Wells, Marsha Carwell, Vickie Gilmer, Edward
Haff, and Alexis Hurdle Besharse.

Those honored for 10 years of service include:
Michael Hagen, Tammy Daffron, Terri Teters, Mollie Menton-Ipsen, Dale McClelland,
Taylor Carpenter, Anne Merten, Avis Turner, Benjamin Housewright, Dallas Reece, Brandon
Tabor, Tia Caldwell, Tara Thomason, Petree Buford, Robert Davenport, Cathy Naylor,
Shannon Williams, Jackie Cox, Frazier Dixon, Devin Nelson, and Michelle White.

Those honored for five years of service include:
Jeri Knight, Josh Rogers, Taylor Shannon, Fen Yu, Deloris Holley, Penny Toombs, Greg
Umhoefer, Sasha Jones, Brittany Stokes, Stephanie Stanley, Caleb Lawson, Raven Person,
Maria Bedwell, Michael Bledsoe, Judith Poole, Suzette Hinkle, Leigh Ann Crain, Bryce
Moore, Andrew Shoffner, Lyle Jones, Derrick Lett, Ben Kutylo, Autumn Anderson, Stanley
Broadaway, Michael Alexander, Jennifer Keys, Julie Yarberry, Shauna Baker, Melissa
Dooley, Paula Kelley, Taylor Simmermon, Craig Estes, Kyle Ford, Fady Fara, Sylvia
Zavala Brandon, Nicholas Wallis, Olivia Clark, and JD Stallings.

Honorees from five years of service through 20 years received a certificate and a
pin. Those celebrating 25 years and up received a plaque in recognition of their dedication
to A-State.

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Arkansas

Working on softball skills | Washington County Enterprise-Leader

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2026

Press Room

Working on softball skills | Washington County Enterprise-Leader

Anya Lynch (left), a Farmington High School student, fields the ball with the help of Riley Sundquist, Farmington Junior High School student on Wednesday, May 6, during the Special Olympics Arkansas Area 3-Farmington softball skills and competition event at the Farmington Sports Complex. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Caleb Grieger)

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