Challenger questions Senator Bledsoe's residency, cites double-dip on homestead tax credit

Jon Comstock, a Democrat and former circuit judge who's challenging the re-election bid by 16-year incumbent Republican Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, has added to a list of ethical questions about Bledsoe with information that challenges her residency in Benton County. It's built on a clear issue, her double dip on the homestead tax credit.

Earlier, Comstock noted that Bledsoe and her family have piled up nearly $500,000 in state pay and she hasn't filed the required conflict of interest disclosures. She's chair of a committee with oversight of the Health Department, where her husband James got hired out of retirement for an unadvertised $182,000 Health Department job. James Bledsoe filled out a reqired firm that said he wasn't married to a state constitutional officer, though he is. Health issues also include the office of surgeon general, for which her son, Greg, gets a $173,000 annual contract while working full-time at Arkansas Heart Hospital.

Comstock has also criticized Bledsoe for taking advantage of a sham "term limits" amendment crafted by the felonious former Sen. Jon Woods, to seek re-election to a term that will give her 20 years in the Senate. This is legal of course. Just a touch hypocritical from a party that rose to power with term limits a key part of its platform.

Now Comstock has raised a new allegation on residency.

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/10/13/challenger-questions-senator-bledsoes-residency-cites-double-dip-on-homestead-tax-credit