KY candidate convicted of extortion last time in office seeking to win back the job
One of the candidates for a state House seat in southeastern Kentucky had the job once before but went to prison on federal extortion charges.
Tom “O’Dell” Smith, a businessman from Knox County, was first elected to the 86th District seat in 1990 but became the target of an FBI investigation his first term in office.
Smith won re-election while under indictment, but resigned after being convicted in March 1993 of two charges that he took $10,000 to get early parole and lenient treatment for a convicted drug dealer.
Smith testified at his 1993 trial that he misled the drug dealer and his wife about his ability to help them because he saw them as a source of campaign money for other candidates.
“It seems like on the conversations we were having, I just kept blowing. I kept exaggerating more and more,” Smith testified.
Smith argued the FBI entrapped him and that he didn’t set out to commit a crime, though a federal prosecutor argued Smith knowingly abused his office for money.
The jury convicted Smith, then 34, on two charges of extortion. It acquitted him on a third extortion charge and a charge of obstructing justice.
An appeals court upheld his conviction and 27-month prison sentence.
Smith did not respond to several recent requests for comment by the Herald-Leader.
However, he told The Mountain Advocate newspaper in Barbourville that he was young and naïve his first time in office and made a mistake.
“Hopefully in the last 30 years I’ve showed people I’ve tried to do what was right, I’ve tried to be a good neighbor, a good citizen of our county,” Smith told the Barbourville newspaper. “I hope I’ve lived a life that people are willing to say we’ll give him a second chance.”
Smith is one of four candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the 86th District, which includes all of Knox County and part of Laurel County.
The others are David G. Hart of Corbin, Scotty Reams of London and Don Rose of Barbourville.
Rep. Jim Stewart III has represented the district since 1997, but did not seek re-election.
No Democrat filed, according to the Secretary of State.
Hart, 39, is currently in his second term as a member of the Corbin city commission. He is married and has a young son.
Hart attended the University of Kentucky before going to work at family businesses in 2000.
He is general manager of Hart’s Cycle Sales in Middlesboro and Hart’s Motorsports in Somerset, owns farm land and receives income from a coal lease, according to his disclosure with the Legislative Ethics Commission.
Hart said if elected his top priority would be to promote better infrastructure, such as road improvements, and economic development for the district, including by boosting regional cooperation to compete for jobs.
“I’m just a hard-working small businessman that wants to be their voice in Frankfort,” Hart said of voters.
Reams, 24, finished pharmacy school at the University of Kentucky in May and works at a pharmacy in London.
He is married to a teacher and holds positions with the state and national pharmacy associations.
Reams said if elected his priorities would include helping “maintain good Kentucky Christian values” and working to help the district.
He said his relatively young age shouldn’t be a detriment.
Asked what he wants voters to know, Reams vowed he “will fight harder for them and work harder for them than anyone else could,” he said.
Rose, 55, drives a truck and does concrete work for an excavating company. Before that he worked as a coal miner and at a sawmill, and spent more than 25 years with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
He is married and has an adult daughter.
Rose said his top priority if elected would be to try to boost the economy of the area, noting most of the people at the factory where his wife works are laid off.
“I’d like to be able to save the jobs we’ve got and try to get some other ones,” he said.
Smith said on his disclosure form that he owns a consulting business and listed income from several businesses, including Codell Construction; UMG, a utility management company; Summit Engineering; and LKLP Community Action Council, a poverty-relief agency.
Rick Baker, head of the agency, said Smith has consulted for the agency on setting up public-private partnerships to develop affordable housing.
Smith also is a partner in Willow Creek Farms LLC, which has done several real-estate deals.
One of the company’s larger sales involved land where Keeneland, the Lexington racetrack and Thoroughbred auction company, wants to build a quarterhorse track and facility for electronic gambling machines in Corbin.
Willow Creek signed an option in 2013 to buy the site along the Corbin bypass from the Corbin Tri-County Joint Industrial Authority and renewed it several times, according to public records.
A deed dated Oct. 31, 2017 said Willow Creek bought the land for $432,774 from the authority.
A separate deed dated the same day said Willow Creek had sold the land to Cumberland Run — the name of Keeneland’s facility — for $1,113,720.
The state Horse Racing Commission has not approved a racing license for the Corbin track.
Hart, Reams and Rose say they are are politically conservative.
Their positions are similar on several issues, including opposing abortion, supporting gun rights and generally being against tax increases.
Rose said he is not opposed to allowing medical use of marijuana if it helps people with health conditions.
Reams said he would support that proposal under the restriction that only medical professionals could dispense it.
Hart said he would consider supporting legal use of medical marijuana only if scientific evidence justifies it.
Hart said he is leaning toward supporting sports betting, an issue that came up int the legislature this year but didn’t pass, but would vote as the majority of constituents wanted.
Reams also said his position on the issue would depend on voters’ views.
Rose said he would not be opposed to the measure if state revenue from sports betting helped people.
Smith said on his Facebook page that he opposes abortion, supports gun rights and has worked to promote economic development.
