Ex-Arkansas legislator who resigned files to run again

Democrats say he's ineligible due to felony

— A state Democratic Party spokeswoman says the party doesn’t believe a former state representative who resigned over a felony conviction is eligible to run again.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Candace Martin said Thursday the party couldn’t find any record that former state Rep. Fred Smith had his record expunged over a 2011 conviction of felony theft of property delivered by mistake.

Smith, of Crawfordsville, filed Thursday to run for his old seat in east Arkansas and said at the time his attorney was in the process of getting that record cleared.

Smith on Thursday would not tell reporters whether he had gotten his record expunged.

The Chicot County circuit clerk’s office said Thursday that Smith’s case had not been expunged and he hadn’t filed papers seeking to seal his record.

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