This is James (Jim) Knight. He is not running for office.
Mr. Knight, in his individual capacity, and Citizens For A Better Pope County sued the County Judge and Quorum Court in August 2019 and lost in Circuit Court and, on appeal, lost at the Arkansas Supreme Court.
According to Dun and Bradstreet, Mr. Knight is the “key principal” of Real Practices, Inc, located at 1310 W. Main Street, Suite 201, Russellville, Arkansas.
That is the same address used by Fair Play for Arkansas – 2022 (FPFA22), the ballot question committee that has accepted $977,300 from Choctaw Gaming for a campaign to take Pope County out of Amendment 100.
Established in 1991, Real Practice’s Inc is a Real Estate Agent and Broker Business with 4 employees and annual sales estimated at $709,989, according to Dun and Bradstreet.
Mr. Knight and Anna Stiritz were on the agenda to speak at a called special meeting of the Pope County Quorum Court on December 16, 2021, where the court was to discuss casino litigation and “the possibility of letters on behalf of other operators.”
Mr. Knight and Mrs. Stiritz, along with 5 of the JPs who had called for the special meeting, Lane Scott, Joe Pearson, Bill Sparks, David Ivy, and Allan George, did not show up after it became apparent that the agenda was not going to be a popular one with members of the public and mayors from several Pope County cities, who did show up and speak.
Mr. Knight, in his individual capacity, and Citizens For A Better Pope County are plaintiffs in a still-pending case against the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Citizens For A Better Pope County was also the group that created a local ballot issue that passed and became Ordinance 2018-O-42, restricting the authority of the County Judge and Quorum Court in providing documents of support for casino applicants, requiring a vote of more than half of the registered voters before such documents could be provided. Ordinance 2018-O-42 was later repealed by the Quorum Court and found to be unconstitutional in Circuit Court.
The people trying to get Pope County off of Amendment 100 have used various names to further their aims: Citizens for Local Choice, Concerned Citizens of Pope County, Citizens for a Better Pope County, Pope County Decides, United Pope County, United for a Better Pope County, United Pope County for Accountability, Fair Play for Arkansas, and, now, Fair Play for Arkansas – 2022.
fairplayforarkansas.net is not their website. It has information from our side of the issue.