Mickey Gates

Michael Wayne Gates, known as Mickey Gates (born 1959/1960), is a businessman from Hot Springs, Arkansas, who was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 22, which encompasses Garland and Saline counties in the west central portion of the state.

Born in Perryton, Texas, Gates grew up in Spearman, but moved to Borger to finish the last three years of his public education at Borger High School.

From 1994 to 2014, Gates was an elected member of the Garland County Quorum Court, the equivalent of county commission in most other states. Gates was a founding board member for the Change Point Pregnancy Care Center in Hot Springs. He has been chairman of the Garland County Republican Party and the Garland County Young Republicans.^[1]

In 2014, he was elected to succeed Bruce Westerman, a fellow Republican who was instead elected to the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas's 4th congressional district. In the Republican primary election, Gates defeated Donald Laymon, 2,690 to 1,869. He was then unopposed in the November 4 general election in a heavily Republican year in Arkansas.^[2] During his first term in office, Gates served on the House committees of Aging, Children, and Youth Legislative and Military Affairs & Public Transportation.

Gates is president of The Stonebridge Collection, a company that produces custom pocket knives.^[3]

Arrest[]

In June 2018, Gates was arrested and charged with six counts of failure to pay or file a tax return between 2012 through 2017. Though he had not filed tax returns since 2003, the statute of limitations was six years. Authorities with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration say he owes upwards of $260,000 including penalties.^[4][5] He was removed from the office by a super-majority vote on October 11, 2019.^[6][7][8][9]

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