It’s not surprising that former state Rep. Robin Smith wound up as part of the scheme to create a phony political vendor company with former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his former aide Cade Cothren in 2019 because Smith and the former speaker had worked together closely since before the Hixson Republican was elected to the House in 2018.
Casada and Cothren were found guilty last week on 17 and 19 counts, respectively, of fraud, bribery, theft, conspiracy, kickbacks and money laundering. Smith, who pleaded guilty several years ago, testified against them. Casada and Cothren are to be sentenced Sept. 12, but lawyers for the pair said they were likely to appeal the verdicts.
Smith, who operated a political and business consulting firm before being elected to the House, lost a competitive bid for work as a consultant for the House Republican Caucus in 2016 when Casada was caucus chair but did consulting for the Tennessee Republican Party’s election effort that year through the state party’s Tennessee Legislative Campaign Committee. For that work, she was paid $28,092, according to Tennessee Election Registry filings.
However, with Smith running for a House seat in 2018 and Casada still the Republican caucus chair, she won the bid for the House Republican Caucus work involving general elections contests, for which she was paid $37,000.
Indeed, records showed she was paid a total of $261,811 from 2012 to 2019 for work with various candidates.