LITTLE ROCK — In March, 23-year-old LJ. Bryant left a message on a mentor’s phone. He was considering running for an office and asked for a call back.
Two years ago, he lost a runoff for the state House of Representatives to now-Rep. Jody Dickinson of Newport.
Bryant told the mentor, former state Sen. Jack Critcher, that he was considering the office of land commissioner, and Critcher recalls saying, “Holy smoke, are you kidding me?”
He advised Bryant that it “is a major mistake” to go for land commissioner and he would be beaten “like a proverbial yard dog” by a candidate who had been campaigning for the job for two years.
“I tried to discourage him,” said Critcher.
Despite the advice, Bryant jumped into the race and eventually defeated the Democratic establishment’s candidate, state Rep. Monty Davenport of Yellville, who was backed by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and many lawmakers. One of Gov. Mike Beebe’s staff members even took a leave of absence for about a week to work for Davenport’s campaign.
Of Bryant, Critcher now says, “I think the sky is the limit. He reminds me of a young Bill Clinton.”
So, how did he win? How will the young newcomer be received at the Capitol? And what’s he all about?
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Some Democrats wonder whether voters thought L.J. Bryant benefited from being named “Bryant,” as though he were related to former Lt. Gov. Winston Bryant or the late Secretary of State Kelly Bryant. Bryant said he doesn’t believe that he is related to either.
“That Bryant name has floated around for years in constitutional offices,” said House Speaker-designate Robert Moore, a Democrat from Arkansas City, echoing a theory tossed around by some Democrats at the state Capitol.
Moore knows establishment turf. He’s the son of a former Desha County sheriff and his mother was for years a receptionist in Clinton’s gubernatorial office.
L.J. Bryant rejected the “name factor” notion. Winston and Kelly have been out of office for years, he said.
“I just hope they will choose me again,” said Bryant.
Jay Barth, a politics professor at Hendrix College (Bryant has been a Barth student), didn’t put much stock in the “Bryant name” theory.
Bryant ran a smart campaign, contrasting himself with Davenport and the third candidate, Mike Berg of Little Rock, said Barth.
Davenport gave Bryant “a real gift” with “a self-inflicted wound” by saying he preferred to be “on the trailing edge of technology,” Barth said.
Also, he said, it was a good season for “outsider” candidates, “and a 23-year-old who has never held office is the largest contrast.
“It is kind of telling in terms of the atmosphere and the antipathy toward the establishment that is floating out there, and it tells a lot about this year,” Barth said.
Davenport, 62, a real estate broker and cattle rancher who has been in the state House since 2005, said he doesn’t know why he lost.
“I got beat, that’s all I know,” he said.
Of the “trailing edge of technology” comment?
Davenport said, “The race is over and there is nothing to be gained by rehashing that.”
Unofficial results from the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website showed that Bryant won the runoff with 59.3 percent (138,425 votes) to Davenport’s 40.7 percent (95,175 votes).
Bryant has more experience working in the Legislature as an aide to Critcher than most freshmen lawmakers, and “he’ll find a lot of people eager to help him,” McDaniel said.
Some Democrats wondered whether Bryant would get the cool treatment from lawmakers, as Lt. Gov. Bill Halter did after he won election in 2006.
But Moore said, “If he is elected, I think we will work extremely well together. The people have spoken.”
THE RACE FOR OFFICE
In the Nov. 2 general election, Bryant will vie with Republican nominee John Thurston of Bigelow to succeed term-limited Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox of Wooster.
The land commissioner primarily oversees the disposition of tax-delinquent property and since 2003 has helped collect more than $100 million in taxes, returning about 120,000 parcels to tax-generating status, according to the office’s website. The money goes to public schools and county government.
Thurston, 37, said he’s worked for 13 years in ministry operations at the Agape Church in west Little Rock and plans to get a real estate license. He is a 1999 graduate of Agape College in west Little Rock, where he pursued biblical studies.
He said he would bring accountability, ethics and integrity to the office.
“L.J. is a new face on an old problem,” Thurston said. “One party occupying this office is a breeding ground for corruption. L.J. is part of the establishment.”
Bryant has said he won’t accept gifts from lobbyists, and that he wants to bring accountability and transparency to the office and use proven technology to increase the office’s efficiency.
He said for anyone to call him “part of the establishment” or to label him as a party insider “is really funny.
“I just came through one of the toughest primary campaigns in recent history where we were not only the underdog, but nearly everyone associated with the Democratic Party had already lined up for a well-liked, sitting state representative,” Bryant said. “We became the poster child for ‘outside challenger.’”
He said he’s trying to raise funds to help retire a campaign debt of about $130,000 and to finance his general election campaign. He has reported campaign debts of $34,525 from his loans to his bid for the state House in 2008.
Land commissioner is one of the state’s seven constitutional offices. The others are governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and state auditor.
YOUNG BLOOD
Should he win in November, Bryant would be one of Arkansas’ youngest elected statewide officials ever.
Wendy Richter, director of the Arkansas History Commission, said she isn’t sure who was the youngest elected constitutional officer in Arkansas. The first state auditor, Elias Conway, was born in 1812 and was elected in 1836 by the General Assembly, Richter said. She’s not sure exactly how old he was when elected.
Robert Crittenden was appointed by President James Monroe in 1819 as the first secretary and served as acting governor for the Arkansas territory at the age of 22.
L.J. Bryant was born Feb. 17, 1987.
A Weiner High School alumnus, Bryant graduated from Hendrix College with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2008. He owns his family’s tax service in Jonesboro, rents out farmland in Poinsett County and obtained a real estate license this year.
He described himself as a pragmatist who wants to do what makes sense.
Bryant has for years been plugging away at politics.
In 2002, he worked for the state Democratic Party-coordinated campaign in Jonesboro.
In 2003, he ran for president of the Young Democrats of Arkansas, losing to John Wilkerson, “my first lesson of not being part of the establishment,” Bryant said.
Bryant said he volunteered for a few days for Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt in 2003 in New Hampshire.
In 2004, he worked on a couple of campaigns.
In 2005 and 2006, he worked on then-state Sen. Tim Wooldridge’s campaign for lieutenant governor.
He worked as an aide to Critcher in the 2007 legislative session.
Then in 2008, Bryant ran for the state House.
“Hendrix students are politically involved, but that level of political involvement was exceptional,” Barth said.
A CHOICE
Bryant’s tactics have at times irritated some fellow Democrats.
In his race with Dickinson, Bryant emphasized that Dickinson was the spouse of then state Rep. Tommy Dickinson of Newport and a mailer asked why the Dickinsons “look mad” and answered: “because the voters found out that Mr. Dickinson was trying to ‘beat’ Arkansas’ term limits law by running his wife for state representative.”
In a recent interview, Jody Dickinson said of Bryant, “I don’t have hard feelings. ... [But] he is not my favorite person.”
She also said she “just thought that people would see that he was very young” in his bid for land commissioner.
Davenport is supporting Bryant as the nominee.
Bryant said Critcher advised him that it would be hard to beat Davenport, but didn’t say it would be impossible.
He decided to run, he said, because “I felt I had ideas to offer and I felt like people deserve a choice.”
He noted that he already knew what it was like to lose a race.
“I don’t think you can make a decision based on the fear of failure, or you wouldn’t do anything,” Bryant said.
He said his father was killed in a workplace accident at a steel mill on May 18, 1998.
One of the worst days of his life - the date of his father’s death - corresponded with a good day 12 years later in which he qualified for the runoff for land commissioner, Bryant said.
Wooldridge said Bryant “perhaps had to grow up quicker than most” and “what might be perceived as overaggressive or overzealousness is that he had to grow up quickly.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 06/20/2010