LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ contentious U.S. Senate primaries will be decided Tuesday, but leading candidates are resigned to the possibility of another three weeks of campaigning.
If necessary, runoffs in the Republican and Democratic races will be June 8.
The race getting the most attention has been between U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her main Democratic primary challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, but plenty of other races are on the ballot.
With the number of candidates this year, it’s hard for some to get noticed, even in major races. Eight candidates seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. There are 27 candidates for nomination for four congressional seats. And five candidates are up for two spots on the state Supreme Court.
State GOP spokesman Katherine Vasilos said “this very well may be” the first time the party has had contested primaries in all four congressional races and one Senate race.
The early vote tally - 88,946 through Friday - is about 20,000 more than it was at this point two years ago, which could mean increased voter interest or simply voter desire to avoid any crush that might develop in the polling process Tuesday.
“[People] are more interested [in politics] than I’ve just about seen before,” said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gilbert Baker of Conway. “But it’s a Washington focus and it’s a November focus.”
Baker said many voters haven’t keyed in on the Arkansas primaries.
The winners of party nominations move on to the general election Nov. 2 where independent candidates also will be on the ballot and some write-in candidates may be options as well (the write-in qualifying deadline is Aug. 4).
The airwaves have been flooded with ads. In the Senate race, there have been $4.4 million in television ads in the Little Rock market alone, either by candidates or groups favoring or opposing a candidate.
Most of that was spent in the Democratic primary campaign with Lincoln shelling out $968,000 and Halter $658,480. Unions favoring Halter spent $1.8 million and business interests favoring Lincoln spent about $940,000.
Labor leaders have accused Lincoln of abandoning the “working man” by opposing the “card check” legislation meant to make it easier for unions to organize in nonunion workplaces.
The Washington Post reported last week that labor leaders want to send a message.
“The fact that Lincoln has had to fight this kind of fight, raise the money to do it ... and to the extent that other senators see what’s happening in Arkansas and think twice about it, this becomes - win, lose or draw - a very important fight,” said Steve Rosenthal, a former political director of the AFL-CIO who is organizing anti-Lincoln efforts.
Business leaders like Lincoln for opposing card check.
The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce doesn’t endorse candidates, but Kenny Hall, its executive vice president, said the group has “great appreciation” for Lincoln.
“We believe she was the deciding vote on that issue and chose to follow the viewpoint shared by businesses and most Arkansans,” Hall said. “Consequently, we are very concerned about the national labor unions’ support of Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.”
Halter has refused to say where he stands on card check.
On Wednesday, Halter also was asked three times during an interview on MSNBC whether he favors Amendment 34 to the state constitution, which says that workers can’t be discriminated against based on whether they are or aren’t members of a union.
Each time, he didn’t answer, according to a transcript provided by the Coalition for Arkansas Jobs, an anti-card-check group.
Lincoln’s campaign manager, Steve Patterson, analyzed the state of the race in a memo to supporters last week.
“While a runoff election remains a distinct possibility, Sen. Lincoln and her supporters enter the final weekend of the primary election confident she has endured the worst of the attacks and upbeat about her chances to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate,” Patterson said.
He said “outside influences [are] at work ... to punish” Lincoln. He noted that Halter has hired the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Washington-based group, to help getout the vote.
In contrast, Patterson said Lincoln has 250 campaign volunteers with “old-fashioned hard work and shoe leather.”
Halter spokesman Garry Hoffmann responded that he - Hoffmann - is a “57-year old Arkansas native and lifelong resident who’s been on the ground a lot” during the race on Halter’s behalf.
Halter, 49, of North Little Rock has touted his efforts in getting a state lottery passed as evidence of willingness to take on big challenges and make big changes.
Lincoln, 49, of Little Rock has touted her chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee and her legislation to require stricter rules for derivatives trading on Wall Street.
The race has been marked by accusations of lies from both sides. Lincoln has accused one of Halter’s former companies of outsourcing jobs to India. Halter says his company just hired people there but didn’t shift jobs from America. Halter says Lincoln voted for bills that led to Arkansans losing jobs to other counties. Lincoln says she voted for trade bills favored by President Bill Clinton to open up markets to American products, including Arkansas rice.
In a debate Friday, in an apparent allusion to Halter, Lincoln said some make promises, but she gets results: “I’m not waiting for things to happen, I’m making things happen.”
On the question of whether their campaign ads had “elevated the level” of discourse, Lincoln said she’d not had a negative campaign but a “comparative” one. Halter disagreed, calling her ads “not comparative, untrue!” He pointed to a Lincoln mailer that had his face in apill bottle in connection with Lincoln campaign allegations that tried to link him to “shady drug deals” by a corporation on whose board he served.
The presence of a little-funded third candidate, D.C. Morrison of Little Rock, an agricultural loan originator who favors abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax, means a runoff is possible.
REPUBLICANS
On the Republican side of the Senate race, the top money-gatherers have been U.S. Rep. John Boozman of Rogers and Baker, a state senator from Conway. But Jim Holt of Springdale, an arborist and a former legislator, also is considered a contender for the nomination, given a network of support he’s developed from two previously unsuccessful runs for statewide office.
“If we can get in the runoff, we will have these next five days and three more weeks to get a comparison of Boozman’s and my voting record out across the state,” Holt said.
Baker said he expected Boozman “with name recognition” to lead the GOP field.
“Our challenge is to make sure we’re in second place and hope that [Boozman’s] below 50 percent,” Baker said.
Last week, Baker, a former state GOP chairman, criticized GOP Chairman Doyle Webb of Benton for predicting that Boozman would win the nomination. Webb said his statement shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of any candidate.
Boozman has found fault with Baker for voting to raise the state sales tax for education in the Legislature and Baker has criticized Boozman for voting for the Wall Street bailout. Holt has criticized Baker and Boozman for both votes.
Baker said it would “not be healthy” for a Republican runoff to feature two candidates from Northwest Arkansas, the state’s main GOP stronghold. He said the party needs to show it can branch out. The GOP field for U.S. Senate includes four candidates from Northwest Arkansas and four from centralArkansas.
Turnout in other races could affect the number of votes in the Senate races.
Baker could lose votes in his home of Faulkner County because people there who might vote for him in the Republican primary might choose to vote, instead, in the Democratic primary involving two other Faulkner County candidates: state Rep. Robbie Wills, who is running for 2nd District Congress, and Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox, who is up for secretary of state.
OTHER RACES
In the 1st District congressional race in northeast Arkansas, six Democrats seek nomination to succeed U.S.Rep. Marion Berry of Gillett, who is bowing out. One of them is former Berry aide Chad Causey of Jonesboro. Others include three current or former state legislators. The coming vacancy also has attracted two candidates for the Republican nomination - agriculture-news broadcaster Rick Crawford of Jonesboro and Princella Smith, likely the first black woman Republican candidate for Congress in Arkansas ever.
In central Arkansas’ 2nd District, U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder of Little Rock, a Democrat, is retiring, and five Democrats are running to succeed him. They include state Rep. Robbie Wills of Conway, who is speaker of the Arkansas House; state Sen.Joyce Elliott of Little Rock; and former Snyder aide David Boling of Little Rock. On the Republican side, both candidates are from Little Rock - restaurant owner Scott Wallace and Tim Griffin, a former George W. Bush aide in Washington.
With Boozman running for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election in the 3rd District congressional seat, eight candidates are vying for the GOP nomination to run against the lone Democrat,David Whitaker of Fayetteville. The GOP field includes Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers and former state Sen. Gunner DeLay of Fort Smith.
In southern Arkansas’ 4th District, a former aide to Gov. Mike Huckabee, Beth Anne Rankin of Magnolia, and Tea Party activist Glenn Gallas of Hot Springs are dueling for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic incumbent Mike Ross of Prescott.
There also are three contested races for constitutional offices on Tuesday’s primary. Three Democrats are running for their party’s nomination for land commissioner and secretary of state and two Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination for lieutenant governor.
The Supreme Court races feature five candidates, most of whom have sunk significant personal funds into the race.
Circuit Judge John Fogleman of Marion and Court of Appeals Judge Courtney Henry of Fayetteville are vying for Position 3.
There is a three-way race for Position 6 with Court of Appeals Judge Karen Baker of Clinton, Circuit Judge Tim Fox of Little Rock and lawyer Eveyln Moorehead of Little Rock.
Notable legislative races include:
Senate District 34, Democratic primary between former state Rep. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock and Hendrix College professor Jay Barth of Little Rock.
Senate District 22 of western Pulaski County and eastern Saline County, Republican primary between Rep. Dan Greenberg and former Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson, both of Little Rock, and Democratic primary between nurse Todd Witham of Little Rock and Rep. Dawn Creekmore of Bauxite. Greenberg has loaned his campaign more than $100,000.
Senate District 1, Democratic primary between Rep. Steve Harrelson of Texarkana and Ken Cowling of Foreman.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/16/2010