LITTLE ROCK — The race in the 1st Congressional District may be over for Democrats like state Sen. Steve Bryles, state Rep. David Cook and Ben Ponder, but their influence lingers.
The day after Tim Wooldridge and Chad Causey advanced to the June 8 Democratic runoff election, hopeful phone calls went out to the vanquished as both camps angled for endorsements.
Wooldridge captured 38 percent of the vote to Causey’s 27 percent - according to unofficial and incomplete returns - but the next three candidates each won counties: Bryles (Mississippi), Cook (Randolph) and Ponder (Baxter).
Cook spent less than a tenth of the money raised by each of the two front-runners, but netted nearly 15 percent of the vote.
The term-limited state representative from Williford, widely considered the most liberal primary candidate, said he’ll endorse Causey.
“I got to know him and respect him on the trail,” Cook said Wednesday. “I think he’s a good young Democrat who will go on and do good.”
Bryles of Blytheville hasn’t made any formal endorsement yet, but he said he’s “inclined” to urge his supporters to back Causey. Bryles, who won 10 percent of the vote, said his politics align more closely with Causey than Wooldridge.
Ponder, who finished last in the field of six candidates, said he’s going to take a few days to decompress from the campaign before making up his mind. The Mountain Home resident and winner of the Democratic primary in fast-growing Baxter County said his endorsement will count more in November.
Wooldridge spent 90 minutes Wednesday morning standing on a street corner in Paragould waving a “Thank You” sign to passing cars in his hometown. In Greene County, Wooldridge picked up about 70 percent of the vote.
Tuesday was a “resounding victory,” Wooldridge said, noting that he’d finished roughly 10,000 votes ahead of Causey.
“In the shadow of an incumbent trying to pick his successor with tons of Washington, D.C., money, we performed very well,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Marion Berry,who is retiring after serving seven terms, has endorsed Causey, his former chief of staff.
The only endorsement that matters is “the voters’,” Wooldridge said.
The support of defeated rivals is welcome and helpful, said Causey’s campaign manager Anders Reynolds. He said Causey was “proud and lucky” to have Cook’s support.
“We’ve seen undecided voters break towards Chad. Now there is a brand new batch of undecided voters, who have lost their pick. We think they’ll respond to our positive message of job creation and improving the economy,” Reynolds said.
The fifth-place finisher, Mountain Home surgeon Dr. Terry Green, didn’t return a phone call requesting comment.
One longtime Democratic operative familiar with the 1st District said the next three weeks are all about drilling down voter lists and rallying the loyalists, but Causey will “reach out to people.”
“We’re going everywhere and going to do everything. We’ve got an aggressive ground game planned,” Reynolds said.
Wooldridge touted his strength across the 26-county eastern Arkansas district where he won 16 counties to Causey’s seven.
He also noted that his wide margin of victory in his home county (Greene) wasn’t replicated by Causey, who carried Craighead County by about500 votes.
While Wooldridge and Causey are lobbying for votes, Democratic leaders in Washington have already shifted their focus to the general election campaign.
On Wednesday, Republican Rick Crawford of Jonesboro, who easily dispatched GOP primary challenger Princella Smith, faced national Democratic attacks on his position on social security privatization.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee charged Crawford with endorsing a “dangerous, risky scheme to rob Social Security funds and privatize them in big Wall Street Banks.”
Crawford said he doesn’t support privatizing Social Security, but wants to “reform” the entitlement program through “fiscal discipline” and cutting other programs.
He said he would oppose cutting benefits, raising taxes or getting rid of income caps on social security taxes. He didn’t specify what other programs he would cut or elaborate on how fiscal discipline would save Social Security.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/20/2010