Field of seven vying for seat in District 21

4 Democrats, 3 in GOP compete to replace Bookout

Four Democrats and three Republicans are vying for a vacant state Senate seat in Craighead County in a special election - the sort of an election in which voter turnout is typically low.

Jonesboro Democrat Paul Bookout vacated the Senate District 21 seat Aug. 20, the same day that a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate his personal use of more than $53,000 in campaign funds and four days after the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $8,000 and gave him a letter of reprimand for four violations.

Bookout had held a state Senate seat since April 2006, and his late father, Jerry Bookout, was in a Senate seat from 1973-1997 and then 2003-2006, so a member of the Bookout family has been in the state Senate for most of the past four decades.

The primary election is Oct. 8.

A check of voting records shows that all seven candidates have voted in Democratic primaries. That’s because, until recently, the Republican Party wasn’t competitive in the Craighead County region, according to campaign officials.

State Republican PartyChairman Doyle Webb projected that anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 voters will cast ballots in the Republican primary in Senate District 21, while state Democratic Party Executive Director Candice Martin said she’s unsure how many Democrats will turnout for the Democratic primary.

“A lot of it will depend on the interest stirred up by the candidates,” said Webb, a former state senator from Benton.

Jonesboro Republicans John Cooper, Chad Niell and Dan Sullivan filed by Friday’s noon deadline to seek their party’s nomination in District 21.

Jonesboro Democrats Radius Baker, Ray Kidd, Steve Rockwell and Gene Roebuck are seeking their party’s nomination.

There are 44,617 registered voters in Senate District 21, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said.

If a candidate doesn’t win a majority of the votes in the primary election, a primary runoff election will be held Nov. 12 between the two top voter -getters.

The primary nominee for each party will jockey in the Jan. 14 general election.

Webb said the Repub-licans have a good shot of winning the Senate seat representing most of Craighead County - where the GOP hasn’t held a Senate seat in at least 138 years since Reconstruction.

Bookout’s ethical problems, uncovered by a northeast Arkansas conservative activist, won’t help Democratic candidates, Webb predicted.

However, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who is the titular head of his party, said Democrats have a “pretty good” chance of holding onto the Senate seat because they have good candidates.

“The whole key is getting the vote out [in a special election] and that usually requires organization,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, was elected in the Senate’s last special election in December 2009, after Sen. Sharon Trusty, R-Russellville, resigned.

“To me, it was like a three-county school board race,” he said, referring to his generally low-key special election that drew 4,217 votes - a 10.7 percent turnout. “That’s how it felt.”

But Cooper, who lost last November to state Rep. Butch Wilkins, D-Bono, already has stirred the pot in the Republican primary.

Cooper jabbed at Niell after filing Wednesday by pointing to Niell’s campaigncontributions to Rep. Harold Copenhaver, D-Jonesboro - who defeated first-term Rep. Jon Hubbard, R-Jonesboro, last November, - and Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel’s ill-fated Democratic campaign for governor. Cooper described Hubbard as his friend.

A spokesman for Niell countered that the two Democrats were Niell’s friends, adding that Niell is a pro-gun conservative who opposes abortion and raising taxes.

Sullivan, another Republican who has contributed to Democrats, including Beebe, said, “that’s the way we do business” contributing to politicians from both parties who share common interests.

Sullivan is chief executive officer of Ascent Children’s Health Services.

A review of Cooper, Niell and Sullivan’s voting records show they each voted in at least one Democratic primary during the past decade and a half.

Cooper, a retired AT&T manager, voted in the 1998 Democratic primary in Craighead County, according to the secretary of state’s office records.

Cooper said the GOP was still in its infancy in Jonesboro in 1998, so he participated where his vote could make the biggest difference.

“Fortunately, the Republican Party has grown tremendously over the years and Craighead County has helped lead to many GOP gains,” he said.

Niell and Sullivan each voted in the Democratic primary in Craighead County last year and Sullivan voted in the Democratic primary in Baxter County in 1996, according to the secretary of state’s office records.

Niell spokesman Keith Emis said the only contested Republican primary race in Craighead County last year was the sheriff ’s primary, which attracted 2,100 votes.

“To me, [questioning] whether or not somebody voted in the Republican primary in the east side of the state is almost silly,” said Emis, adding that Niell is a member of the Craighead County Republican Committee.

Niell is chief executive officer of Tiger Correctional Services.

Sullivan initially said Friday that he didn’t recall voting in Democratic primaries in Baxter and Craighead counties.

Shortly thereafter, Sullivan called back the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and explained that he voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Wolfe, an attorney from Tennessee, in last year’s Democratic primary as a “protest vote” against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In May 2012, Wolfe won more than 40 percent of the vote in Arkansas.

Sullivan said he doesn’t recall voting in the 1996 Democratic primary in Baxter County.

A review of Baker, Kidd, Roebuck and Rockwell’s recent voting histories showed that only Rockwell voted in a recent Republican primary - in 2008 in Craighead County.

A spokesman for Rockwell explained that Rockwell always has participated in Democratic primary elections, “but in this one instance he knew that Hillary was going to carry the [presidential] primary in a runaway.

“This, factored in with a mismanaged and disastrous war lead by President George W. Bush, [meant] Steve wanted to ensure that the next president would take a new approach on getting the ship straight in Iraq. Be it Hillary Clinton or John McCain,” said spokesman Robert McLarty. Rockwell voted for McCain, McLarty added.

Earlier this year, Paul Bookout voted for legislation that narrowly cleared the three-quarters vote required for the Republican-controlled Legislature to authorize the use of federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for an estimated 250,000 uninsured Arkansans through health insurance exchanges.

Kidd, Roebuck and Rockwell said they support the so-called “private option,” while Baker said he doesn’t know enough about it “not to support it or to support it at this time.”

Kidd is a former state representative who is a retired businessman; Roebuck is a former state senator who owns an insurance company; Rockwell is a publishing company vice president; and Baker is the superintendent of the Valley View School District but plans to retire June 30.

Cooper said he opposes the private option because “I believe it’s implementation of Obamacare and that’s not good for this state.”

Niell said he wants to read the measure before taking a stand on it, adding, “As a small-business owner and strong fiscal conservative I will not vote for anything that I believe will raise taxes, hurt our economy or expand our state government.”

Sullivan said he’s neither a proponent or opponent of the private option.

“We can’t start making decisions based on what we don’t know and there are a lot of things that we don’t know yet,” he said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/09/2013

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