Rivals face off on credentials for state helm

Coleman touts his success; won office, Hutchinson says

Curtis Coleman (left) shares the stage Saturday in Little Rock as Asa Hutchinson responds to a question during a debate between the two Republican hopefuls in the race for Arkansas governor.
Curtis Coleman (left) shares the stage Saturday in Little Rock as Asa Hutchinson responds to a question during a debate between the two Republican hopefuls in the race for Arkansas governor.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Curtis Coleman and Asa Hutchinson clashed Saturday with Coleman calling Hutchinson a Washington, D.C., insider and Hutchinson expressing shock over Coleman’s suggestion that super projects aren’t what the state needs.

Later in the day, two of the three Republican candidates for attorney general also faced off.

During a Little Rock debate sponsored by the Arkansas Federation for Young Republicans, Coleman told the audience most of Hutchinson’s credentials were acquired in the nation’s capital. “You are looking,” Coleman said, “for Arkansas credentials.”

The founding chief executive officer of Safe Foods Corp. in North Little Rock and an unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate candidate from Little Rock, Coleman said Arkansas could be one of the most prosperous states in the nation, but it needs a businessman at the helm of state government to achieve that distinction.

Hutchinson countered that “When it comes to Washington, the difference between me and Curtis is I got elected to represent the people …. He tried to go to Washington, but he was not successful in that effort.”

Hutchinson of Rogers, an attorney who is a former 3rd District congressman and former homeland security undersecretary, said he’s a conservative who wants to be governor because he’s passionate about creating jobs and growing the state’s economy.

“I am startled quite frankly that Curtis has indicated that he as governor would not pursue super projects in Arkansas,” he said. He said he would try to attract super projects to the state as Republican governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have done.

Hutchinson said he supports the state’s $125 million bond issue and other state assistance for the $1 billion Big River Steel project in Osceola to create more than 500 high-paying jobs, while Coleman opposed the state support for the project.

He suggested that Coleman’s opposition to state assistance for the Big River Steel project seems inconsistent with the state support provided to Safe Foods Corp., including a state loan of several million dollars and technology obtained through the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Coleman said his opposition to state aid for the Big River Steel project is consistent with his plan to focus on providing incentives for small businesses.

“I actually think it is a mistake for Arkansas to continue to try to pursue super projects that are subject to a collapse of one small segment of the economy,” he said.

Hutchinson, who lost the 2006 governor’s race to Democrat Mike Beebe, said he can win this time and that he remains a true conservative.

“What has changed is the politics of Arkansas, not my politics,” he said.

Hutchinson said 2006 was a terrible year for Republicans and conservatives, but “the tide has shifted” and he has a much better chance of winning the governor’s race than Coleman.

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross of Little Rock and substitute teacher Lynette Bryant of Little Rock are vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the May 20 primary.

Hutchinson questioned whether Coleman would have stopped the Arkansas National Guard from serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Coleman said that he “will resist the repeated deployment of our Arkansas National Guard troops to theaters of combat for which there has been no declaration of war by Congress according to the Constitution.”

Men and women in the National Guard signed up, primarily, because they wanted to serve and protect the people of Arkansas. Instead, they’ve been deployed overseas as many as seven times, he added.

Hutchinson said this is an example where Coleman has “used rhetoric that inflames the public that accomplishes nothing.”

If elected, he said, he will join with his fellow governors to help change policy about deployment of troops overseas.

“I will work in a partnership way rather than inflammatory rhetoric,” Hutchinson said.

Coleman said Arkansans “are extremely concerned and confused” that Hutchinson endorsed Democrat Eric Holder to be U.S. attorney general in 2008 when Holder’s “ideology doesn’t reflect the values of Arkansas.”

He said Holder had taken anti-gun stances.

Hutchinson said Holder was a former federal prosecutor and he wrote a letter of support on his behalf to the U.S. Senate because he thought he was a colleague who would do a good job.

“It was a huge political mistake,” he said. “More importantly, the job Eric Holder has done has been totally unacceptable,” Hutchinson said, noting that he’s called for Holder’s resignation.

The Young Republicans event began with the governor’s race and ended with the attorney general’s contest.

Two of the three candidates for the Republican nomination were on hand.

Leslie Rutledge, 37, a Little Rock lawyer and a legal adviser to former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Patricia Nation, 52, a lawyer from Jacksonville, debated for about 30 minutes.

The third Republican candidate, David Sterling, 45, a Little Rock lawyer, could not attend the debate. However, comments made by Sterling at a previous debate formed the basis for several questions.

Sterling said previously that he wanted to reinstitute the use of the electric chair for executions, citing problems with obtaining drugs for lethal injections. On Saturday, both Nation and Rutledge said they would not support using the electric chair.

“The electric chair is in a museum. We can’t just pull it out, dust it off and start using it,” Rutledge said, calling the notion irresponsible.

Nation spoke of her advocacy on criminal-justice matters, saying she had sued the attorney general’s office for not providing the correct antispychotic medication for inmates.

If none of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters would head to a June 10 runoff. The winner will face Democratic state Rep. Nate Steel, a Nashville lawyer, and Libertarian Aaron Scott Cash of Springdale.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 04/20/2014

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