Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross of Little Rock filed as a Democratic candidate for governor Wednesday on the slowest day of candidate filing since the process began Monday.
Just 36 candidates filed for state or federal offices - 14 Democrats, nine Republicans, three Libertarians, and 10 nonpartisan judicial and prosecutorial candidates. Overall, 223 have filed; the deadline is noon Monday.
Accompanied by his wife, Ross told reporters his campaign is about fiscal responsibility, lower and fairer taxes, better schools and creating more good-paying jobs.
He said he’s a conservative Democrat and he panned the recent Republican Governors Association’s ads linking him to Democratic President Barack Obama and U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
Ross, a former state senator and 4th District congressman, said the Republican Governors Association’s television ads show that Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, who filed Monday, had “began a very desperate campaign that is being funded by his wealthy out-of-state special interest friends, who are going to continue for the next eight months to misrepresent the facts, distort the truth and lie about me and my record.”
“If there is a silver lining in all of this, I can assure you they would not be spending $700,000 in three weeks attacking me if we weren’t winning this race,” he said.
Ross said he gave the nominating speech for Pelosi’s opponent for House speaker, U.S. Rep. Health Shuler, a Democrat from North Carolina, and he voted against Obama’s healthcare overhaul four times, voted to repeal it 23 times, voted against cap-and-trade legislation and voted against the Dodd-Frank federal banking regulations.
Hutchinson spokesman Christian Olson said Ross’ comments “are the height of hypocrisy. Our campaign has nothing to do with ads running right now. Congressman Ross says that they are lying about his record, yet he voted for every bill mentioned. If Congressman Ross is going to accuse someone of lying, he needs to back it up with facts.”
Ross also said he would have voted for and signed into law the measure that the Legislature enacted last year to use federal funds to pay for private health insurance for low-income Arkansans, and he’ll do his best to continue the private option as governor.
Hutchinson declined Monday to take a position on continuing funding for the private option.
Ross filed for governor two days after businessman Curtis Coleman of Little Rock and Hutchinson, an attorney and former 3rd District congressman, filed for the Republican nomination for governor and after attorney Joshua Drake of Hot Springs filed as a Green Party candidate for governor.
Republican Tommy Moll, a Hot Springs businessman, also filed Wednesday for the 4th Congressional District seat, saying he planned to run as a conservative who would “defend our freedoms from a federal government that is out of control.”
Moll will face Arkansas House Majority Leader Rep.Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs, who filed Monday, in the Republican primary. Democrat James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also filed for the office Monday.
State Rep. Debra Hobbs of Rogers on Wednesday became the third Republican to file for the lieutenant governor’s post - two days after state Rep. Andy Mayberry of East End, and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Little Rock filed for the job.
Mayberry said he plans to push to abolish the office if he’s elected. Hobbs said Wednesday that she plans to run on government accountability, economic development and career readiness, but she would be open to combining the secretary of state’s office with the lieutenant governor’s office if a resident initiated a proposed constitutional amendment.
“I think there are probably a lot of our constitutional offices that could be combined. I’ve thought that maybe secretary of state could fall under the lieutenant governor’s office, because the lieutenant governor would follow the governor in case something happened,” Hobbs said.
Several other legislators filed for constitutional offices Wednesday, including Rep. Andrea Lea of Russellville, who filed to run as a Republican for state auditor. Ken Yang of Benton also filed for the seat as a Republican on Monday.
Rep. Duncan Baird of Lowell filed to run as a Republican for state treasurer against Dennis Milligan, the Republican Saline County circuit clerk, who filed Tuesday. Democrat Karen Garcia, a Hot Springs city director and a certified public accountant who retired in December from the Weyerhaeuser Corp., filed for the office Wednesday, saying she “is ready to stand and continue cleaning up that office for the people of Arkansas.”
Baird said he plans to run his campaign on his qualification and commitment to overhauling state government, specifically working at the state’s largest bank and cleaning up the office’s reputation after former Treasurer Martha Shoffner was indicted last year.
Baird also responded briefly to Milligan’s statements Tuesday about making the state’s private-option Medicaid expansion program an issue in the primary election. Milligan said he is opposed to the program, while Baird has supported the private option on the House floor.
“The treasurer’s office is a job and it’s not an office that you set policy in. You don’t deal with Obamacare, abortion or guns,” Baird said. “People see this office as a job, and after the problems we’ve seen over the last year, people see what happens when you elect someone who isn’t qualified.”
Little Rock attorney David Sterling, a Republican, was the first person to file for attorney general.
State Rep. Fred Smith of Crawfordsville, who has been serving in the Legislature as a Green Party member, filed for re-election as a Democrat on Wednesday. Smith had filed as a Democrat when he ran for office in 2010, but the Democratic Party took legal action to have him removed from the ticket because of Smith’s felony theft conviction. The conviction was later expunged.
Smith, who resigned from his legislative seat in January 2011, refiled for the seat in the 2012 election through the Green Party. Wednesday, he said he was grateful to the Green Party for allowing him to be the first black chairman of the party in Arkansas, but said he grew up a Democrat and has always been a Democrat.
“The Green Party gave me a second opportunity, a second chance. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to clear the situation,” he said. “It shows that I can be in another party and support another party. I want [to tell] all of the Democrat friends, colleagues, that it doesn’t matter what party you’re in as long as you do the right thing for people.”
Marion Democrat Milton Nicks, chief executive officer of a construction company, announced last year that he planned to run as a Democrat for Smith’s District 50 seat, but had not filed for office as of Wednesday.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 02/27/2014