Correction: The Democratic Party of Arkansas increased by $500 its filing fee for a candidate for a state Senate seat. The fee is $4,500 for 2014. This article and a graphic incorrectly reported the amount of the fee.
Republican candidates for almost all of the state and federal Arkansas political races will shell out between $2,500 and $7,500 more in party filing fees this year than in past years.
The Republican Party of Arkansas raised prices in nine of 11 races for which it collects filing fees, including a $7,500 bump from $12,500 to $20,000 for the U.S. Senate.
The expected race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton has drawn the attention of national Republican organizations. Republicans hold all four House seats and the other Senate seat in the state’s congressional delegation.
Pryor and Cotton had both raised more than $1 million - not counting outside political action committee money - before the filing period even began, according to releases from the candidates’ campaigns.
Doyle Webb, chairman of the state Republican Party, said the national focus on the race did not influence the party committee’s rate discussion when the filing fees were set in November.
“Absolutely not. That was not a consideration,” Webb said. The bigger the office, the higher the filing fee, he noted. “On the high end, the filing fee for president is $25,000 [for 2012] and on the low end, the fee for state House is $3,000. The rest of the fees fit in a proportional range in the middle.”
The state Democratic Party set its filing fees last weekend, choosing increases ranging from $500 to $2,000 for four races. The party committee also voted to decrease the filing fee in five state constitutional office races.
Democratic Party spokesman Lizzy Price replied by email Tuesday to questions of whether the decrease was designed to attract more candidates for the constitutional offices.
“Our filing fees are set at a rate in which the Democratic Party of Arkansas can advocate for our candidates, and we will have the resources in 2014 to be competitive,” Price wrote. “We’ve recruited strong candidates who will continue to fight for job creation and strong education, and the [state Democratic Party] will use our resources to elect these leaders to the governor’s office, U.S.Senate, U.S. House, constitutional offices and the state Legislature.”
The Democratic Party voted to reduce its filing fees for the five down-ticket constitutional offices in 2014. The filing fee for attorney general dropped from $10,000 to $7,500, and the filing fees for secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner dropped from $7,500 to $6,000.
The Democratic Party also increased the fees for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and governor, requiring candidates to pay $12,000, $10,000 and $12,000 respectively. Democratic candidates for the state House also will have to pay an increased fee this year, with a jump from $3,000 to $3,500 - making the Democratic fee for state House candidates the only Democratic filing fee higher than its Republican counterpart.
The Democratic fee to run for lieutenant governor will remain $7,500, and the fee for state Senate candidates will remain $4,000.
Both parties will lose some revenue this year because prosecuting-attorney candidates no longer pay a partisan filing fee. That fee contributed about $125,000 of the roughly $625,000 the Democrats collected in 2010, said party Executive Director Candace Martin.
The amount collected by the Republican Party was unavailable late Tuesday.
The other increases Republican candidates can expect in 2014 include a $5,000 increase in the filing fees to run for governor, attorney general and secretary of state and a $2,500 increase in the fees to run for U.S. House, lieutenant governor, treasurer, auditor, and land commissioner. The Republican filing fees for state Senate will remain $7,500, and the fee for state House candidates will remain $3,000.
In 2014, Republicans will charge $15,000 for U.S. House and governor candidates, $10,000 for lieutenant governor candidates and $12,500 for secretary of state and attorney general candidates. The fee for treasurer, auditor and land commissioner will increase from $5,000 to $7,500.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/15/2014