Hutchinson, Ross jab at farm forum

Law client, health vote offer fodder

SPRINGDALE -- Two candidates for governor criticized each other Tuesday morning during a forum that was ostensibly about agriculture.

Mike Ross said Asa Hutchinson was a "high-paid D.C. lobbyist" who returned to Arkansas in 2008 to work as a lawyer and to defend people such as Brandon Barber, the former Fayetteville real estate developer charged with money laundering and bankruptcy fraud after his $53 million bankruptcy.

Hutchinson said Ross touts his record of voting against "Obamacare," but he could have killed it early on and didn't.

The main-party candidates in the race for governor were in Springdale on Tuesday morning to participate in an hour-long forum before a crowd of about 300 at a meeting of the Arkansas Farm Bureau.

Ross, a Democrat, is a former Prescott pharmacist who served as the congressman for Arkansas' 4th District from 2001 through 2012.

Hutchinson, a Republican, is a Rogers lawyer, former 3rd District congressman, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the first undersecretary for border and transportation security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

During the forum, questions were about agriculture, but the candidates veered off several times onto more controversial topics, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, lobbying and Barber.

Barber has pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.

Hutchinson and his son, Asa Hutchinson III, have been serving as Barber's attorneys through proceedings that began two years ago in federal court in Fayetteville.

During the debate Tuesday, Hutchinson said he moved from the Washington, D.C., area back to Arkansas to open a law firm with his son.

Then, Ross mentioned that Hutchinson had represented Barber, a developer who lived a lavish lifestyle before the real estate bust of 2008.

Hutchinson said Ross' comment about one of his clients "really crosses the line in terms of fairness and what ought to be engaged in in a public debate."

"I happen to believe that people deserve a defense whether you agree with what happened or not," Hutchinson said. "That's my responsibility. He doesn't want me to be a lobbyist. He doesn't want me to be a lawyer. I could go back to the farm. That might not be a bad idea."

That drew a laugh from the crowd. Hutchinson was raised on a farm near Gravette.

After the debate, Ross said he mentioned Barber because "I think it's important that the public know.

"Brandon Barber ripped off hundreds of people, cost people a lot of money, some people their entire life savings," said Ross. "Asa's out there in the courtroom defending him, pretending like he's some kind of small-business owner."

After the debate, Hutchinson said he didn't believe Barber's case should be politicized.

"I don't want his case invoked in the political arena, so I don't want to talk about it now," said Hutchinson.

Hutchinson said Ross had a chance to kill President Barack Obama's health care plan during an earlier incarnation of the bill, House Resolution 3200, known as the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, on which Ross served, passed HR3200 on a roll call vote of 31-28.

No further action was taken on HR3200 in the 111th Congress. The bill was superseded first by House Resolution 3962, and then later by House Resolution 3590. Certain provisions of HR3200 were incorporated into HR3590, which eventually was signed into law as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"He had a chance to kill the whole national health care debate and he didn't do it," Hutchinson told the crowd. "He made a deal with the president."

Ross disagreed.

"Nothing could be further from the truth ..." he said. "These are the same dirty tricks they used against me in my 2010 re-election campaign."

Ross said he has voted against the health care act at every opportunity.

Hutchinson said he was a lobbyist for a year or so around 2005. But Ross also had a "lobbyist job," said Hutchinson.

After the debate, Ross said he never was a registered lobbyist, a requirement in Arkansas. Ross said Hutchinson is referring to a job he had for three months with the Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization responsible for planning electrical transmission needs for 6 million households in nine states.

According to a May 14, 2012, news release from the Southwest Power Pool, Ross was hired to be senior vice president of government affairs and government relations beginning the next January. Ross resigned on April 2, 2013, to pursue other interests.

During the debate, both candidates generally agreed on agricultural issues.

The first question of the forum was about C&H Hog Farms, a large-scale swine concentrated animal feeding operation in Mount Judea. The farm, which is permitted to house approximately 2,500 full-grown sows and as many as 4,000 piglets, abuts Big Creek about 6 miles upstream from its confluence with the Buffalo National River.

Hutchinson and Ross both said the farmer who applied for the permit for C&H Hog Farms has done nothing wrong. He followed the rules and regulations and received a permit for the hog farm.

But both candidates said large-scale agricultural operations like C&H Hog Farms should fall under a more stringent permitting and notification process than routine farming operations.

"We all cherish the Buffalo River," Hutchinson said. "I will not let anything happen that jeopardizes the purity of that stream and what it brings to the state of Arkansas."

Said Ross: "The public has a right to know anytime something like that is going on. Having said that, the farmer was properly permitted and he ought to be left alone."

Ross said Gov. Mike Beebe has committed to thorough testing of the water in the Buffalo National River.

"Virtually every farm in the state is in some watershed, so we have to be very careful about how we proceed on this," said Ross.

NW News on 07/23/2014

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