GOP field sees 3 seek state’s top legal post

The three candidates in the May 20 Republican primary for state attorney general are sharply criticizing the federal government, and they’re promising to battle the federal government if elected.

Lawyers Leslie Rutledge, David Sterling and Patricia Nation say that one of the main questions is which candidate will push back hardest against what emanates from Washington, D.C.

In interviews last week, all three said the national government is putting an undue burden on the state.

Rutledge said she was concerned about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on farmers and lawsuits brought by the agency. The litigation is used as a tool to force landowners to seek settlements with the EPA, even when the claims are unmerited, she said.

Sterling said he will, if elected, form a task force to review areas where the federal government is violating the state’s sovereignty.

Nation said she wants to push back against an “overreaching federal government” in any way she can.

The winner of the primary would face Democratic candidate Nate Steel in the general election in the fall. The current attorney general, Democrat Dustin McDaniel, cannot seek re-election because of term limits.

All three Republican candidates said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, was hurting people in the state, and all three said they will work to undermine or overturn the law.

All three candidates said they support two laws passed by the Legislature last year that increased restrictions on abortions and that they will work to defend the Second Amendment’s “right to keep and bear arms.”

Sterling, 45, of Little Rock practices business and commercial law at Cox, Sterling & McClure PLLC in North Little Rock. He said his experience makes him the best candidate, citing his 15 years as an attorney and his master’s degree in public administration.

Rutledge, 37, of Little Rock is a former attorney for the Republican National Committee and served as counsel to former Gov. Mike Huckabee. She said her own experience gives her the edge in the race, noting that she had also served as a deputy prosecutor.

Nation, 52, of Jacksonville is a criminal-defense and real-estate attorney. She said she was the only one with the right qualifications for the office, citing her 20 years in state and federal civil-rights practice.

While all three say they back capital punishment, they have different ideas about how those on death row should be executed.

Sterling said the state should carry out the death penalty by using the electric chair because it is already the alternative option on the books for when lethal injection is found to be unconstitutional. Arkansas Code Annotated 5-4-617 states that the Arkansas Department of Correction “shall carry out the sentence of death by electrocution” if the state’s Method of Execution Act is “invalidated by a final and unappealable court order.”

The last execution in Arkansas was in 2005. Since then, the state has lost several legal challenges that argue the Legislature has given too much authority to the department to carry out the death penalty. Most recently, a judge in Pulaski County found the Method of Execution Act was unconstitutional, in a lawsuit brought by a group of nine death-row inmates.

Other states still use the electric chair and three of the past six executions in Virginia were carried out using that method, he noted.

Sterling wants to speed up the process.

“I think the only thing cruel and unusual is the way murder victims and victim families have had to wait [for sentences to be carried out],” Sterling said.

Rutledge said Sterling’s comments amounted to “irresponsible rhetoric in order to get votes in a Republican primary.” She said the state should not open itself up to litigation over the electric chair and should instead be focused on obtaining lethal-injection drugs.

“I think that that challenge and the litigation behind that challenge would be ongoing for a number of years. My focus as attorney general would be to work with the necessary entities … to make sure we have the drugs available,” Rutledge said.

Nation said that “there isn’t a lovely way to deal with the punishment aspect” of the death penalty but that she preferred the state use a one-, two or three-drug lethal-injection protocol.

Rutledge and Sterling released television ads within days of each other last week. Rutledge questioned another ad appearing across the state that favored Sterling and his stance supporting a “stand your ground” law in the state, which was paid for by the Des Moines, Iowa-based American Future Fund.

Stand-your-ground laws generally allow people to use deadly force in a place where they are lawfully present with no obligation to first attempt to retreat. Twenty-two states have some form of law that states there is no obligation to retreat from an attacker, and nine of them specially say the person may “stand his or her ground,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The American Future Fund operates as a 501(c)(4) - a classification by the Internal Revenue Service for certain tax-exempt organizations that seek to “further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community.” This organization was “formed to provide Americans with a conservative and free market viewpoint to have a mechanism to communicate and advocate on the issues that most interest and concern them,” according to its website.

The organization, which has spent millions of dollars to bolster Republican candidates in recent years, is not required to reveal the donors who paid for the advertising

Rutledge said she didn’t understand why the group would “spend $350,000 to buy the attorney general’s seat in Arkansas.” She said she was not advocating for a “stand your ground” law but would work with lawmakers on such a measure if the Legislature wanted to pass it.

Sterling said he had nothing to do with the ad and didn’t know anything about it until it was released. He said he hasn’t had any involvement with the group in the past but he was “glad that others have taken notice” of his views.

Nation said she wouldn’t “stand in the way” if the Legislature wanted to pass a stand your-ground law. She said she didn’t have any comment on the American Future Fund ad.