Three of five incumbent Arkansas House representatives who faced primary election opponents were poised to lose their seats, according to preliminary returns late Tuesday.
Rep. John Hutchison, R-Harrisburg; Rep. Randy Alexander, R-Springdale; and Rep. Fred Smith, a Green Party member from Crawfordsville running as a Democrat, were all behind by large margins with all of their precincts reporting unofficial results. Rep. Sue Scott, R-Rogers and Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, were still in the lead as of late Tuesday.
Three incumbent Republican representatives faced primary challenges Tuesday on the way to a general election challenge in November. The Medicaid expansion vote appeared to be a factor in the races for two of those incumbents.
Hutchison, 54, a farmer serving in his first term, was far behind challenger Dwight Tosh, 65, a retired state trooper from Jonesboro, with almost all of the precincts reporting. Hutchison won the seat by 45 votes in 2012 over Democrat L.J. Bryant of Grubbs.
House District 52 includes parts of Craighead, Independence, Jackson and Poinsett counties.
Tosh attributed his apparent victory to "a lot of hard work."
"We went out and met the voters," he said. "They related to our conservative message."
The private-option issue didn't play a significant role in the race, Tosh said.
"I don't know that it did to any degree," he said. "I'm not sure it factored much in this particular race at all."
Hutchison was reluctant to blame his defeat on the private option -- the state's Medicaid expansion that uses federal money to pay the premiums on private insurance plans for poor Arkansans.
"I'm sure that's why he ran," Hutchison said of his opponent. "I guess so. That's a good enough answer really. The best man won. That's all I can say."
With 23 of 24 precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Tosh 894
Hutchison 588
Tosh is poised to face Radius Baker, 65, a school superintendent from Jonesboro.
Hutchison voted for the private option in 2013 but voted against reauthorizing funding during this year's fiscal session. He said he changed his vote because he was concerned about how much control the federal government had over the program and because the costs were higher than he expected.
Tosh has said that if he is elected, he will vote against reauthorizing the private option.
In House District 95, Scott, 50, also faced an intraparty challenge, from Dane Zimmerman, 30, of Bella Vista. She voted for the private option.
With 16 of 16 precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Scott 1,407
Zimmerman 1,170
Scott is set to face Libertarian Eddie Jack Moser of Bella Vista in the fall.
Dotson, 36, a Bentonville Republican, squared off with Bill Burckart, 48, a Bentonville alderman and owner of a construction development company, in the race for the District 93 seat. Dotson voted against the private option.
"I don't have any hard numbers, but the percentages look good," Dotson said from a Bentonville hotel meeting room, where his campaign volunteers, nursing sunburns from spending the day holding signs, waited for election returns. "We're waiting to see what the numbers are."
With 13 of 13 precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Dotson 1,333
Burckart 735
Dotson will likely face Democrat Leah Marie Williams, 30, also a member of the Bentonville City Council, in the November general election.
Two incumbents, Alexander and Smith, faced challengers in their primary bids, but the winners will have no general election challengers.
Alexander, 62, lost to his Republican challenger, Lance Eads of Springdale, in House District 88.
With 18 of 18 precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Eads 1,137
Alexander 817
Alexander said he is unsure of all the factors that played in his loss, but the major one was turnout, which was a third lower than the last off-year election.
"Any time you have an incumbent and a challenger and a good group behind the challenger, they're motivated," he said. "They're motivated because that's why they challenged me."
Smith, who has had a short and rocky career in the Legislature, lost to his Democratic challenger -- Milton Nicks Jr., a Marion contractor -- in House District 50.
Smith was disqualified from the Democratic race for his seat in 2012 because of an outstanding felony, which was later expunged, making him eligible for office. He ran as a Green Party candidate to win in 2012, but announced in March when he filed that he had received the blessing of the Democratic Party to run as a Democrat this year.
With 36 of 36 precincts reporting, the unofficial results were:
Nicks 1,096
Smith 539
Nicks said his deep ties to the area factored into his victory. He is a retired state trooper, runs a residential construction and development business, and is pastor at a church in Earle.
"I've been very active in the community," he said. "People know me."
There were a total of 22 primaries for state House seats. In addition to the two incumbents without general election challengers, eight other races were decided at the polls Tuesday and one more was set for a runoff.
In Pine Bluff's District 16 and Little Rock's District 36, Democrats were set to keep the seats of term-limited Democratic state representatives.
In District 16, Kenneth Ferguson had a slight lead over challenger Win Trafford, with both ahead of opponent Efrem Elliott with 97 of 97 precincts reporting. The race seemed poised for a runoff.
In District 36, Charles Blake was the likely winner over opponents Sheena Lewis and Rodney Hall with 16 of 16 precincts reporting.
Many of the seven Republican-only races were still undecided, but with 23 of 23 precincts reporting in the District 76 race, voters decided not to send Republican Bobby Altes to take over the seat of his term-limited father, Rep. Denny Altes. Challenger Matt Pitsch lead in the unofficial vote count with 1,715 votes to Altes' 1,502..
In addition to the incumbents who will have to face opponents in the general election, eight other races had party primaries where the winner will now face a general election challenge. Several remained undecided late Tuesday.
Metro on 05/21/2014