2 in GOP runoff for top attorney keep on battling

Sterling, Rutledge face off

Republican attorney general candidates David Sterling and Leslie Rutledge on Wednesday traded barbs and continued their campaigns hours after it became apparent they would face each other in a runoff in three weeks.

The two candidates failed to gather 50 percent of the vote Tuesday in a three-way race that included Jacksonville attorney Patricia Nation.

Both candidates made appearances on Republican political consultant Alice Stewart's radio show Wednesday morning and did a series of press and television interviews. Both had taken to social media asking supporters to return to the polls for the runoff.

Rutledge said her campaign was back to work in full swing the day after receiving 47 percent of the vote in the primary. She said she has also been speaking with volunteers and supporters, trying to drum up voters to show up on June 10 like she did for the primary election.

"We are planning on running a very similar campaign on a much shorter time frame," Rutledge said. "We're going to be doing everything we can in the next three weeks."

Sterling, who received 39 percent of the vote, said he was calling supporters and focusing on contributions Wednesday so he could raise enough money "to get our message out." He said he was encouraged by the amount of attention that has been turned on the race now that the candidates have been decided in the other constitutional races.

"I think now with us being the only statewide race on the ballot ... now people will be focused solely on the difference between me and Ms. Rutledge," Sterling said.

Nation said she called both candidates Tuesday night to congratulate them and will endorse one of them within the next few days.

On Wednesday, Sterling and Rutledge both said they were the more experienced candidate in the race and criticized the other's position on the death penalty.

Rutledge, who is a former attorney for the Republican National Committee and counsel to former Gov. Mike Huckabee, said she has a history of challenging the federal government and prosecuting criminals.

Sterling, who practices business and commercial law at Cox, Sterling & McClure PLLC in North Little Rock, said he is the only candidate with a plan to push back against the federal government by creating a task force to review areas where it is violating the state's sovereignty.

Rutledge continued to call Sterling's plan to reintroduce the electric chair to carry out death penalties in the state "irresponsible rhetoric," while Sterling said he would just be following the law by doing so.

Arkansas Code Annotated 5-4-617 states that the Arkansas Department of Correction "shall carry out the sentence of death by electrocution" if the Method of Execution Act is "invalidated by a final and unappealable court order."

An execution has not been carried out in the state since 2005 because the state has lost several legal challenges to the Method of Execution Act that argue the Legislature has given too much authority to the department to carry out the death penalty.

Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said the winner of the runoff election will come down to "who can get the warm bodies out." He said he expects both candidates to line up endorsements between now and the election to try to motivate their own supporters and won't necessarily be fighting for Nation's votes.

"It's really a question of turnout: who's got the better organization, who has the better machine to get people to the polls," Bass said.

Bass said people who show up for the primaries and especially the runoff elections are the "high-interest voters" who are the most informed and partisan.

Bass said there was a possibility of more "outside money" flowing in to the runoff election. Rutledge has previously criticized an estimated $350,000 ad favoring Sterling and his position supporting a "stand your ground" law that was paid for by the Des Moines, Iowa-based American Future Fund.

The group did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

Metro on 05/22/2014

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