Offering clear choice, 2 in Senate race say

Pearson seeking to unseat Rapert

140230 Joel "Tyler" Pearson
140230 Joel "Tyler" Pearson

CONWAY -- Conway Democrat Tyler Pearson says he's got a shot at ousting state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, in Senate District 35 because Rapert campaigned on a moderate platform two years ago and Rapert hasn't heeded it.

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A map showing the location of Senate District 35.

"The Jason Rapert that is running in 2014 is not the same one that ran in 2012," said Pearson, a 28-year-old analyst for Little Rock-based Heifer International's planning and effectiveness department.

Voters "are looking for somebody that they can trust that will be fiscally responsible and focus on issues that matter to Arkansans every day like economic development, job creation, education, health care and infrastructure," he said. "From the people I have talked to, they have felt like they have not got that from Sen. Rapert in the past two years."

But Rapert, who is chairman of the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee, said his record stands for itself and "people knew exactly who they were voting for."

"This community knows that when it comes to issues that are important to Conway and Faulkner County and Perry County, I go to bat for them, and ... I get the job done for them," said Rapert, a 42-year-old owner of Rapert Financial & Associates of Conway and part owner of uLockIt Security Devices of Conway.

"The people of this district had a clear choice between somebody that's pro-life or somebody that is for abortion in the last election, and they chose the guy that was pro-life," he said, referring to his defeat of then-state Rep. Linda Tyler, D-Conway, in 2012.

"So when my opponent takes a thousand dollars from the abortion clinic, he thumbs his eye at the people of Conway and Faulkner County and puts his thumb in the eye also of the people of the state of Arkansas, who clearly supported the heartbeat bill," Rapert said, referring to his 2013 law that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Little Rock Family Planning Services contributed $1,000 to Pearson in May, Pearson reported in his campaign-finance reports. Little Rock Family Planning Services describes itself on its website as the only licensed abortion clinic in the state.

In 2013, Rapert persuaded the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass his anti-abortion measure and then to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of the measure.

In March, a federal judge nullified part of the resulting law, Act 301 of 2013, by declaring the 12-week ban "clearly unconstitutional." The state's attorney general has appealed the judge's ruling.

Pearson said this Senate race "is not about abortion," and Rapert is trying to talk about it to distract voters.

"I am not going to get distracted," he said. "I am going to focus on jobs, the economy, health care, the private option and the minimum wage."

Pearson said in an earlier interview that he would have voted against Rapert's bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy because it was "fiscally irresponsible" for Rapert to ask the Legislature to overturn Beebe's veto of the bill, after Beebe said it was unconstitutional, referring to legal costs to defend it.

Pearson said he's Catholic, and "my faith is strongly against [abortion] personally, and I think the best way to limit abortions in this country is to help lift people out of poverty, give people a good education and access to quality health care." He declined to say whether he supports or opposes abortion rights.

Pearson and Rapert are vying for a four-year term in Senate District 35 in the Nov. 4 general election.

District 35 consists of most of Faulkner County, including all of Conway and part of Vilonia but not Greenbrier, as well as a sliver of Perry County in the Toad Suck area.

From 2011-13, Rapert represented Senate District 18, which included Perry, Conway and Van Buren counties, and parts of Cleburne, Faulkner, Saline and Pope counties. After legislative districts were redrawn after the 2010 U.S. Census, Rapert found himself in District 35.

Rapert is a 1990 graduate of Maynard High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in political science and sociology from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 1994.

Pearson is a 2004 graduate of Conway High School. He received an associate degree from the City College of San Francisco in 2008, a bachelor's degree in international studies from UCA in 2010 and a master's degree in public service from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service this year.

Among other things, Rapert touts that he sponsored Beebe's legislation that will eventually allow for the state's 1.5 percent sales tax on groceries to be sliced to 0.125 percent after certain conditions are met and pressed for Beebe to call a special session last year that ultimately funneled $43 million in surplus funds to the state's public school employees health insurance plan to help cut proposed large premium increases for the plan's members.

He has been an outspoken critic of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza for Piazza's May 9 ruling that struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. Piazza ruled that Amendment 83 to the Arkansas Constitution, approved by voters in November 2004, and all state laws that banned gay marriage violated provisions of the federal and state constitutions.

The state has appealed the ruling, which is pending before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Asked what he would do if the state Supreme Court upholds Piazza's ruling, Rapert said that's "a big hypothetical," adding that many people would like to have authority to recall elected officials who "do not perform according to what they've promised" or don't do what is expected of them.

Pearson said he doesn't "take a strong personal position on the issue [of gay marriage]. I think it's out of my hands. It's the decision of the courts.

"Politically, I'll fight to uphold whatever the state of Arkansas Constitution is," he said.

Rapert said Pearson has the support of the Stonewall Democrats, "which is the homosexual lobby." Pearson said he hasn't been endorsed or received any money from the Stonewall Democrats.

Stonewall Democratic Caucus President Eric McDaniel was not reached for comment by telephone last week.

Pearson said he'll work to protect the state's private-option program that uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans because more than 7,000 people are enrolled in the program in Faulkner and Perry counties.

The expansion of the Medicaid program, approved by the Legislature last year, extends coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 170,000 people have been enrolled in private health insurance through the program.

The federal government will pay the full cost of covering the newly eligible enrollees until 2017, when states will begin paying 5 percent of the cost. The state's share will gradually increase until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.

Rapert, who has voted to support the private option in the past two years, said he's now "taking a wait-and-see approach" to the private option. "If it is not going to be sustainable, then we are going to have to make changes. We are going to make amendments to make it fit the state of Arkansas."

Pearson said he wants to expand access over time to the state's pre-kindergarten program to 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents want to enroll them in the program. Rapert said he's open to any program, but "it always comes down to, can the state afford it and the taxpayers support it."

Pearson said he'll vote for the proposed initiated act to raise the state's minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50 an hour by 2017. Rapert said he'll probably vote for the ballot measure.

Pearson said he wants to make sure the state's higher-education institutions, including UCA, "are taken care of," and to try to find ways to keep the cost of tuition from rising for students.

Rapert said he helped UCA receive $4.7 million from the state's General Improvement Fund for building projects last year.

Rapert said he is going to stay focused on business issues in the Legislature; work on the legislative task force studying state and public schools employee health insurance plans; and push for using natural gas to power more school buses, and state and local government vehicles.

Metro on 09/21/2014

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