A landscape architect and a mechanic-Elvis entertainer are vying to replace the state's first Republican land commissioner in November.
Incumbent John Thurston and Democratic challenger Mark Robertson said their biggest challenge on the campaign trail is a widespread unawareness that the office exists, let alone what it does.
So far, Thurston and Robertson have a combined $107,000 in total fundraising this election, compared with nearly $1 million in the race for attorney general and more than $9 million donated to the main party candidates for governor.
Libertarian candidate Elvis D. Presley has not raised any funds so far in his campaign to lead the office that was established in 1868 and has the primary duty of collecting delinquent property taxes.
"Unfortunately, most Arkansans probably don't know what we do unless they've gotten a letter from us," Thurston said.
"Every little boy, when they grow up, they want to be land commissioner," Thurston added jokingly.
Listings of properties whose owners are delinquent on taxes for two years at the county level are sent to the land commissioner's office. If workers are unsuccessful in reaching interested parties to pay the taxes, they put the properties up for public auction, where the properties are usually sold for pennies on the dollar, Thurston said.
That money is sent back to the counties, which put most of it toward education. Since 2003, the office has collected about $123 million from auctioning delinquent properties. Last year, Thurston's office recovered $21 million in turnback funds for the counties.
Robertson sees more potential in the office.
Robertson, a Fort Smith native, became a landscape engineer after working his way through school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Now the head of MESA Landscape Architects in Little Rock, which describes itself as specializing in ecologically friendly and sustainable projects across the state, Robertson wants to do more with land and the communities built upon them.
"The potential for the office, it's very broad. It's much broader than what it's become in the last 30 years, which is primarily focused almost exclusively on [delinquent] tax property," Robertson said. "We need to find a way to make sure we're returning properties, and make sure they're productive as quickly as possible. It's about really understanding what this concept of 'land,' what it really means in this state."
With a life spent outdoors, Robertson said he is one of the more qualified candidates to ever run for the office.
His approach isn't "environmental" or "sustainable" but "holistic," he said, taking into account the role land plays in building communities, strengthening schools and adding value to the state as a whole.
Presley, who runs an auto shop in Star City and who ran for governor in 2010 as a Libertarian, said the commissioner should do what he can to open up state and federal lands.
Presley, who moonlights doing Elvis "gigs," declined to detail his plans for the office if elected but said he and other Libertarians would work to promote the building of the Keystone XL pipeline through Arkansas.
"We need to utilize our resources here in Arkansas so we can make money in the state," Presley said.
"We just want to keep on trucking like we're doing and get these people to realize that there's more than just Democrat or Republican."
Like Robertson, Thurston never sought office before his run for the position in 2010.
With a degree in biblical studies, Thurston spent nearly 15 years as an employee at the Agape Church in west Little Rock before taking an interest in politics.
When asked why he ran for a constitutional office instead of a state House or city board seat, Thurston laughed and said he saw that the land commissioner's office had been dominated by one party for too long.
"Anytime one party occupies something for so long, it has a tendency to make folks get complacent, get comfortable," Thurston said.
"We focused on inefficiency. Unfortunately, there was a lot of it, and there still is."
Entering the office as an outsider, Thurston's learning curve extends to this day, he said.
But he's proud of the work his office has done to automate many of the tax processes, as well as mapping a directory of available properties online, information that used to require an in-person trip to a county's assessor's office.
Still, he thinks he could do more in a second term.
The land commissioner's office has jurisdiction over the state's rivers, and Thurston said he would like to seek more funding, as well as a greater clarification of what his office can do to beautify the state's waterways, including finding a way to address houseboats that pop up semi-permanently along riverbanks.
Early in September, Thurston's office led a week-long effort to pull out one house boat that was partially submerged three years ago in the Arkansas River near the Two Rivers Bridge.
"We wouldn't have someone move a mobile home on the Capitol lawn. ... A lot of these old houseboats down on the Ouachita [River], they're really eyesores, falling apart. But what do you do, who do you talk to, what if that boat sinks?" Thurston said.
"The more you dig into waterways, it's a big animal that hasn't been addressed."
Robertson said he plans to make the office more efficient but also more inclusive.
He said he doesn't pretend to "have all the answers" but noted that he'd approach the office the same way he approaches his work: bringing interested parties to the table.
"I'm at a point in my life where I'm not launching a political career at a young age. How I've always dealt with projects is to try to look at long-term solutions," Robertson said.
His approach, he said, is "getting experts together, going through the issues, and seeing if we can't build a consensus ... and quit kicking the can down the road."
Metro on 09/29/2014