On the final day of filing for state and federal offices in Arkansas, two members of the congressional delegation drew primary election opponents, and the number of presidential candidates rose to 13 Republicans and six Democrats.
Businessman Curtis Coleman of Little Rock emerged Monday to challenge U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers in the March 1 Republican primary. Boozman also filed for re-election Monday. The Senate race also has attracted a Democrat, a Libertarian and a write-in candidate.
Also, Brock Olree of Searcy filed papers to try to oust U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock in the Republican primary, and then Dianne Curry of Little Rock filed as a Democrat for Hill's 2nd Congressional District seat. Other candidates for the 2nd District include a Libertarian and two write-in candidates.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs, on Monday filed for re-election to the 4th District seat, while a representative for U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, filed for his boss to seek re-election to the 1st District seat. They and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers, face Libertarian candidates next November.
In a state Supreme Court race, attorney Clark Mason of Little Rock filed to run for the post held by departing Justice Paul Danielson. Circuit Judge Shawn Womack of Mountain Home filed for the position last week.
In addition, representatives of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania increased to 13 the number of Republican presidential candidates on the ballot in Arkansas' primary. Each has paid the state GOP's $25,000 presidential filing.
Chattanooga, Tenn., attorney John Wolfe became the sixth Democratic presidential candidate on the ballot in Arkansas. He paid the state Democratic Party's $2,500 presidential filing fee. In the 2012 Democratic presidential primary, Wolfe won 41.6 percent of the vote against President Barack Obama.
Twenty-eight candidates signed up on the last day to file for state and federal offices, increasing the total to 371, said Chris Powell, a spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin. The total includes 132 Republicans, 67 Democrats, 17 Libertarians, 150 judicial candidates, three write-in candidates and two independent candidates, he said. Judicial candidates are nonpartisan.
In 2016, 243 state and federal offices are up for election, Powell said. They include U.S. president and vice president, the U.S. Senate seat held by Boozman, the state's four congressional offices, 100 state House seats and 17 of 35 state Senate seats.
The filing period started Nov. 2 and ended Monday.
The primary and nonpartisan judicial election will be March 1. The primary runoff will be March 22 and the general election and judicial runoff will be Nov. 8.
U.S. Senate race
Coleman, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and for governor in 2014, said he decided to challenge Boozman because "we need a much more conservative vote in the U.S. Senate than we are getting from Boozman.
"He voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling," he said. "My point is that there is no point in having a ceiling if every time you hit it you raise it. I would not have voted to raise the debt ceiling. I would have said let's find a different way to prioritize spending and keep from increasing our debt.
"John is a very nice man," Coleman said. "We are just at a place where nice is just not enough and where we need somebody not just who will vote against Obamacare. We need somebody who will fight against Obamacare."
Asked why he thinks he has a chance to win the Republican nomination for Senate, Coleman said he's developed a statewide name identification through his previous two races, can build on the 50,000 votes he received for governor and has "probably the strongest political grassroots of a candidate in the state."
"All of those things are assets I didn't have the first two times I ran and I think they are going to be significant in this race," Coleman said. He said he received more than $20,000 through late Sunday from contributions to cover the $20,000 filing fee.
Through Sept. 30, Coleman reported that he owed himself $55,249.11 from loans he made to his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign, $17,993.54 to Rosenbaum Brothers Partnership of North Little Rock for an office lease and $5,946.25 to Holtzman Vogel PLLC of Virginia for political consulting.
Coleman said "we are still negotiating" two obligations from the previous U.S. Senate campaign, including one that he doesn't know what was for, and "we'll have those cleared up by the end of the year."
In response to Coleman's remarks, Boozman's campaign manager, Chris Caldwell, said, "Senator Boozman is excited about the opportunity to continue to serve the people of Arkansas.
"He will be sharing his message of how he has been fighting the disastrous Obama agenda and how we can make our state's economy stronger. And ultimately, after November, the senator will be serving the people of Arkansas for another 6 years," Caldwell said.
Earlier Monday, Boozman said that "we're in a lot better shape" than he was when he filed to run the U.S. Senate in 2010.
Nearly a month ago, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Conner Eldridge of Fayetteville reported raising more than $400,000 in the three-week period after he announced his campaign, topping the more than $359,000 that Boozman reported raising last quarter.
Boozman said that Eldridge "is from a family of millionaires.
"I don't think anybody in the country has any doubt that I'll have the funds that I need to get my message out," he said.
He said he wants to create an environment where businesses want to hire more employees because federal regulations are putting "a wet blanket on the economy.
"I think everybody agrees at this point that Obamacare is broken. And I think it's so broken ... the way it is set up with so much bureaucracy that we really do need to start over and get rid of it," Boozman said.
Boozman said Washington is broken largely due to "the fact that we've had terrible leadership [from Obama] for the last seven years and that's going to change pretty soon.
"I think that I work really hard representing the state with the values that they want in Washington and, so I think when you look at my voting record it matches up very, very well with the people of Arkansas," he said.
Congressional seats
Olree, associate online manager for the Truth for Today World Mission School, a non-profit group dedicated to world evangelism , said he filed to run for the seat held by Hill because "I want to bring jobs home from other countries where they have gone due to unfair trade deals.
"There are millions of people in the United States who are unemployed and underemployed and we need millions of jobs in this country," he said. He declined to criticize Hill.
Curry, a former Little Rock School Board member, said she filed for the seat because "I saw a need to step up as a Democrat because very few people want to run right now." She also declined to comment about Hill.
She said she opposes eliminating federal funding for Planned Parenthood because "there are other support systems there than just the things that have been criticized."
Westerman, who filed Monday, said that "it's been a big learning curve on how we got $18-to-$19 trillion in debt and the seriousness and magnitude of that" as a member of the House Budget Committee. "I've got some ideas I am continuing to work on on how to get more people back to work and reduce the some of the spending."
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, said that "even with no Democratic opponent this year, Rep. Crawford will continue to talk about how both parties continue ignoring the debt crisis by increasing spending and avoiding much-needed reform.
"The recent budget deal, which raised the debt ceiling while also increasing spending, typifies the abject mindlessness going on in Washington today," said Crawford spokesman Jonah Shumate.
Legislative races
John Arthur Hammerschmidt of Harrison -- the 66-year-old son of the late former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt -- filed Monday to challenge first-term state Rep. Ron McNair of Alpena in the March 1 Republican primary.
"I just thought this was a good time to get off the sideline and offer to help the folks in my part of the country," Hammerschmidt said.
The House includes 64 Republicans, 35 Democrats and an independent, state Rep. Nate Bell of Mena.
All 100 House seats are up for grabs.
There are 57 unopposed House races. Thirty-nine of these races only have a Republican candidate. Eighteen other races only have a Democratic candidate.
The Senate is comprised of 24 Republicans and 11 Democrats.
Seventeen seats are up for grabs and they are held by 11 Republicans and six Democrats.
There are 10 unopposed Senate races.
Eight of these unopposed 10 races only have Republican candidate. The other two only have an Democratic candidate.
Arkansas Supreme Court race
Mason, who is an attorney, said he's running for the Arkansas Supreme Court because "Arkansans need someone who understands the law, follows the law and practices the law for the people of Arkansas.
"I have a unique experience on the law from representing companies, farmers and individuals from all walks of life," he said in a news release. He said it's his first bid for elected office.
His opponent, Judge Womack, previously was an attorney and served in the state Senate as a Republican.
Information for this article was contributed by Spencer Willems of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 11/10/2015