March 1 primary changes campaigning

State tries first March contest

Virginia Lewis, a election poll worker, participates in training Tuesday by the Washington County Election Commission in preparation for the early election this year. The commission has a shortage of poll workers this year and was forced to close down one polling place after a group retired earlier this year.
Virginia Lewis, a election poll worker, participates in training Tuesday by the Washington County Election Commission in preparation for the early election this year. The commission has a shortage of poll workers this year and was forced to close down one polling place after a group retired earlier this year.

Winter's not the best time for knocking on doors and holding fundraisers, candidates say, but the early primaries this year seem to be meeting the goal of giving the state more voice in choosing the next president.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Deborah Tuttle (from left), Linda Myers and Cheryl Duncan, election poll workers, participate in training Tuesday, by the Washington County Election Commission in preparation for the early election this year. The commission has a shortage of poll workers this year and was forced to close down one polling place after a group retired earlier this year.

The shift to a March 1 primary definitely shortened the amount of time for campaigning, and not just by moving the date until earlier in the year, candidates said. The time of year makes a difference, particularly the shorter span of daylight, they said.

Seasonal weather

The 30-year average normal temperature for Fayetteville on March 1 is a high of 55 and a low of 32, according to the National Weather Service. The record high temperature on that day was 83 degrees in 2006. The record low was 25 in 1980. The most snow to fall that day was 1 inch in 1960. The record snowfall for early March was 7 inches on March 5, 1989.

Source: Staff report

"Campaigning on weekdays is a challenge. By the time people get off work, it's already dark, "said Lance Eads of Springdale, who is running for the state Senate. "You have to hit the weekends very hard. Even then, you need to wait until after church, and you'd better not show up while there's a Razorback game going on. It's a compressed cycle that makes the relationships you already have very important."

The state Legislature bumped the date of 2016 party primaries and nonpartisan judicial elections from the first Tuesday in May to the first Tuesday in March. This allows Arkansas to join six other Southern states in the so-called "SEC Primary." Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp lead the effort, claiming it would give the South a greater say in picking a president.

Arkansas experimented with early primaries before, moving just the presidential primaries to Feb. 5 in 2008. The experiment was repealed the next year. Critics said this split drove down interest and participation in primaries for state races and judicial elections.

Eads and opponent Sharon Lloyd face no incumbent in their Senate race. The earlier primaries give incumbents an advantage, candidates said.

Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, voted against the change. Now she is an incumbent facing two primary challengers.

"It has a significant effect on how much you can go door to door because no one wants you to do that over the holiday season. You really can't ask people to donate or come to a fundraiser over the holidays, either," she said. "That means the campaigns don't really get started until after Jan. 1, when it's cold and there's no daylight. There could be ice and the weather's awful."

All these factors favor the candidate with name recognition, she said.

"Personal door-to-door campaigning -- that's how you kill an incumbent."

Della Rosa's assessment was shared by other veteran campaigners, including one of her opponents.

"I appreciate that people are willing to stand there with their doors open when it's been below freezing for two weeks," Randy Alexander, a former state representative who is running against Della Rosa, said in an interview in January.

"It's especially hard on the volunteers in anybody's campaign," Alexander said. "If you need something done over the holidays, and it requires 10 volunteers, they just can't do it."

Jana Starr, Della Rosa's second GOP primary rival, agreed with her opponents.

The legislation changing this year's primaries is only in effect for one year, giving the next session of the Legislature the option of letting it lapse on its own or renewing it.

"To be honest, I think it's working out much like we planned it," said Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch.

The Franklin County legislator sponsored the bill to move the primary date for 2016. The intent of the bill was to make Arkansas a factor in the presidential selection process, and that appears to be what's happening, he said.

"They're not only still in a race in both major party primaries, but it's looking like March 1 is going to be a pivotal point," Stubblefield said in a telephone interview. "We're going to have more candidates come here before March 1, I'll bet. And the states that have voted so far are having record turnouts despite worse weather than we've been experiencing so far.

"If it increases turnout in primaries, the change will be successful," Stubblefield said.

Moving the primary earlier so Arkansas has an earlier impact on the presidential race has created a lot of new interest in voting, said Mireya Reith of Fayetteville. Reith is co-founder and executive director of the Arkansas United Community Coalition, a nonpartisan group that helps first-time voters register, particularly new citizens.

"We're registering people at rates that you'd expect for the general election, not the primary," Reith said Friday. "Particularly Latino and Asians are registering because immigration is an issue in both the major parties' primaries, not always in a positive way."

The Washington County League of Women Voters also reports a high level of interest among new voters, a spokesman said. The nonpartisan league, which encourages voter involvement had a registration booth at the Fayetteville Public Library earlier this year. The booth took applications for 141 new registrations and address changes, a much higher figure than normal, according to a prepared statement from the league.

Benton County usually has mailed 700-800 absentee ballots this close to an election, said Kim Dennison, county election coordinator. But not this time.

"We're in the 300's right now," Dennison said in an interview Wednesday.

Demand for absentee ballots could be an indicator of how prepared voters are for an upcoming election, she said. The low demand is a troubling sign for an election where organizers hope for a large early turnout, she said. Early voting starts Tuesday.

Dennison and her Washington County counterpart, Jennifer Price, both hope for a large early turnout for the March 1 primary for the same reason: It often snows in March in Northwest Arkansas. For example, four inches of snow fell in Fayetteville on March 2, 2006, according to the National Weather Service records.

"Whatever happens, we will have an election March 1," Price said. "In the absolute worst case, we'll open a polling place at the jail annex and use its backup electrical generators. But if you want to make sure you can get out to vote, vote early."

Benton and Washington counties are fortunate to have begun using vote centers this year, both Price and Dennison said. A voter who lives in Benton County can vote in any polling place in Benton County, for instance. That gives campaign organizers flexibility. They can keep some polling places open and accommodate all voters even if other polling places have to close because of weather or other causes. A switch to electronic voter records allowed the change. Now a voter's identity can be checked against records anywhere instead of using paper records specific to that precinct.

At least people know a candidate is passionate about running when he is campaigning in the cold, said Austin McCollum. McCollum is challenging incumbent Rep. Sue Scott, R-Rogers, in his first race.

The shortened campaigning opportunities hit Northwest Arkansas more than other regions, said Philip Humbard, a candidate for the state House in Springdale. The booming population of Springdale in particular and Northwest Arkansas in general means candidates here have more voters to reach than elsewhere in Arkansas, he said.

Campaigning in the winter has a serious impact on largely rural districts, said Derek Goodlin of Rudy, in Crawford County. Goodlin is running for the state House in a district that stretches from Alma in Crawford County to West Fork in Washington County, a distance of 36 miles.

"You're always getting back in your car, because the next door to knock could be a mile away," he said. "You know exactly when the sun sets."

NW News on 02/14/2016

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