GOP picks Ozark's Capp for state House seat

OZARK -- Delegates at a Republican Party convention have elected an Ozark lawyer to replace on the Nov. 8 general election ballot a state House member and re-election nominee who resigned last month to take a position in Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration.

The day before the Wednesday convention, another Ozark attorney filed suit in Franklin County Circuit Court challenging the convention as an unconstitutional means of replacing the nominee.

A total of 35 delegates from Franklin, Madison and Crawford counties gathered at Arkansas Tech University on Wednesday evening and elected Sarah Capp, 37, to be the party's nominee. She replaces state Rep. Bill Gossage, R-Ozark, who resigned earlier this month from his House District 82 seat to become Hutchinson's deputy chief of staff for external operations.

The vote was 25 votes for Capp and 10 for challenger Bobby Ballinger, 22, of Altus. Since the party's nominee is unopposed on the ballot, Capp will become the representative for House District 82 after the election, state Party Chairman Doyle Webb said.

Gossage's name will appear on the ballot because Capp's nomination occurred less than 76 days before the election, Webb said. According to state law, Capp's name would appear on the ballot if she had been picked and filed nomination paperwork at least 76 days before the election.

But Webb said that according to Arkansas Code Annotated 7-7-104, if the replacement nominee is certified at least 47 days before the general election, the votes cast for Gossage will be counted for Capp. Webb said the 47th day before the election was Thursday.

The law says notices will have to be posted at voting places that "a vote for the person appearing on the ballot shall be counted for the nominee."

"So, under our process, this is just as close as we are," Webb told the convention delegates Wednesday night. "We hate that you are here on a Wednesday but, under our rules, we had to be here tonight."

The delegates, 20 from Franklin County, 14 from Madison County and one from Crawford County, the counties or county portions in District 82, listened to short speeches from Capp and Ballinger before casing their votes.

Capp said that as a lawyer, she is accustomed to helping people and has the tools to do a good job for District 82.

She said this is a historic time for Republicans. For the first time in 140 years, a Republican governor and Legislature have the opportunity to make progress for the state and help change "corrupt Washington and our federal government," she said.

"A vote allowing me the opportunity to help you is a vote in the right direction," she said.

Capp also said Hutchinson trusted her enough to appoint her as special justice on the state Supreme Court and to the Arkansas Development Finance Authority board of directors.

Ballinger is a congressional staff member for 4th District U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman. He also is the son of state Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville.

He said he has spent his life working to elect conservative Republican candidates. His background is in constituent service and his experience has given him "a real up-close and personal view of the problems in our government system."

He said that experience would be helpful as a member of the Legislature. He said Hutchinson was doing a good job but that the governor is only one man and cannot micromanage everything.

"You need people who are going to be there who can point out flaws, who can help fix problems," the younger Ballinger said. "And that's what I have been doing for the last year and a half."

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Ozark attorney Lonnie Turner, asked a judge to declare that Hutchinson violated the state constitution and should have called for a special election rather than a convention to nominate a replacement for Gossage's seat.

Contacted Thursday for comment on the lawsuit, Webb said he believed the claim "is without merit. The process the governor requested we follow and the process prescribed in [Arkansas Code Annotated] 7-7-104 has been followed by both the Democratic and Republican parties for decades and I believe it is the appropriate procedure to nominate candidates in this election."

H.L. Moody, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said the party would prefer to hold elections where many voters had a say in picking its candidates rather than a few party loyalists in a convention. If a judge rules that elections should be held to replace nominees rather than conventions, the party would adjust its procedures.

Democrats held a convention Aug. 4, Moody said, to replace the party's District 9 nominee, state Rep. Sheilla Lampkin of Monticello, who died in July. The 11 delegates from Drew and Ashley counties elected Monticello attorney LeAnne Burch.

A spokesman for Hutchinson, J.R. Davis, said Thursday that the office does not comment on pending litigation and had not been served with the lawsuit on Thursday.

The suit, which Turner said was filed on behalf of J.D. Rice, a Franklin County farmer and voter in District 82, asked the judge to issue a writ of mandamus compelling the defendants named in the suit to cease nominating candidates in violation of Article 5, Section 6, of the Arkansas Constitution.

The defendants named were Hutchinson, the Democratic and Republican Party state committees, and the election commissioners and county clerks for Franklin, Madison and Crawford counties.

Turner wrote, "Article 5 of the Arkansas Constitution addresses the Legislative Department. Section 6 -- Writs of Election -- 'The governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies as shall occur in either house of the General Assembly.' "

Arkansas Code Annotated 7-7-104 says replacing nominees can be done by convention or special election. Paragraph 2B says, "A special primary election may be called only if the special primary election can be called, held, conducted and certified and certificates of nomination filed at least 70 days before the general election."

State Desk on 09/23/2016

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