Hot Springs legislator faces primary contest

A Hot Springs Republican who said he hopes to entice small businesses to the area announced on Tuesday that he would enter the Republican primary against state Rep. Laurie Rushing.

The challenger, Ernie Hinz, declined to offer specifics for his stated goal of expanding on recent development in Hot Springs to smaller nearby towns such as Malvern and Bismarck.

Hinz, 67, is the president of the nonprofit Faces Foundation, which helps patients receive facial reconstruction surgery. According to a recently launched campaign website, Hinz also has experience working with community groups including the Rotary Club, the Boy Scouts and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

In a brief phone interview, Hinz said he first got the idea to run for office about 20 years ago, but opted out because of family commitments. Now, Hinz said, he still has policy to study to make a clear stance on issues in the state House.

Hinz said he did not know of any votes Rushing, the incumbent, had made that he disagreed with.

He said seeing businesses moving into downtown Hot Springs was a good sign for economic development in the area.

“I see the state is already moving in that direction with the governor, and we need to build on that,” Hinz said.

Rushing, 49, a Realtor from Hot Springs who is in her second term, has made bolstering visitation rights for grandparents a chief cause during her tenure. She has said in committee meetings that she has been blocked from seeing her own grandchildren after her daughter died.

Rushing said Tuesday at the state Capitol that she is a supporter of Arkansas’ “private-option” Medicaid expansion program. She voted last year to continue funding for it.

Hinz said he would “look into that bill more closely” when asked if he supports the Medicaid expansion, also known as Arkansas Works.

Other than economic development, Hinz said he’d make infrastructure — especially highway maintenance and bridge replacement — an issue in his campaign.