Turrell Mayor Dorothy Cooper is citing the widespread needs in Senate District 24 in her bid to oust state Senate Democratic leader Keith Ingram of West Memphis, who points to his experience in helping meet its needs.
Senate District 24 includes all of Crittenden County and parts of Cross, Lee, Phillips and St. Francis counties.
The winner of the Democratic primary election on May 22 will be unopposed in the Nov. 6 general election.
Cooper, 51, has been mayor of Turrell since January 2015. She also served as the Gilmore mayor’s assistant and city clerk from 2012 through December 2014.
She worked for more than 20 years for the Turrell School District and Marion School District. She holds a certificate in administrative office procedures from Mid-South Community College. She is divorced and has five children.
Ingram, 63, has served in the state Senate since 2013. He was in the state House of Representatives from 2009-13 and was the West Memphis mayor from 1987-95.
He is a partner in a construction and waste-management business called Razorbox and has real estate holdings. He holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from the University of Mississippi. He is married with four children.
This year’s election is the first time that Ingram has faced opposition at the ballot box since he defeated Sen. Jack Crumbly, D-Widener, in the 2012 primary election. In 2014, Ingram was unopposed in his bid for re-election to a four-year term.
Cooper said voters should cast their ballots for her because “I am a fighter for the needs of the people.” Those needs include more jobs, more housing, street repairs and fixing water problems in many communities in District
24.
She said she has no criticism of Ingram.
“I am representing change and Sen. Ingram is representing four years of the same. I know the needs. I live it every day,” Cooper said.
Ingram said voters should re-elect him based on his experience and record of getting things done and serving his constituents.
“When the cities have problems, I try to solve them,” he said. For example, he said when Cooper called him in her capacity as mayor, he worked with state and Arkansas Municipal League officials to get a few hundred thousand dollars in grants and insurance money for Turrell’s sewage-treatment plant.
Ingram said he believes he has done a good job of representing the people who are hurting.
TOP PRIORITIES
Cooper said her top priorities will include working to provide more affordable housing, create jobs, help communities, replace water and sewer systems, and improve education.
Ingram said his priorities include continuing collaboration between public schools and two-year and four-year colleges to create a job-ready workforce and finding a permanent funding source for aid for the developmentally disabled. A list of those waiting for aid totals about 2,833, according to a spokesman for the state Department of Human Services.
He said he also wants to increase funding for the state’s prekindergarten program and to provide more probation and parole officers to reduce the recidivism rate of offenders after they are released from prison.
MEDICAID EXPANSION
Cooper said there is a need for the Medicaid expansion program that provides private health insurance to about 280,000 low-income Arkansans and she doesn’t want to eliminate the program.
The state pays 6 percent of the cost of the program this year and its share increases to 7 percent next year and then 10 percent in 2020 under existing federal law. The state projects its share of the cost at about $135 million in fiscal 2019 that starts July 1 and the federal government’s share at about $1.95 billion.
Ingram said he has voted to continue the program that is now called Arkansas Works.
“Without the program, we would have lost many rural hospitals,” he said, referring to those without insurance getting care at those facilities.
WAGES AND TAX CUTS
Cooper said she supports raising the minimum wage in the state from $8.50 an hour to at least $10 an hour and believes that businesses can afford to pay that higher minimum wage.
Ingram said he has not looked at increasing the minimum wage.
“I support a sustainable living wage and need to do more research to figure that [wage level] out,” he said.
Cooper said Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to cut the state’s top individual income-tax rate from 6.9 percent to 6 percent is “kind of scary.
“We are barely making it now,” she said, referring to the state budget. “I would need to see a list of what it is going to affect and where it is coming from and the reasoning behind it, so I need to look at it.”
Hutchinson has projected this proposed tax cut, for people who make more than $75,000 a year, would reduce revenue by about $180 million a year. The governor wants the Legislature to consider the tax cut in the 2019 regular legislative session.
In 2015 and 2017, the Legislature has enacted Hutchinson’s plans to cut income-tax rates for people with taxable income of up to $75,000 a year. Those cuts are projected to collectively reduce tax revenue by $150 million a year.
As for the proposal, Ingram said, “I don’t think you can look at this thing in a vacuum,” without knowing what other tax increases or cuts may be included.
“I would rather make the decision in January when I can see the numbers rather than speculate what they may be,” he said.
ABORTION STANDS
Cooper said she believes it’s a woman’s choice whether to have an abortion, but a woman should undergo counseling to make sure the decision isn’t one she will later regret.
Ingram said he has always supported abortion rights, adding he has voted for legislation to prohibit late-term abortions.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
According to their latest campaign-finance reports, Ingram has a larger campaign treasury than Cooper.
As of March 31, Ingram reported having $34,266.39, after raising $22,750 in contributions and spending $1,999.30 in March. He reported 14 contributors, who are “self-employed” in the gaming industry, collectively contributed $20,400 to his campaign.
As of March 31, Cooper reported a campaign treasury balance of $15, after raising $242.47 in contributions, lending her campaign $367.48 and spending $5,109.95 in March to deplete much of what she had in the bank.
