State Legislative Council rejects judicial election guide funding

Sen. Scott Flippo, R-Bull Shoals, is shown in this file photo.
Sen. Scott Flippo, R-Bull Shoals, is shown in this file photo.

The state Legislative Council last week rejected Gov. Asa Hutchinson's request to grant $200,000 in state rainy-day funds to the Administrative Office of the Courts to support the Arkansas Judicial Campaign Conduct and Education Committee's judicial voter guide.

Without any debate, the council Friday approved a motion by Senate Republican leader Scott Flippo of Mountain Home to deny the Republican governor's request.

Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Kemp wrote in a Wednesday letter to the council's co-chairmen, Rep. Jeff Wardlaw and Sen. Terry Rice, that the Administrative Office of the Courts "does not get involved in judicial elections."

"It is the primary duty of the AOC to administer the court system," Kemp wrote.

Afterward, Rice, R-Waldron, said most of the council members felt like taxpayers shouldn't pay for campaign literature for judicial candidates "even if it was bipartisan."

Judicial races are nonpartisan.

"The last thing we need is for elected people to tell people how to vote for themselves on the taxpayers' dime," said Wardlaw, R-Hermitage.

"I understood the need presented by the Arkansas Judicial Campaign Conduct and Education Committee when the funds were requested for the voters guide," Hutchinson said in a written statement. "However, I accept the fact that the Legislature viewed this voter education effort differently."

The Legislative Council oversees the operation of state government and meets when the Legislature isn't in session.

Former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck said she and former Supreme Court Justices Betty Dickey and Robert Brown asked the governor for funds to support a judicial voters guide to provide nonpartisan information about the background of candidates for the state Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals.

The guide would go to each household in the state for the 2022 election. She said the nonprofit committee's plan is modeled on a similar effort in North Carolina.

Another state office, such as the secretary of state's office, might be able to handle the mailing of the voter guide, she said.

"I am disappointed," Tuck said of the Legislative Council's rejection. "I'm not quite sure why there was so much opposition."

Upcoming Events