Name recognition is the first problem for all three candidates for Arkansas’ 1st District seat in Congress, including the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro. Crawford is less than halfway through his first term and he finds himself with a much larger district geographically.
Reapportionment gave the 1st District three additional counties, making 29 total, and the district stretches from the northern border with Missouri to the southern border with Louisiana. At its widest point the district runs from the mountains of Searcy County to the Mississippi Delta.
That’s a lot of territory in which to campaign.
Jonesboro is the largest city at 67,263. Next to that, the biggest cities are West Memphis and Paragould, each just above 26,000.
That means major media are also few. The district has only seven daily newspapers and one television station, though certainly others have significant circulation or viewers in most counties.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The combination of geography and lack of media outlets makes building name recognition quite a challenge.
Traditionally in the 1st District, as with many others across the country, the incumbent has a big advantage. But these are different times, and Crawford, despite his radio background, is still new to the game.
His two opponents, both Democrats, will have a tougher time, and both start with ground to make up. What effect the national presidential election will have on Arkansas is hard to predict. While the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama, is not popular in Arkansas, Crawford has to be careful about campaigning against a president who has some support in Delta counties.
Quite a few potential Democratic candidates decided not to make the race, including Chad Causey, the party’s nominee in 2010; state senators Paul Bookout of Jonesboro and Robert Thompson of Paragould; Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro; and, most recently, businessman Steve Rockwell, also of Jonesboro. Causey, former chief of staff for Marion Berry, the man Crawford replaced, has a new bride and a job with a local law firm, so he decided the timing wasn’t right to make another race so soon.
That leaves two declared candidates for the Democrat nomination — state Rep. Clark Hall of Marvell and economics professor Gary Latanich of Jonesboro.
Hall, term-limited in the Legislature, is a little better known, at least in eastern Arkansas, and he seems to be the “establishment’ candidate. He has been endorsed by 18 state lawmakers and last week by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.
On his Facebook page Hall describes himself as a moderate, and he boasts about being part of a Legislature that made a lot of tough choices to keep the state’s budget balanced, as required by law, while also cutting the sales tax on groceries.
He has at least one tie with Northeast Arkansas, having earned a business degree from Arkansas State University in 1971. And he has grassroots experience in local government, having served on the Phillips County Quorum Court for 10 years and then as mayor of Marvell for 12. He ran successfully for the House of Representatives in 2007.
On the other hand, Latanich, who has been in the ASU faculty since 1981, is a newcomer to politics. He’s now professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education. For several years, until he announced his candidacy, he wrote a bi-weekly column on economics issues for The Jonesboro Sun, and economics issues will certainly be important in this campaign.
A native of Cleveland, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
Based mostly on his columns, I would describe him as a progressive Democrat. He served then-Gov. Bill Clinton on his Council of Economics Advisers.
Unless Latanich has the time and support to wage an extensive campaign, he’ll have an uphill climb against Hall. Both are off to a slow start for a decision that voters will make in about six months.
Both men have Facebook pages, and Hall has established a Web site, but they have a big district to cover, and the winter months will make that difficult.
Meanwhile, Crawford isn’t making waves in Congress, but he is trying to build his constituency in the same way Berry did — through media communication and personal appearances. Within the past month his office has put out three mailers, paid by the taxpayer, of course, to citizens of the district. The most recent reminded citizens on Medicare of the deadline for open enrollment.
Previously, most of the political mailers touting Crawford were being paid for by special interest groups like the American Action Network, American Life Sciences Innovation Council and retiresafe.org.
Since hiring a new press secretary, Justin Gibbs, a former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., in October, Crawford has greatly increased the flow of releases to news media. A weekly column, used mostly by weekly newspapers, started late in October.
More importantly, Crawford gets home almost every weekend and makes the rounds of local events when Congress isn’t in session. Gibbs recently announced that his boss had completed visits to every hospital in the district.
Crawford, who had strong support from tea party factions in 2010, also seems to be moderating some positions, softening his stances on “ObamaCare” and immigration, among others.
One quirk in the race, if it eventually comes down to Crawford vs. Hall, is Hall’s role in the redistricting effort as chairman of the House Committee on State Agencies and Government Affairs. Redistricting is always contentious between political parties, and this one was more than usual, with Democrats determined to win back a couple of seats. Later, the Crawford camp discovered what it claims are a couple of errors in the 1st District map and promptly blamed Hall.
Voters don’t get excited much about redistricting, though — certainly not like they do about jobs, taxes and entitlements.
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Roy Ockert Jr. is editor of The Jonesboro Sun and can be reached by e-mail at royo@jonesborosun.com.