LITTLE ROCK — While 37 House candidates and 13 Senate candidates are running unopposed in Tuesday’s party primaries, nine Senate primary races pit current or former state legislators against each other.
In five of those Senate primaries, an incumbent faces a current or former House member.
“It’s a lot different than running for state representative,” said Republican Rick Green of Van Buren, a former House member who is challenging incumbent Sen. Bruce Holland of Greenwood in the Senate District 9 GOP primary.
Holland said the fact that both have records of legislative service benefits voters in the district, which includes Scott County and parts of Crawford, Franklin and Sebastian counties.
“It really makes it better for voters to decide,” he said. “All they have to do is consider the record each of us have and how (we) represented before.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary faces state Rep. Tracy Pennartz, D-Fort Smith, in the November general election.
Voters across Arkansas go to the polls on Tuesday to vote in primaries for all 135 legislative seats, for president, the four congressional districts, local races and for non-partisan judicial races.
Five House incumbents face primary challenges, four of them Republicans: Rep. David Meeks of Conway, Rep. Denny Altes of Fort Smith, Rep. Justin Harris of West Fork and Rep. Mary Lou Slinkard of Gravette. The only House Democrat facing a primary challenge is Rep. Sheilla Lampkin of Monticello.
The primary contests pitting lawmakers against each other are in the Senate.
In Central Arkansas, the Senate District 31 race features incumbent Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, attempting to accomplish what has eluded recent holders of the seat in Pulaski County. Twice in the past decade, incumbent Democrats have been ousted in a party primary by a sitting or former state House member.
In 2002, former state Rep. Irma Hunter Brown of Little Rock defeated incumbent Sen. John Riggs of Little Rock, who was seeking re-election to a rare two-year Senate term after the 2001 legislative redistricting. Brown was re-elected to a full four-year term in 2004 but lost a bid for a second full term in 2008 to Elliott, who had previously served three terms in the House.
Elliott faces term-limited state Rep. Fred Allen of Little Rock in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. No Republican is seeking the seat.
In eastern Arkansas, the state’s most high-profile legislative race to be decided Tuesday is the Democratic primary between Sen. Jack Crumbly of Widener and Rep. Keith Ingram of West Memphis in newly drawn Senate District 24, which includes all of Crittenden County and parts of Cross, Lee and Phillips counties. No Republican is seeking the seat.
Crumbly survived a 2008 bid to oust him from his Senate seat over voter fraud in a 2006 Democratic primary he won. He and 23 other plaintiffs filed a voting rights lawsuit after the 2011 redistricting, claiming the state Board of Apportionment deliberately diluted black voting strength in District 24.
Three federal judges heard four days of testimony in the case this month. Gov. Mike Beebe was along those who took the stand in federal court at Helena-West Helena. The judges have not issued a final ruling but they denied the plaintiffs’ request to postpone the District 24 primary.
In the District 9 GOP primary in western Arkansas, Holland has cast Green as a liberal-leaning Republican, noting his House vote in 2005 for a bill that would have granted in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants. The bill, supported by then-Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, passed the House but failed in the Senate.
“To be a Republican who goes to the more liberal side of the issue is not very consistent with how you set yourself up to represent the people,” Holland said.
Green, who was freshman lawmaker, said he regrets supporting the bill at Huckabee’s behest.
“I supported the governor because I felt like that is what I should do as a Republican,” he said. “Many, many strong conservatives voted for it … I did what the governor asked me to do.”
Green noted Holland’s high-profile run-in with the law. The senator pleaded no contest earlier this year to charges of fleeing, careless driving and improper passing in connection with a 2011 high-speed chase in which a Perry County deputy said he pursued a vehicle driving by Holland at speeds that reached 110 mph.
Holland was ordered to pay $890 in fines and court costs and perform 80 hours of community service.
“If I were a voter in this race, I’d struggle with how I could vote for someone to uphold the law that they flagrantly violated the law,” Green said. “Speeding is one thing, but fleeing is separate. Most of us are guilty of speeding. How many of us just flee law enforcement? That’s the part that really rubs the constituents wrong.”
Holland said he thinks voters have moved passed his issue with speeding.
“I’m not making any excuses for what happened to me. I got in a hurry and made a bad choice,” the senator said, adding that he thinks he is “a better person for having gone through that situation and I don’t drive that way any more.”
Holland is not the only Arkansas legislator with a primary challenger who has had a brush with law enforcement. Sen. Steve Harrelson, D-Texarkana, who is in a primary race in Senate District 11 with Rep. Larry Cowling, D-Foreman, was arrested May 22, 2011, after a confrontation with a friend of his ex-wife at his ex-wife’s home in Texarkana. Prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges.
The primary winner will face Republican Jimmy Hickey Jr. of Texarkana in the general election.
Other Senate primary races where incumbents are facing opponents with current or previous legislative experience:
• District 7, Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, faces Rep. Jon Woods, R-Springdale. The winner faces Democrat Diana Gonzales Worthen of Springdale on Nov. 6.
• District 25, Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, faces Rep. Efram Elliott, D-Altheimer. There is no Republican challenger.
The other Senate races pitting current or former legislators against each other are:
• District 15, state Rep. Ed Garner, R-Maumelle, faces state Rep. David Sanders, R-Little Rock. The winner faces former state Rep. Johnny Hoyt, D-Morrilton, in the general election.
• District 26, Rep. Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, faces former state Reps. Johnnie Bolin, D-Crossett, and Gregg Reep, D-Warren. The winner faces Republican Mike Akin of Monticello in the general election.
• District 27, Rep. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan, faces Rep. Garry L. Smith, D-Camden. The winner faces Republican Henry L. Frisby II in the general election.