SPRINGDALE — Attendees at an Arkansas Farm Bureau conference last week couldn’t say who they favor as Oklahoma’s next governor, but they are rooting against one candidate.
“I hope it’s not Drew Edmondson,” said Gene Pharr, who raises chickens on his farm near Lincoln for George’s, a Springdale poultry company. “But I haven’t really kept up with the race over there.”
A governor’s race rarely draws attention in neighboring states, but people associated with Arkansas poultry companies know Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary in Oklahoma includes Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
In the primary, Edmondson faces Jari Askins, the state’s lieutenant governor. Polls show their race is close, said Bill Shapard Jr., the Sooner Poll’s chief executive officer.
The winner will face one of four Republicans in November’s general election: Mary Fallin, Randy Brogdon, Robert Hubbard or Roger Jackson. The Sooner Poll shows Fallin, a U.S. representative, is a heavy favorite in the primary.
“Most people in most states probably don’t care who the neighboring governor is, but they should,” said Janine Parry, a University of Arkansas associate professor and director of the Arkansas Poll. “In this case, where we have a longstanding conflict between the attorney general in one state and the major industry in the other, it’s a case where that’s especially true.”
Marvin Childers, president of The Poultry Federation, a Little Rock-based organization representing poultry companies in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, said the industry has paid attention to Edmondson’s bid for higher office.
“The attacks he’s made on the poultry industry put us in the position to recognize the importance of who the governor over there is,” Childers said.
Edmondson’s contentious relationship with Arkansas began in March 2002 after he expressed interest in suing Arkansas poultry companies, accusing them of polluting Oklahoma rivers.
In 2005, Edmondson filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the state against Springdale-based Tyson Foods, George’s and other poultrycompanies.
Edmondson said the companies were responsible for polluting the Illinois River watershed with bird manure that poultry farmers workingwith the companies use to fertilize crops. The manure contains phosphorus, a nutrient that runoff can carry from farm fields into streams,where it can degrade water quality.
During a 50-day trial that ended in February, Edmondson claimed the companies violated state and federal laws. The federal judge who heard the case hasn’t ruled.
The lawsuit hasn’t been a key issue on the campaign trail in the Oklahoma governor’s race, Shapard said.
“You know what? There aren’t a whole lot of environmentalists in this state,” Shapard said. “We want clean air and water, but when you ask about the oil and gas industry, they favor protecting the oil and gas industry.
“The Illinois River watershed case is a moot issue now. It’s probably because of the economy and things going on in Washington. Those are the things crowding people’s minds in Oklahoma.”
Edmondson and Askins declined to answer questions about the lawsuit or say whether Edmondson’s run for governor should matter to Arkansans.
Shapard said people who live in western Oklahoma aren’t likely to know about the Illinois River lawsuit or Edmondson’s role in it. People in eastern Oklahoma are familiar with it because the river, with its headwaters near Fayetteville, is nearby.
It’s similar in Arkansas, where people in the eastern part of the state know less about the lawsuit than those in Northwest Arkansas, said Steve Eddington, a spokesman for the Arkansas Farm Bureau.
“(Farmers in Northwest Arkansas) understand the pain he’s tried to bring on them,” Eddington said.
Dan Douglas, an Arkansas cattle rancher who lives less than a mile from the Oklahoma line near Maysville, said Edmondson’s race for governor has his attention.
“I can tell you anybody running for governor is better than him,” Douglas said. “He’s not shown he’s interested in true facts, sound science or listening to reason.”
Science was abundant during the trial.
Oklahoma’s experts evaluated how phosphorus leached from fields, blaming high phosphorus in rivers on poultry manure’s use as a crop fertilizer. The state also paid a Tulsa geochemist to study lake sediment, and he determined the amounts of phosphorus, zinc, copper and arsenic at the bottom of Lake Tenkiller showed it stems from chicken and turkey manure.
The poultry companies agreed with none of those findings. They said Oklahoma failed to show how phosphorus in poultry manure moves from specific fields to streams and then Lake Tenkiller. The companies’ expert witnesses described the difficulty of blaming farm-raised turkeys and chickens for the phosphorus when thousands of cattle, sheep, goats, ducks, wild turkeys and deer also live in the 1-million-acre watershed.
Arkansas poultry companies’ financial interest in the Oklahoma governor’s race has been minimal so far, but they have contributed money to Scott Pruitt, a Republican running for Oklahoma attorney general who heads into Tuesday’s primary against Oklahoma City attorney Ryan Leonard.
Campaign finance disclosure reports filed last week with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission show Pruitt received contributions from people connected to the Arkansas poultry companies. They included John Tyson, the Tyson Foods chairman, $5,000; Don Tyson, former president and CEO of Tyson Foods, $2,500; Jim Blair, former Tyson Foods general counsel, $2,500; Nancy Blair, Jim Blair’s wife, $2,500; and Mark Simmons, chairman of Siloam Springs-based Simmons Foods, $1,000.
The Tysons, Nancy Blair and Simmons declined comment about why they support Pruitt. Jim Blair could not be reached for comment.
Some of those same people - Simmons, Don Tyson, the Blairs and others connected to the poultry companies - contributed a total of $32,000 in 2006 to James Dunn, a Republican who ran against Edmondson in that year’s attorney general’s race.
Dunn said he’d drop the federal lawsuit if elected, but he lost to Edmondson.
Tyler Laughlin, Pruitt’s campaign manager, said Pruitt has made no similar promise. Rather, he has “an open mind” about the lawsuit, Laughlin said.
Leonard’s contributions include $5,950 from attorneys who work for Riggs Abney, a Tulsa law firm that helped Oklahoma with its lawsuit against the poultry companies.
Leonard told The Associated Press that he would continue pursuing the federal lawsuit.
Tuesday’s winner takes on Oklahoma City attorney Jim Priest, a Democrat, in November’s general election for attorney general.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 21 on 07/25/2010