BETWEEN THE LINES: A Corner Painted Red

— Fayetteville, the closest thing Northwest Arkansas has to a Democratic hotbed now, was responsible for electing the region’s only two Democrats to the House of Representatives this week.

One is Uvalde Lindsey, who escaped challenge. The other is Greg Leding, who won the seat a term-limited Lindsley Smith had held. No Republican ran for either seat.

The third Democrat currently in the region’s House delegation, Jim House, conceded defeat on Thursday after a close loss to Republican Charlie Collins in Tuesday’s election. House had considered asking for a recount but decided against it.

Lindsey and Leding must be grateful not to have drawn Republican challenges; otherwise they, too, might have succumbed to the obvious “R” factor in this last election, even among mostly Fayetteville voters.

The region actually saw five contested legislative races in the general election. Voters elected Republican replacements for termlimited Republicans in two of those and a Republican incumbent silenced an independent opponent.

Voters up here wouldn’t ordinarily turn out any incumbent - even in a term-limited Legislature, maybe especially in a term-limited Legislature. Seniority is hard to come by in Little Rock and, like it or not, seniority still counts.

Ten of the region’s 14 House members will be returning.

Two were term-limited, one ran successfully for higher office.

House got beat. The other incumbents are all going back to the House of Representatives, some with significant seniority.

Northwest Arkansas lays claimto six senators and those 14 House members in the existing Legislature. That should change after redistricting and the next general election; but, for now, six senators and 14 House members come from districts that represent any part of Washington, Benton, Madison and Carroll counties.

Of the senators, two are Democrats and four are Republicans. That, too might have changed this election; but only one area senator, Republican Bill Pritchard of Elkins, was up for re-election. The others - Randy Laverty, Ruth Whitaker, Sue Madison, Cecile Bledsoe and Kim Hendren - all have at least two years remaining in their terms.

On the House side, in the Northwest Arkansas delegation to be seated in January, there will be the two Fayetteville Democrats and a dozen Republicans. All of the House members are up for re-election every two years;

but so many of the region’s representatives were already Republican that this is only a twomember swing in the four-county representation.

Joining Democrats Lindsey and Leding in the House delegation are Republicans Collins and Justin Harris, David Branscum, Bryan King, Jon Woods, Skip Carnine, Duncan Baird, Debra Hobbs, Jonathan Barnett, DonnaHutchinson, Tim Summers and Mary Slinkard.

Broaden the view to the whole 3rd District caucus, however, and there will be additional Republican votes in the delegation - 22 in all - compared to four Democrats. The House is divided into four caucus groups, roughly corresponding to the state’s four congressional districts.

Notably, these Northwest Arkansas Republicans, who are returning for second and third terms, will collectively have more seniority than many of their GOP colleagues as well as the newer Democrats.

Depending on what they do with that experience, their numbers could make a difference for the region. Remember, the whole Republican delegation in the House of Representatives will have at least 44 of the 100 seats, compared to 28 Republican-held seats now. Half of the 2011 Republicans will come from the 3rd District and a dozen from these four counties.

Even the Arkansas Senate, where only a third of the 35 members turn over every two years, saw seven Republican wins in the seven contested races. In all, the Republican force will jump from eight to 15 of the 35 senators.

What this means for the Legislature at large and for this region in particular is all guesswork right now. It will still be a Democratic-majority Legislature and one guided by a popular Democratic governor.

But Republicans will have more than enough strength to stall legislation of just about any stripe and won’t have to pick up all that many moderate Democratic votes to reach a simple majority.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A COLUMNIST FOR NORTHWEST ARKANSAS MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 16 on 11/07/2010

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