In two Northwest Arkansas state Senate races in which legislative experience was a common denominator, returns Tuesday night showed state Sen. Bruce Holland was the apparent winner in a race against state Rep. Tracy Pennartz in District 9, and state Rep. Gary Stubblefield appeared to be beating former House member John Paul Wells in District 6.
With 108 of 115 precincts reporting, unofficial results for state Senate District 6 were: Stubblefield . . . . . . . . . 13,764 Wells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,037
With 80 of 85 precincts reporting, unofficial results for state Senate District 9 were: Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11,623 Pennartz . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,354
All 135 House and Senate seats were up for election this year because ofredistricting, which is done after each decennial census.
In District 6, both contenders came to the race with experience after serving in the state House of Representatives.
Stubblefield, R-Branch, is a cattle farmer who’s serving his first term in the House.
Shortly after 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, when Stubblefield was leading with most precincts reporting, he wasn’t ready to call it.
“Sure, I feel like we’re going to win, I really do,” he said. “But until you get the boxes counted, I mean - no one knows.”
In campaigning, Stubblefield said he felt a kinship with the voters.
“I worked very hard to meet as many of those people as I could face to face,” he said. “I’m a farmer, and a lot of this district is a rural district.”
Wells, a Democrat and furniture-store owner from Paris, served in the House from 2005-10.
Stubblefield previously said that if elected he would file two bills in the Senate next year that he had filed in the House. Both bills died in House committees during the past regular session of the Legislature.
House Bill 2057 would have required a plaintiff to pay a defendant’s reasonable costs if a court found a lawsuit to be frivolous. The other measure was House Bill 1684, which would have provided a sales-tax exemption for materials used to package animal feed products. It would have included twine used to wrap hay bales.
“That’s animal feed, and it just shouldn’t be taxed,” Stubblefield said before the election.
Wells said before the election that he was running for Senate because he enjoyed serving in the House. After serving three terms, he was term-limited.
Wells promised to work to attract jobs to Arkansas and his Senate district if elected, saying he had served on the Logan County Industrial Development Commission for 15 yearsand on a similar commission serving Franklin and Logan counties.
The District 9 race also featured two candidates with previous legislative experience: Holland, R-Greenwood, and Pennartz, D-Fort Smith.
Holland, a cattle farmer and small-business owner, is serving his first two-year term in the state Senate.
Shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Holland was confident the race was in the bag.
“It should be a good solid win,” Holland said. “The early vote in Scott County was about 2-to-1 in my favor.”
Pennartz, owner of a health-care consulting and management firm, has served three two-year terms in the House and was termlimited.
Both candidates pointed to their rural credentials and a desire to bolster economic development in the Arkansas River Valley.
Holland had said voters should choose him because he could better relate with constituents in the mostly rural Senate district.
“I would consider myself much more connected with the rural parts of this district than she would be,” he said. “There’s a big difference between growing up in rural Arkansas and making a living from the land.”
Pennartz, who grew up on her family’s farm near Charleston, disagreed.
“I think my background is well-suited to this newly created Senate District 9,” she said. “My values I believe are reflective of the people’s values in the district. I worked in the cornfields helping my mother and my family on our farm.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/07/2012