Republicans won four out of five general election contests for Washington County offices last week, offering clear evidence of just how much the political base has shifted in the county.
In recent memory, no more than two Republicans have held key, full-time county government oft ces at the same time. For decades, there has been one Republican oft ceholder or none.
That’s vastly diff erent from neighboring Benton County, where Republicans have held all or most of the county oftces since the mid-1980s.
Republican infl uence isn’t exactly new to Washington County, where voters have backed Republican candidates for federal oft ces, the state Legislature and the local Quorum Court. The turnover in courthouse jobs is new and notable, partly because the Washington County Republican Party fielded so many candidates but mostly because of their collective success.
The fi ve oft ces that were decided in this year’s elections — assessor, collector, treasurer, county clerk and circuit clerk — are not high-profi le jobs and the people who hold them are not exactly household names. That’s all the more evidence that this year’s vote for countywide oft ces included some of that generic “R” voting that helped put more Republicans than usual into state constitutional oft ces in the 2010 elections.
Again, four of the fi ve went to Republicans.
Keep in mind that what Republicans will or won’t do with these oft ces in county government is separate from what the election results say about local political preferences. Truth be told, partisanship has little role in how any of these largely clerical, task-specifi c oft ces functions. The point is that generic “R” candidates in Washington County seem to have fared well, much the way that generic “D” candidates did traditionally.
Two years ago, for the first time since the 1970s, Washington County voters elected two Republicans to courthouse oft ces. Briefl y in the mid-70s, both the county judge and county sheriff were Republicans.
In the next term, two Republican incumbents — County Collector David Ruff , first elected in 2000, and Assessor Jeff Williams, who won in 2010 — will be returning. The two new Republican oft ceholders will be Becky Lewallen and Kyle Sylvester, who will respectively be county clerk and circuit clerk. The sitting clerks are retiring and did not seek re-election.
The remaining contested countywide oft ce went to long-time Treasurer Roger Haney, a courthouse fi xture for decades. Haney, who served as the appointed assistant county administrator for 20 years until his 1998 election as treasurer, had never been challenged.
His tenure has, in fact, followed a pattern set long ago in Arkansas county government. Endorsed by his Democratic predecessor in the oftce, he won election and quietly performed the duties of the oft ce, never attracting controversy or opposition.
Many, many county oftcials have been elected to such lower-profi le oft ces and remained there with little or no opposition for multiple terms, some for decades. Some county judges and sheriff s, too, have had similarly long service, although the nature of their jobs was more likely to prompt challenges along the way.
Notably, neither County Judge Marilyn Edwards nor County Sheriff Tim Helder, both Democrats, drew opposition this year. Republicans chose not to test either of these higherprofi le oft cials.
The rest of the traditional, full-time elected positions seldom draw interest from anyone other than people who work in the courthouses. The people who have run have usually been recruited to seek what have been career jobs for most with one hand-picked successor following another.
In Washington County, for example, the new county clerk was endorsed by the sitting clerk, who was similarly endorsed by her predecessor, who was endorsed by her predecessor, who was endorsed by hers, too. The string likely extends even further back, but these transitions illustrate the practice.
The diff erence here is that those other clerks, who served over the last half century, were all Democrats and the new one is a Republican, who will likely hire similarly minded people to work for her and will at some point recruit her successor, too.
Chances are, unless Democrats reclaim their foothold in the Washington County electorate, more and more of the future county oftceholders will come from Republican ranks.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A
FREELANCE COLUMNIST. EMAIL
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS TO