FAYETTEVILLE — Governor’s candidate Asa Hutchinson stayed out of the debate over whether the state should expand Medicaid, saying that was for elected leaders to work out and expressing confidence in those leaders.
“I’m going to leave that to the Legislature and governor to work out. I have a lot of confidence in Michael Lamoureux and Davy Carter,” the Republican Senate president and Speaker of the House, Hutchinson said.
He was speaking at a meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Political Animals Club in Fayetteville. Hutchinson praised Gov. Mike Beebe earlier in his remarks, saying the Democrat who defeated him in the 2006 governor’s election had done an outstanding job administering the state.
Debate on the contentious issue about whether to expand Medicaid to 250,000 working poor in Arkansas has followed partisan lines, with Democrats largely in favor and Republicans expressing doubts.
Most of Hutchinson’s talk and most questions from the audience after his prepared remarks was about Hutchinson’s role in school safety. The National Rifle Association asked Hutchinson to lead a review of school safety in the aftermath of shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 students and six staff dead.
Hutchinson agreed on the condition the NRA give him “a blank sheet of paper” and the right to pick his own experts to come up with a comprehensive recommendation. Hutchinson is a former under-secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and owns a security consulting firm based in Little Rock.
Audience members asked Hutchinson if more regular background checks for firearm purchases would be part of his recommendations. Hutchinson said they would. Current rules require background checks for guns bought in stores but make an exception for guns sold at gun shows. Hutchinson said technology had advanced to the point these checks could be made anywhere.
Hutchinson’s review will include consulting child psychologists and other experts in a wide-ranging field of disciplines, he said. One definite recommendation that will be made is for a sophisticated online tool for assessing any school’s security risks through the Internet at no charge to the school, Hutchinson said.
Homeland Security offered a similar system to companies at risk of terrorist attack, he said.
There will not be any recommendation teachers be required to carry a gun, Hutchinson said. His panel will also recommend all decisions relating to school security be left to the discretion of local school boards, he said.
Hutchinson recently confirmed his candidacy as a Republican for governor in 2014. He said Beebe had done an outstanding job in administering the state, having the government stay within its budget and recruiting private industry. Asked by an audience member what the main difference was between him and Beebe, Hutchinson quipped: “He got elected.”
The Republican Party “is not the majority party of Arkansas, so I’m sure there will be a primary race for governor,” Hutchinson said. “I’m not taking anything for granted.”
“This campaign for governor has started earlier than I ever wanted to,” Hutchinson said. “These races are getting longer all the time, to where one stops and another begins.” He expects a governor’s candidate will have to raise at least $5 million to be viable, he said.
Beebe is ineligible to run again because of term limits and the leading Democratic candidate in fundraising, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, recently dropped out of the race after an affair with a Hot Springs attorney came to light.