House rejects nonpartisan prosecutor, June judicial runoff

House members rejected a bill Monday that would have created nonpartisan elections for prosecuting attorneys.

House Bill 1412 by Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, would have also moved the date of the nonpartisan judicial runoff election from November to June.

House members defeated the bill 50 votes against and 40 votes in favor. Currently, Arkansas’ 28 prosecuting attorneys run either as members of a political party, as write-ins or petition to get on the ballot.

Shepherd, an attorney, said after the vote that he may bring the bill back for reconsideration.

“Prosecuting attorneys enforce the law. There should be no difference between a Republican prosecutor or a Democrat prosecutor or a Green Party prosecutor or an Independent prosecutor,” he said. “They have some degree of prosecutorial discretion ... but I think it’s important to promote the integrity of our judicial system.”

The Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association supports the bill. The association’s state coordinator, BobMcMahan, said he polled members and a majority of the state’s prosecuting attorneys favor the change.

Rep. Nate Steel, D-Nashville, said prosecutors are in a powerful position to initiate investigations or issue subpoenas and shouldn’t approach cases from a partisan perspective.

“It’s not something we need to be playing around with,” Steel said. “There’s no sound policy reason that prosecutors should be partisan.”

Steel is a deputy prosecuting attorney in the 9th District.

Steel said resistance to the change comes from the state’s political parties, which he said don’t want to lose the $7,500 filing fee they receive from each candidate.

“They stand to lose a lot of filing fees over this,” he said.

Under the bill, filing fees paid by prosecuting attorneys would instead go to the Nonpartisan Filing Fee Fund, which helps cover the cost of elections in Arkansas.

The bill would set aside $100,000 for the Trial Court Administrative Assistant Fund.

Republican Party of Arkansas spokesman David Ray said the party is comfortable with the current system. The Democratic Party of Arkansas spokesman Candace Martin said the party isn’t taking an official position on the bill.

Shepherd said there are 21 prosecuting attorneys who identify as Democrats, five who ran as Republicans, one who petitioned to get on the ballot and one who was a write-in.

Judges and justices have run in nonpartisan elections since voters approved Amendment 80 to the Arkansas Constitution in 2000.

The bill would also shorten the time between the judicial primary and runoff elections.

The judicial primary is the same day as the partisan primary in May, but while partisan elections have their runoff election a few weeks later in June, the nonpartisan judicial runoff is held on the same dayas the general election in November.

Rep. Patti Julian, D-North Little Rock, pointed to low turnout in the June partisan runoff election, compared to the number of voters who come to the polls in November. She is a retired attorney.

For example, 3.5 percent of registered voters came out for the June 2012 partisan runoff election. About 67 percent of voters came out for the November 2012 general election and non-partisan judicial runoff.

Shepherd said with so many partisan races on the November ballot, judicial races have a better chance of not being overlooked in June.

The Arkansas Judicial Council voted Monday not to take a position on the bill. Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, J.D. Gingerich, said the council hadn’t had a chance to poll judges, but knew there was no consensus.

“We’re probably all over the board and it’s better for this to be an individual judge issue,” Gingerich said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/26/2013

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