Fayetteville's Leding Running For Re-Election

Seeks Third Term in Downtown District

Friday, November 1, 2013

FAYETTEVILLE — Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, will run for re-election. His reasons include the desire to protect the state’s “private option” plan to expand health care and to pass legislation held back while health care reform absorbed much of his attention, he said.

Leding is the House Minority Leader, the top party spot among the 48 Democrats in the state House. Leding represents House District 86, which he describes as the “heart of Fayetteville.” He is also a member of the House Public Health Committee.

Profile

Greg Leding, Democrat

Arkansas House District 86

(Incumbent)

Age: 35

Residency: Fayetteville

Family: Wife, Emily

Employment: Self-employed Web and graphic designer

Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, University of Arkansas

Military Experience: None

Political Experience: State House of Representatives, 2011-current

Both his party role and committee membership bound him closely to efforts to pass the bill.

“If an appropriation for it came up today, we wouldn’t have the votes, but I’m confident we will when the time comes,” Leding said of the private option. The bill faces an appropriation vote in the upcoming fiscal session early next year. The General Assembly meets every year, but only considers budget matters in even-numbered years.

Appropriating money for the plan requires a super-majority vote of at least 75 of the 100 House members each time.

Several Republicans who voted for the bill face primary challenges, some in statewide races in 2014, Leding said. The prospect of controversy in Republican primaries and problems with federal health care reform means that an appropriation vote can’t be taken for granted, he said.

The private option plan uses federal health care reform dollars to subsidize private insurance for lower income Arkansans who make too much money to qualify for programs like Medicaid. Unlike much of the rest of the federal Affordable Care Act, states aren't required to abide by the expansion. It requires state-by-state approval.

“The more negative press the ACA receives the more difficult it becomes for some who assume the private option and the ACA are the same thing,” Leding said.

Legislation to give businesses a “one-stop shopping” website for registering their business with all relevant state agencies was pushed back in the regular session, Leding said. That is a bill he favored, along with a central, multi-agency website for all state regulations, he said.

He wants to return to those issues. He also wants to play a role in finding a “permanent fix” to help the struggling health insurance system for state public school employees, he said.

Leding will also support changes in how the Speaker of the House is elected, he said. “What happened to Terry shouldn’t happen to anyone,” he said, referring to Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron. Rice was the choice of Republicans to be the Speaker of the House in an early vote.

He was not acceptable to Democrats, who supported Rep. Darrin Williams, D-North Little Rock. When Republicans later gained the majority after the 2012 election, Democrats put their support behind rival Republican Rep. Davy Carter, R-Cabot, after Williams dropped out.

All that would have been avoided if the first vote had not been taken until after the election, when party standing was clear, Leding said.

With 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent, majority party status could easily shift again in the next election, Leding said.