BENTONVILLE — Bill Burckart, 48, businessman and city council member, will challenge incumbent Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, in the Republican primary for the District 93 state House seat.

The district covers much of Bentonville, where Burckart grew up. “I want to represent my home town,” Burckart said Thursday to a crowd of at least 60 supporters gathered at the town square. He said the representative of Bentonville should not “go to Little Rock to help file 1,500 or 2,000 bills” but work to improve the area’s economy.

“We need to make our city and state environment more conducive to business,” Burckart said. He was announcing his campaign now so he would have months to visit with constituents and formulate a plan to do that, he said. Lawmakers need to talk to business owners and find out what inhibits their growth that government can change, he said. “We don’t need to talk just to big businesses, but those businesses like those around this square that employ 10 or 15 people,” he said.

“People are going outside this region and even this country to fill jobs,” Burckart said. He would also emphasize education to make sure that the state’s residents can fill any job brought here. “Not just white-collar jobs, but skilled worker jobs are what we need,” he said.

Burckart is president of a construction company and former state president of the Arkansas Homebuilders Association. That trade group works closely with the Legislature and helped in the drafting of legislation, he said. As president, he’s appeared before legislative committees in testimony about bills, he said.

Burckart was elected to Bentonville's City Council in 2008. While there, he has emphasized budget growth needs to be strictly controlled and a city surplus be maintained.

Asked why he was challenging Dotson, Burckart said: “When you’re elected state representative for a city, all the people in it deserve representation, not just those who share your conservative views.” Burckart said he was a proven conservative but one who would be more focused on growing jobs in the city and the state. “This is my hometown and I want to represent all of my hometown, not just a few.”

Dotson said Thursday he’s had an “open door” policy throughout his term to date. “I am a conservative and I will not apologize for it,” Dotson said.

Dotson is one of 23 state House members who voted against the “private option” expansion of health care coverage. Burckart said he would have preferred a more market-oriented approach to health care reform, especially a system where people could buy health insurance across state lines. “I do not, in any way, shape or form, support the fiasco that is Obamacare,” he said.