The Republican candidates for Congress in the 2nd and 4th congressional districts squared off in two Saturday debates sponsored by the Arkansas Federation of Young Republicans.
In the 2nd District debate, retired Col. Conrad Reynolds of Conway and state Rep. Ann Clemmer of Benton sharply criticized the other Republican in the race, Little Rock banker French Hill, for backing Democratic candidates after Hill described himself as a lifelong Republican who has raised a lot of money for Republican candidates.
In the 4th District forum, businessman Tommy Moll and state Rep. Bruce Westerman - both of Hot Springs - debated their anti-Obamacare credentials.
The candidates in the 2nd District hope to replace U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Little Rock, who is running for lieutenant governor after serving in Congress since 2011.
Hill, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Bank who was a senior economic policy adviser to President George H.W. Bush, said he’s running because the federal government “is out of control and the career politicians are bankrupting our country.”
“It is time, in my judgment, to send a business leader to Washington with pragmatic experience to attack these problems and do something to put us on the right track,” Hill said.
But Reynolds, who served 29 years in the U.S. Army and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010, said the threeway Republican race boils down “who can you trust.”
“The last thing we need in Washington, D.C., is another mouthpiece for the wealthy and the Washington elite. We need to see the man who is from Main Street, not Wall Street,” he said.
Reynolds said he’s a loyal Republican who never financed a Democratic candidate’s campaign and never advocated a tax increase.
Clemmer said she has a clear conservative record and led the fight in the state House of Representatives to ban most abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy in 2013.
She said she wants to cut taxes, slash federal government spending and repeal the healthcare law.
“It is easy for someone like French to say he is a Democrat or a Republican,” Clemmer said. “But public records prove that he has voted for and given money to Democrats. As someone who has worked hard to build this party, that offends me.”
Reynolds criticized Clemmer for voting to fund an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program in 2013. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which some call “Obamacare,” provided the funds. This year, Clemmervoted against funding the socalled private option, which gives government-funded private health-insurance policies to poor Arkansans.
Clemmer said she voted last year for legislation to fund the state Department of Human Services, adding that the private option “was but a small part” of the bill.
But since the 2013 session, President Barack Obama changed many provisions of the federal health-care law enacted in 2010, including the employer mandate, through a stroke of his pen, and she “voted no every time the private option came back up [in 2014],” she said.
Clemmer said she’s bothered by Hill and Delta Trust & Bank collectively giving $2,250 in campaign contributions in 2009 to then-state Democratic Treasurer Martha Shoffner and the state investing $23 million in Delta Trust & Bank after that.
“That is the kind thing that is going in Washington now: fat cats scratching each other’s back while government spending is skyrocketing,” she said.
Clemmer asked Hill whether he’s sorry that he gave Shoffner money during her unopposed campaign for state treasurer in 2010. Shoffner, who was caught on camera accepting bribes, was convicted last month of 14 extortion and bribery charges.
Hill said he has done more than either Clemmer or Reynolds to build the Republican Party in Arkansas, noting that he headed Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee’s transition team.
“In regards to Martha Shoffner, I am disgusted by her performance and her abuse of trust of the Arkansas people,” he said.
Reynolds said Hill has signed the Americans for Tax Reform anti-tax-increase pledge but spearheaded a 2011 campaign for Little Rock voters to pass a $500 million sales-tax increase.
Reynolds also criticized Hill for encouraging the city to build a sidewalk from Hill’s neighborhood to a nearby restaurant district.
Hill said he’s running for the 2nd Congressional District - not the Little Rock City Council- and he has a 30-year track record of working to try to lower federal taxes.
Hill said that the sidewalk might never get built, adding: “Don’t get your panties in a wad about it.”
The winner will face the lone Democratic candidate, former North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays. Libertarian Debbie Standiford is also running.
After that debate wrapped up, the 4th District congressional candidates took the stage.
Westerman and Moll gave similar answers to questions or said they agreed with their opponent’s responses on the environment, jobs and deficit spending. The candidates, however, distinguished themselves when it came time to ask each other questions.
Westerman, 46, asked Moll when he moved to Hot Springs and noted that Moll had cast several absentee ballots and voted in at least one Democratic contest.
Moll, 31, said that he and his wife had recently moved to Hot Springs, but aren’t newcomers to the Natural State, even though they spent years on the East Coast.
“I’ve been in the 4th district about a year now, and I can tell you for my wife, Meredith, and for me, Arkansas always has been our home and it always will be our home,” Moll said, adding that both of their families had lived in the district for six generations.
Moll defended his vote in a Democratic primary run-off by saying that if voters wanted a voice in recent Arkansas political history, they had to consider voting in the Democratic primary because the party controlled much of state government.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 04/20/2014