Political fighting pulls boy into fray

Pre-K bid fodder in House contest

A candidate's 4-year-old son has taken center stage in the race for Arkansas House District 35 in Little Rock.

In a mailer earlier this month, Democratic candidate Clarke Tucker described his family's experience trying to place their son, Ellis, in the Little Rock School District's preschool education program.

The Republican Party filed a handful of Freedom of Information Act requests related to that account. At least one request was filed before the mailer arrived in thousands of mailboxes.

Tucker said the family applied for placement in the Forest Park and Fair Park programs and was denied a spot in April. After being placed on a waiting list, the Tuckers said they decided to enroll their son at Episcopal Collegiate School.

They were then notified on Aug. 13, a week before school was to start, that a spot had opened up at Fair Park, which they declined to accept. Tucker said during a tearful news conference that he didn't want to make a last-minute change because it might be unsettling for his small child.

The requests and the mailer have ruffled feathers on both sides in the race between Tucker and Republican opponent Little Rock Board of Directors member Stacy Hurst. Tucker alleges that the requests are digging too far into his family's private life.

"Stacy Hurst believes it's acceptable to launch an investigation into my family even before I mentioned them in a campaign piece to play gotcha politics in a manner that degrades the process," he said. "They were monitoring or investigating the status of our 4-year-old before we ever mentioned him in a campaign piece and that is unacceptable."

Tucker, a lawyer specializing in Freedom of Information issues, said his family found it suspicious that the information requests began before the mailer was sent out. Hurst said there had been enough talk in the community that she had been curious about the matter.

Hurst and the Republican Party contend that the research was part of an appropriate vetting process because of concerns that constituents had taken to Hurst about whether Tucker's family had sought special treatment in the preschool enrollment process.

"In my view, this is not about their child. It's about another misleading claim from Clarke Tucker," Hurst said. "I had heard from Forest Park parents that the Tuckers were very upset about not getting a slot at Forest Park and were making a big deal about it with school officials. Parents were worried that the proper procedures weren't being followed."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained the correspondence requested by the Republican Party of Arkansas in three Freedom of Information requests filed with the Little Rock School District. The requests asked for all correspondence between Tucker, his wife Toni Tucker, his wife's parents Sandra and Scooter Register -- who are district employees -- School Board member Leslie Fisken, and district employees Teresa Ketcher and Freddie Fields.

In at least one email, Tucker's father-in-law, Central High School football coach Scooter Register, asks for a meeting with the superintendent as soon as possible and mentions the family's history with public education in Little Rock.

"We are not asking for favors, but [to] not be granted either of his two choices is very disturbing to us as well as his parents and his other grandparents," Scooter Register wrote in an email to Superintendent Dexter Suggs on May 2. "I usually don't get involved but it seems there has been a huge injustice made. His father's grandfather was President of the LRSD School Board during the 1957 [desegregation] Crisis. He helped guide and lead the district during that historical time in our country."

Megan Tollett, executive director of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said Thursday that judging from the information released, it appeared that Tucker's mailer was not truthful.

"We believe political candidates' public records are open for scrutiny. We are conducting background research in all races where our nominee has an opponent and Clarke Tucker is no different," she said. "A few weeks ago, Mr. Tucker sent out a mailer with inaccurate facts about Stacy Hurst's positions on key issues. He then sent another mailer claiming that he was denied pre-k when records clearly show that was just not the case. ... Now, he wants to manufacture an outrage when he is held accountable."

Tollett said the party had filed Freedom of Information Act requests about Tucker with other agencies, but she declined to name them, saying only that the Little Rock School District requests were made in collaboration with Hurst's campaign.

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission confirmed that the party had sent it a Freedom of Information Act request regarding Tucker's father, developer Rett Tucker. The letter appeared on the Arkansas Times blog late Thursday.

In an email from district employee Karen James to Suggs, she writes that she offered to look into a spot at a different school for the family in May, but the family declined. Tucker said Thursday that neither he nor his wife remembered having that conversation.

Tucker said the family received an offer for their second choice school on Aug. 13, when the mailer had already been sent to the printer. He said he felt that the mailer, which said they "received a letter early this summer" denying admittance, was still truthful and still valid, even if an offer was subsequently made.

Hurst disagreed.

"He confirmed that they were offered a spot in August. He could have pulled the mailer," Hurst said. "I do believe it's untruthful."

Metro on 08/29/2014

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