Candidate-filing week begins today in state

Lines expected to be long at Capitol

Monday, February 24, 2014

Workers at the state Capitol began hanging red, white and blue bunting around the rotunda Friday, preparing for the onslaught of candidates expected today to officially file for federal and state offices.

The filing period for most candidates begins at noon and lasts through noon March 3. A change in state election laws passed by the Legislature in 2013 made prosecutors’ races nonpartisan and moved the filing for judicial and prosecutorial candidates to 3 p.m. today through 3 p.m. March 3.

Alex Reed, spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin, said the office is in the midst of preparations for the filing period when hundreds of candidates typically line up around the Capitol rotunda to pay their party or nonpartisan filing fees and submit their candidate paperwork.

“Our busiest days are always the first day,” he said Friday. “Tuesday is a little less busy, and the third day is less busy than that. It kind of plateaus, and then the last day we see a large uptick in last-minute filings of people who were waiting to see who else entered a race.”

Reed added that independent candidates who do not file with political parties can turn in their required signature petitions today through March 3 to file for office.

The lines are expected to be long this year because all four of the state’s congressional House seats and one U.S. Senate seat are up for re-election.

Multiple candidates from both parties have announced their intentions to seek the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton. Cotton, a Republican, has announced that he is running against U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat.

Also, several candidates have expressed interest in the 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, who has announced that he will not seek re-election. The district covers central Arkansas. Griffin has announced that he plans to seek the state GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

Seven state constitutional offices will be on this year’s ballot. Because of term limits and resignations, voters will be choosing a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer.

State auditor, land commissioner and secretary of state will also be on the ballot.

Eighteen state Senate seats and all 100 House seats will be on the ballot, including 25 House seats in which incumbents are term-limited and must leave office. House members are allowed to serve three two-year terms under state law.

Races without incumbents generally draw more candidates, party officials said.

“There can be some surprise candidates during the filing period, as well, a lot of times on the last day after potential candidates have seen who else has filed for the race they’re interested in,” said Republican Party of Arkansas spokesman Holly Wilson.

The majority of the high-profile Republican candidates, particularly those running for federal offices, will likely file on Monday, she said. Federal office incumbents generally file on Mondays in order to get back to Washington, D.C., to participate in votes Tuesday, she said.

According to Wilson, her party has a good shot of holding onto the majority in the state House and Senate, which it gained two years ago for the first time since Reconstruction.

“We have a lot of great candidates lined up,” she said.

Lizzy Price, spokesman for the Arkansas Democratic Party, said state Democrats will be looking to take back the House and possibly the Senate in the November general election. Democrats hold 48 of 100 House seats and 13 of 35 Senate seats.

“It’s going to be a hard fight, but we absolutely have a shot to take back both [chambers],” she said. “We’re prepared to work really hard, and we have great candidates at the top of the ticket, which can only help the great candidates we have down ticket.”

Price said there will be Democratic candidates in all of the major races, and there could be additional candidates who file at the last moment.

“I know that there are some Democrats who still haven’t made up their minds, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” she said.

In the nonpartisan judicial races, three Arkansas Supreme Court seats will be up for grabs, four court of appeals positions, five district court positions and 100 circuit court seats. Also, all 28 of the state’s prosecutors will run in nonpartisan races in the May primary.

Fifteen prosecutor and 75 judge candidates filed for office through petitions, collecting a set number of signatures to avoid paying the state Board of Elections’ nonpartisan filing fee. All other candidates for those races, who can file starting today, will pay the filing fee - between 3 and 6 percent of the elected position’s annual salary.

Reed said the petition filing process for prosecutorial candidates went smoothly during its first year under the new system.

“We’ve been running filing like this for judges for a long time, so the process is familiar, and there are far fewer prosecutor races than judicial races, so it really has gone smoothly,” he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/24/2014