Nearly five months after Jonesboro Democrat Paul Bookout resigned from the state Senate, Jonesboro Republican John Cooper and Jonesboro Democrat Steve Rockwell are dueling in Tuesday’s special election to fill the vacancy.
The special election is the first legislative election subject to the state’s voter-ID law requiring each voter at the polls to submit proof of identify before they are given a ballot.
Rockwell, 59, is an executive of his family’s publishing companies and an adjunct professor of political science at Arkansas State University.He is making his first bid for elected office.
Cooper, 67, is a retired AT&T long distance manager who lost his challenge to state Rep. Butch Wilkins,D-Bono, in 2012.
Bookout resigned Aug. 20 after the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $8,000 for four violations of state ethics laws and a special prosecutor was appointed to review his personal use of more than $53,000 in campaign funds.
The special election in Senate District 21 comes nearly a month before the Republican-controlled Legislature will convene in a fiscal session starting Feb. 10. Lawmakers will consider whether to reauthorize the use of federal Medicaid dollars made available under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to purchase private health insurance for poor Arkansans in the fiscal year starting July 1.
Last year, Bookout voted to authorize the use of federal dollars for the private option as the appropriationbill barely cleared the state Senate with 28 votes - one more than required for approval. The measure narrowly cleared the Republican-controlled House with 77 votes, two more than required for passage.
Rockwell said voters should vote for him because he’ll work in the Senate to help create jobs, grow the economy and improve education, and his business and education experience makes him better prepared than Cooper to represent District 21.
But Cooper said voters should cast their ballots for him because he’s “the mainstream candidate” on economic and social issues andhe best represents the district’s citizens.
Rockwell supports reauthorizing federal funding for the private option, while Cooper opposes it.
Rockwell said he favors reauthorizing that funding because it’s “the right thing to do.” Reauthorization “just makes good business sense,” and Arkansas’ businesses, primarily small businesses, face the prospect of a $38 million annual tax penalty if the Legislature fails to reauthorize funding for the private option, he said.
The funding will help up to 250,000 hard-working Arkansans who don’t make enough money to afford health insurance or are insurable due to their previous conditions, he said.
Rockwell said the private option has “a dramatic effect”on the economic engine in northeast Arkansas, which has 5,000 health-care jobs. While he supports the bipartisan private option in Arkansas that Beebe signed into law, he and Beebe didn’t like the way that the Affordable Care Act was written in Congress, he said.
But Cooper said, “The only taxes being raised are those coming from Obamacare, which Steve Rockwell supports.
“I’m staunchly opposed to the tax increases and penalties that Obamacare placeson businesses in Arkansas,” he said.
Cooper said he believes Arkansas’ private option will boost emergency room visits and costs rather than reduce them, based on a study in Oregon, and become an expensive burden for the state in the future.
The private option in Arkansas will fare no better than the health-care law on the federal level, under which “a lot of rosy projections are turning out to be false,” he said.
The candidates disagree on other issues, too.
Cooper said he wants to freeze net state government spending, increasing spending in some areas and cutting it in others.
Asked whether he wants to freeze spending on public schools, he replied, “I don’t want to say anything specifically to freeze a certain area. I don’t know if that area could be increased or frozen. The bottom line is we need to stop the growth of government.”
Cooper also declined to say whether he favors freezing spending on the colleges and universities, saying he doesn’t want to lose flexibility to make decisions in the Senate.
Nonetheless, he said the state needs to adequately fund the public schools and colleges and universities and “get the best bang for our buck.”
Rockwell said the size of state government should be tied to what’s appropriate for improving education, creating jobs and growing the economy.
He said he opposes freezing state funding for the public schools because “we have to protect public education and make sure public education gets the resources it needs to continue.” He said he opposes freezing state spending on colleges and universities because they are important and Arkansas State University is underfunded.
Rockwell said he wants to make sure that the state’s 1.5 percent sales tax on groceries is ultimately eliminated, while Cooper said he wants to cut state income taxes for retired veterans.
The candidates differ sharply on social issues.
Cooper said he opposes abortion except in the cases of rape and incest and in order to save the life of the mother.
Rockwell said the number of abortions won’t be reduced by the Legislature passing unconstitutional legislation. State laws enacted last year to bar abortions after 12 and 20 weeks of pregnancy will be struck down in the courts and cost the state millions of dollars in court costs to defend, he said. Women with access to prenatal care, good-paying jobs and a good education are less likely to have abortions, he said.
Cooper said he favors traditional marriage between a man and a woman.
Asked his position on whether marriage is between a woman and a woman, Rockwell said, “This is an area where we have too much government. I don’t think government should tell [people] who they can and cannot love.”
Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who is backing Rockwell in the Senate race, said he’s not sure who is going to win Tuesday’s special election.
“A special election is so unpredictable ‘cause all is dependent on who gets their vote out, so handicapping when it’s the only thing that is on the ballot is pretty difficult, so I wouldn’t begin to speculate,” he said.
State Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb of Benton said Cooper will prevail in a close Senate race because “there is no doubt that John Cooper is the candidate who embodies the values of the district, which is anti-Obamacare, pro-life, pro-second amendment and pro less government.”
State Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco of North Little Rock said Rockwell will win in part because Rockwell will work with Beebe to create jobs, while Cooper “creates division wherever he goes.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/13/2014