Two candidates with lots of name recognition are fighting for the Arkansas House District 35 seat of term-limited Democrat Rep. John Edwards.
Republican Stacy Hurst, a veteran of the Little Rock Board of Directors, is facing off against Democrat Clarke Tucker, a Little Rock business attorney and son of real estate developer Rett Tucker. Hurst is the marketing manager of husband Howard Hurst's flower shop, Tipton & Hurst.
The district includes the affluent Heights neighborhood of Little Rock, stretches along the Arkansas River through the Pinnacle Mountain and Roland areas and snakes down a thin corridor along the east side of Interstate 430 to Markham Street. The area has been a longstanding Democratic stronghold.
As the state's Republican Party has gained traction-- becoming the majority party in the Legislature in 2012 for the first time since Reconstruction -- party leaders are hoping a self-proclaimed moderate Republican might draw enough votes to win the seat.
Democrats are still counting the district in their column. The two candidates agree on many policy issues, but the race has devolved into personal attacks against both candidates.
Both candidates also have accumulated six-figure coffers -- more than $266,000 for Hurst and $181,000 for Tucker -- and have started running television and radio ads.
Both Hurst, 52, and Tucker, 33, support the Legislature's private option Medicaid expansion plan, approved by the Legislature last year. It extends coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 170,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health insurance through the program.
The two also support expanding access to pre-kindergarten programs, increasing job training and workforce development programs and increasing prison space for violent offenders.
The candidates plan to take different paths to get to those goals, however.
"I'm supportive of the private option and with 200,000 people on it now, we have an obligation to see if it will work," Hurst said. "It sounds like it is. I think we do have to be responsible about monitoring it, looking at the long-term costs and tweaking it if necessary."
Tucker said he's interested in protecting the private option during what is sure to be another round of heated debates and negotiations in the 2015 session.
"I strongly support that. The first priority is to make sure it's in place next year," Tucker said. "But beyond that, is making sure in the negotiations to continue the program, as much of the program as possible is protected in meeting that threshold of [needed votes to reauthorize the program]."
Both candidates said they had ideas on how to address prison overcrowding that has forced many state prisoners to be housed in county jail facilities. The Legislature will consider a request from the Arkansas Board of Corrections in the next session to build a $100 million maximum security prison to relieve some of the overcrowding.
Tucker said he would like to also look at increasing drug courts and intervention programs.
"We need to have enough prison space for all violent criminals in Arkansas. If someone commits a crime that is related to drug use that is nonviolent, then the focus needs to be on rehabilitation," he said. "We have a high recidivism rate in Arkansas and we can do a better job of making sure when someone gets out of prison that they are ready to rejoin society in a productive way through job training."
Hurst said her experience on the Board of Directors for the past 12 years led her to develop a "crime plan" that involves increased funding for parole and probation programs, better reimbursement for counties housing state inmates in their facilities and more money to monitor prisoners.
"There are changes that need to be made at the state level, I believe, in order to effectively reduce crime in our community," she said. "If people do not feel safe in their homes, that is a real issue."
Hurst said she also hopes to increase job and workforce development training for ex-felons.
In addition, she hopes to increase pre-kindergarten programs and school choice options for parents to "have a meaningful way to hold schools accountable."
Tucker has made expanding pre-kindergarten a large part of his platform. He has said about 50 percent of students in Arkansas have the chance to enroll in pre-kindergarten programs, partly based on where they live and whether they can afford the available options.
"I don't think that's right," he said. "I want to make sure we take care of all of our children. I want to expand pre-K, so that every four-year-old in the state has the opportunity to attend a pre-K program."
Pre-kindergarten was also one of the points in the race that turned personal.
The Republican Party of Arkansas, with input from Hurst's campaign, filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with the Little Rock School District to get information on Tucker's efforts to enroll his son in a pre-kindergarten program at Forest Park Elementary School. Tucker, who was not offered a spot at the school and eventually enrolled his son in a private pre-kindergarten program, said during a teary press conference that the FOIA requests inappropriately put his son in the spotlight and took the campaign too far.
Prior to the press conference, Tucker had sent a flyer to constituents that featured a picture of his son and a story about the Tuckers' experience enrolling their son in pre-kindergarten.
Hurst said previously that she had requested the information after hearing complaints from other parents in the school district who were also on the waiting list wanting to make sure the process was being handled fairly.
"[It] only became an issue after my opponent held a press conference to discuss it. I didn't release the response to the request, nor did I discuss them," Hurst said on Thursday. "I did not make that an issue in this campaign, he did. Just this week my opponent conducted a push poll asking if people were aware that I had investigated the records of a 4-year-old. That was done just this week, and included at least one other negative question."
Tucker said he's disappointed by the race's tone because he and Hurst have known each other for years.
"I thought they went over the line, but I'm ready to move forward and address the issues in this campaign," Tucker said. "We're driving toward new lows to turn people off from the political process."
Tucker said he had heard from residents that an anonymous mailer, printed in red, black and white, making accusations that he had represented a violent criminal in court, made its way to mailboxes around the district last week.
The mailer included a fake return address and didn't reveal who paid for it or produced it.
Tucker said he has defended one criminal case in his career, a man Tucker said was caught shoplifting an item worth $9.99 from a Kmart. The man got into a confrontation with store security and the charges were upgraded to robbery and terroristic threatening. Tucker said he took the case pro bono and met with the man once before representing him at an arraignment where he pleaded guilty.
Hurst said she was the victim of a misleading flier from the Democratic Party of Arkansas in July and her campaign was not responsible for the new mailer.
"I didn't have anything to do with the flier. My opponent has spent a lot of time blaming me for various things," she said.
Both said they're ready to get back to the issues in the race, Hurst focusing on her experience in political office and as a small-business owner and Tucker on the value of his legal background if elected to the Legislature.
Metro on 10/05/2014