All three candidates vying to represent Arkansas' 1st Congressional District say they're frustrated by federal spending and budget deficits.
Republican incumbent Rick Crawford of Jonesboro said the nation's debt, now nearly $18 trillion, is alarming and made worse by a budgeting process that is out of whack.
Libertarian Brian Willhite, a schoolteacher in Des Arc, said he thinks the national deficit is inexcusable and that some agencies, such as the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education, should be scrapped altogether.
Jackie McPherson, a Democrat and mayor of Heber Springs, said the growing debt is the product of "gridlock" in Washington, D.C., and he wants to eliminate government waste and make programs more efficient. Such changes, he says, could save "trillions" in the long run.
While they agree there's a problem, the three men vying to represent eastern and northeastern Arkansas disagree about how to solve it.
Crawford, a former sergeant in the U.S. Army and founder of AgWatch, a farmer radio news network, wants to move forward with a balanced budget amendment that would force Congress to spend within its means as well as change the law so that the creation of any new entitlement spending would require a two-thirds vote.
"The problem is is that everyone believes they're underfunded. ... There needs to be a full accounting of what agencies can do and what they can't," Crawford said. "Permanent spending controls are the key to putting us on firmer fiscal footing."
In a debate in Conway on Friday, McPherson voiced support for a balanced budget but thought it should be implemented gradually.
The tourist town mayor is also the founder and manager of a restaurant in Heber Springs and said his approach toward federal spending would be no different from the one he uses in his business and in running his town: scrutinizing expenses line by line.
"We need to look at every single line item and every single agency and get it [ to be] as effective as possible," he said.
Willhite is worried not only about his four children, but the kids he teaches every day in Des Arc and the future they're bound to inherit.
"We're growing government for government's sake," he said.
For Willhite, it's his first campaign and an effort to take on a two-party system that he blames for leading the country close to financial ruin.
For McPherson, who served on the Heber Springs City Council before being elected mayor, the stakes of the race come down to the need for greater bipartisanship and the end of a series of fiscal cliffs, shutdown threats and legislative standoffs that result in nothing.
"It's never been worse as it is right now [in Washington, D.C.,] as far as things getting done," McPherson said. "We have to send people to Washington willing to work across the aisle."
Crawford, McPherson said, "has voted the way [party leaders] told him to vote."
McPherson is critical of many of Crawford's past votes, including his support for the recently passed farm bill. According to McPherson, the bill hurt Arkansans and benefited farmers in the upper Midwest, yet it's something that Crawford takes credit for helping to pass.
By eliminating direct payments to farmers, the new farm bill, which passed earlier this year, took $244 million out of Arkansas and another $1 billion in related economic output, McPherson said.
Crawford said that the farm bill changes were greatly needed and that the law was a great example of his ability to work with Democrats.
The measure enjoyed bipartisan support.
With two more years of an Obama presidency, Crawford said he'd continue to combat what he sees as unreasonable regulatory standards that affect Arkansas businesses and farmers.
"I think we're on the wrong track. The administration has taken the country in the direction it's never been before," Crawford said. "The president promised he would fundamentally change the country, and he has failed to do that."
Willhite is for a less-regulated free market. He also thinks the government has no right to outlaw drugs or limit gun rights.
Crawford made history with his 2010 win, becoming the first Republican to hold the office since Reconstruction.
Arkansas State University political science professor William McLean said that 10 years ago, a Republican holding the office for two terms would never have seemed possible.
But voter identity and party alignment in northeast Arkansas, as well as population drops in Democratic-leaning counties in the Delta, have put the 1st District in line with others in Arkansas' gradual transition toward Republican candidates.
"It's part of a larger trend [in the South] that Arkansas was late to the party on," McLean said. "We are always going that way. People were Republicans. They just didn't know it yet."
McPherson said the change didn't give him pause. A self-professed conservative Democrat with Christian values, he thinks his message of expanding the middle class and investing in education will yield fruit.
"Not all Democrats are ultra-liberal-style San Francisco Democrats. I'm an Arkansas Democrat," he said.
Metro on 10/19/2014