MOUNTAINBURG -- Businessman and rancher Bruce Coleman, 72, on Tuesday became the first candidate to announce for the District 81 state representatives seat being vacated by fellow Republican Justin Harris.
Coleman is a chairman of the Crawford County Election Commission. He said Tuesday he will remain at that post through the Sept. 15 school election, but will resign shortly afterward. Coleman will leave the post since he's now an active candidate in the March 1 partisan primary, he said.
Harris of West Fork announced in June he will not run for re-election after revelations he sent one of his two adopted daughters to live with another family, where the girl was sexually abused. Harris said then there were many factors behind his decision, but he didn't want his presence to remain a distraction in state politics, adding it was time to focus on his family.
District 81 straddles the Washington-Crawford county line and stretches from Alma in the south to Elkins in the north. The primary was moved to March from May by act of the state Legislature this year to coincide with changes in other states' presidential primaries. Candidate filing for the Arkansas primaries begins Nov. 2.
The accelerated election schedule gives the area's Democrats less time to recruit a candidate for the open seat, but Democrats have several prospects in District 81, said Tyler Clark of Fayetteville, Washington County Democratic chairman. The Democrats are in the minority in the House and will try to grasp the opportunity to pick up an open seat, Clark said. The last Democrat to run in the district was Wolf Grulkey of Alma, who ran in 2012 and received 32.7 percent of the vote against Harris, an incumbent.
Coleman and his wife, Mabel, have lived in Mountainburg since 1973, Coleman said. He was born in the county, but left to go to the University of Arkansas and then the University of Wisconsin, he said. He holds a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry and worked for Ralston Purina feed company before moving back to Mountainburg.
"I'm living about four miles from where I was born," he said.
The Colemans owned and operated the Coleman Butane Gas Co. and C&C Transport Co. in Mountainburg from 1973 until selling the business five years ago, Coleman said.
"I understand how critical small businesses are to our economy because I operated a successful small business for over 30 years," the candidate said.
He currently raises cattle and grows hay, he said.
NW News on 08/12/2015