Washington County Justice of the Peace Sharon Lloyd plans to challenge state Sen. Jon Woods of Springdale in the March 1 Republican primary, Lloyd confirmed Thursday afternoon.
Woods has served in the state Senate since 2013 after serving in the state House of Representatives from 2007-13. Lloyd, a teacher, has served on the Washington County Quorum Court since her appointment by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson earlier this year.
Woods has voted to fund the state private option that uses federal dollars to purchase private health insurance for some low-income Arkansans -- a program that has divided Republicans.
Lloyd said she opposes the private option.
One of Lloyd's supporters, Fayetteville attorney Brenda Vassaur Taylor, said she is hoping for more Republican legislative primaries in which "smaller government" and ending the private option are the focus.
Woods said that "I'm against kicking people off their private insurance."
A legislative task force is studying the possibility of creating a program to replace the private option, which is set to expire at the end of 2016, and other changes in the state's Medicaid program. Woods said he wants to see what the task force proposes.
"I will support what is best for the people and what's [the] most efficient way to approach making our healthcare system work more efficiently," Woods said in a written statement.
He sponsored what's now Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution that was approved by voters in November. It extends the time lawmakers may serve in the Arkansas General Assembly, bars state officials from receiving certain gifts from lobbyists, prohibits corporations and unions from contributing directly to state officials, and created a citizens commission that more than doubled state lawmakers' salaries.
But Lloyd said that "I do not like how it was placed on the ballot and believe that the people did not understand what they were voting on when it was passed in November 2014."
"I am against the extension of term limits, believe that salary increases should have been voted on by legislators, and believe that most of the ethics changes have been less than effective, especially when adding the bill that was passed this last session to amend Amendment 94 regarding ethics, etc.," she said.
Lloyd acknowledged in her written statement that she told her friends and other Washington County Republican Committee members Tuesday night "of my intention to run."
"The current senator for [Senate District] 7 was not there, which is consistent with his usual habit of not attending. I received a resounding applause ... perhaps that is due to my long standing proven commitment to the Republican Party, its values, and principles," she said.
Lloyd said she's running so that the people in her Senate district will "be heard and represented in Little Rock."
She said that she has "lived in Arkansas and Texas over the past 20 years (all in Arkansas except 2003-11 in Texarkana [Texas]). We have been back in Springdale since August 2011."
Lloyd said her top priorities will be "reducing the size of government, returning control of education to the state and local school boards, [and] holding elected officials and our government bureaucracy accountable."
But Woods said in his written statement that Lloyd "moved to Springdale just a couple of years ago" from Texarkana, Texas.
"She was appointed to fill a vacant JP seat as a political appointment and not as someone that the community leaders requested," he said.
"I felt she was unqualified and irrational," he said, asserting that she clashed with then-House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, several years ago."I view her as a liability and polarizing and funded by special interest groups.
"I'm also proud to have the endorsement of the governor and mayor of Springdale."
Asked whether Hutchinson is supporting Woods over Lloyd, Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said that "the governor will make announcements on endorsements from time to time as the campaign season begins."
"He is not making any announcements [Thursday]," Davis said.
Davis already has said that the governor is supporting Republican Sens. Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot and John Cooper of Jonesboro, two lawmakers who some private-option opponents have been seeking opponents for in the primary.
Authorized under the federal 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and approved by the Legislature in 2013, the expansion of the state's Medicaid program extended eligibility to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four.
The state will have to pick up 5 percent of the private option's cost starting in 2017, and its share of the bill will gradually increase until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.
Metro on 07/24/2015