FAYETTEVILLE -- The new Republican candidate for Washington County judge said Friday he plans to take time off from his job in Little Rock when needed to run his campaign.
Joseph K. Wood lives in Fayetteville, but works in Little Rock as assistant secretary of state. A judge ruled Tuesday that Wood could be substituted by Republicans on the Nov. 8 general election ballot in place of state Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale, who pulled out of the race.
"I'll be taking personal time to do my campaign," Wood said. "A lot of the campaign stuff will be after hours and on the weekends so it doesn't impact my job. I've got a lot of work I'm doing with the secretary's office that I still have to do. That'll be work and when I need to take my personal time, I'll put that in and it'll be personal time."
Wood is facing Mark Kinion, a Fayetteville alderman and Democrat, for the position. Kinion said Friday he opted to take time off from his job as a loan officer at Bank of Arkansas to focus full time on his campaign.
"I couldn't care the least about what he does in his campaign," Kinion said. "The responsible thing for me to do, personally, was to take a leave of absence from the bank and from the corporate world and run full time, and that's what I've been doing."
Judge John Lineberger ruled during a hearing Tuesday that Neal dropped out of the county judge race to move out of the county. He also said Republicans followed proper procedure in requesting a convention to elect a county judge nominee. Wood was chosen to replace Neal as the nominee during the Aug. 4 convention.
Washington County Democrats filed a lawsuit Aug. 2 to stop Republicans from nominating a replacement and to keep Washington County from putting his name on the ballot.
Democrats argued during the hearing Neal's reason for leaving the race didn't fulfill state law requirements to allow another nominee. Arkansas Code 7-7-104 says a party can nominate or have a special election to fill a vacated ballot position if the withdrawing candidate: dies, has a serious illness, moves out of the area or files for another position.
Democrats vowed to appeal Lineberger's ruling.
NW News on 08/13/2016