Brenda Blagg: It's a contest

GOP, Democrats set for battle in Washington County

There will be a race for Washington County judge. At least, that's the situation right now.

Judge John Linebarger ruled recently that Joseph K. Wood, the newly selected Republican replacement candidate, will be on the ballot in November.

Democrats have said they will appeal the local circuit court ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court. But, for now, Wood, who is an assistant to Secretary of State Mark Martin, is the Republican candidate.

He will face Democrat Mark Kinion, who is a Fayetteville alderman, for the post being vacated by Democrat Marilyn Edwards.

State and local Democrats filed suit earlier this month to try to stop the Republicans from nominating Wood and to keep Washington County from putting his name on the ballot.

Chris Burks, general counsel for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said Linebarger's ruling didn't follow fact or state law.

Nevertheless, the judge ruled Republicans could put Wood on the ballot, replacing state Rep. Micah Neal, who dropped out of the race.

Neal, a Springdale restaurant owner, initially said he was leaving the race because of family and business reasons but subsequently leased a house in Benton County. The new residence made him ineligible to be Washington County judge.

Neal's reason for leaving the race fit the criteria to fill the candidate's vacancy under state law, according to Linebarger's ruling.

State law says a political party can nominate or have a special election to fill a vacated ballot position if the withdrawing candidates dies, has a seious illness, moves out of the area or files for another position.

Republicans filled Neal's vacancy when the party's County Convention met Aug. 4 and considered Wood and two other candidates.

Wood defeated state Sen. Jon Woods of Springdale in a convention runoff. Former state Sen. Bill Pritchard of Elkins was eliminated on the first ballot.

Wood, who lives in Fayetteville but works in Little Rock, last week explained how he'll conduct the long-distance campaign. He plans to take time off as needed from his work in Little Rock.

"I'll be taking personal time to do my campaign," Wood said, noting that much of the campaign work will be after hours and on weekends and won't impact his job.

"I've got a lot of work I'm doing with the secretary's office that I still have to do," Wood said. "That'll be work and, when I need to take my personal time, I'll put that in and it'll be personal time."

In the meantime, Kinion is campaigning full time. He has taken a leave of absence from his job as a loan officer at Bank of Arkansas to focus on his campaign.

"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," Kinion said last week.

The contest between the two, assuming the Supreme Court doesn't overrule the local court, will decide who will lead the Washington County government next term.

Also last week, the current Washington County Quorum Court offered a reminder of what the new judge will face.

Edwards will be gone but there could be residual issues with some of the returning court members.

Last week, the justices of the peace who make up the court refused an effort to restart the court's finance committee.

The panel dissolved last year after a dispute between Edwards and court members over its makeup. The court can create (or dissolve) a committee, but the county judge appoints its members.

Now it is budget-making time again and some court members wanted to try to restore the finance panel to facilitate the process.

It didn't happen, so the full 15-member court will be involved in development of the budget as well as its final approval.

Effectively, they are making a cumbersome process more cumbersome.

Maybe it comes down to individual priorities for budgeting, but it sure looks like an absence of trust among the respective court members.

Whatever the reason, that's the environment that will await the new county judge, whether it is Democrat Kinion or Republican Wood.

Commentary on 08/21/2016

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