Unger challenges Lundstrum in District 87

SILOAM SPRINGS -- Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, faces her second opponent and first Democratic challenger in Kelly Scott Unger of Siloam Springs.

Unger is an attorney who lives and works in Siloam Springs. Lundstrum is a real estate manager who was a long-time campaign worker and manager before running for office. Lundstrum seeks her third term.

The needs of Siloam Springs and those of Northwest Arkansas towns along the Interstate 49 corridor are not same and need more emphasis, Unger said.

Lundstrum said she has proven her effectiveness in representing the whole district.

House District 87 stretches from Thompson Street in Springdale in the east to the Oklahoma border on the west, taking in most of Elm Springs, Tontitown and Siloam Springs. The district is heavily Republican, both candidates said. Early voting begins Monday for the Nov. 6 election.

"It's a conservative district, and I'm a conservative representative who's done the job," Lundstrum said. All parts of the district, but particularly Siloam Springs, are business-oriented. Lundstrum said as a business manager she understands the district's issues and is willing and able to talk in detail with constituents to further that understanding.

A conservative agenda and the needs of Siloam Springs greatly overlap, but the overlap is not perfect, Unger said. In particular, Arkansas legislation allows tax-exempt savings accounts meant for college savings to be used on private elementary and secondary education. This, in effect, takes money away from the Siloam Springs School District, she said.

Siloam Springs has a great downtown, Unger said. It needs other kinds of infrastructure that benefit both downtowns and rural areas of the district -- such as utilities -- in addition to the interstate bypass project the Legislature tends to support, she said.

Lundstrum said she takes pride in her efforts to streamline government and cut down on regulations. In particular, she was the leading House sponsor of Act 734 of 2017, which reduced unemployment benefits for workers and the taxes on employers who pay for those benefits. The act greatly shored up the financial viability of the state's unemployment insurance system and even organized labor supported much of the plan, she said. That is the kind of important but not flashy work she does, Lundstrum said.

Health care is the issue where the candidates showed the most difference. Lundstrum has opposed the "Arkansas Works" health care plan, previously called the Private Option, which takes federal Medicaid expansion taxpayer money to subsidize private health insurance. Lundstrum said she will likely go along with the plan in the future because work requirements and other changes were added and the simple fact that it is already implemented.

"We're stuck with it," she said.

Unger's personal experience with health care made her question how anyone who was not an attorney who had strong finances can cope with the system.

"My father was diagnosed with cancer at age 63, two years before the magical age of 65 when he would have been eligible for Medicare," Unger said. The experience was an eye-opener for her on the needless complexity and expense of the health care system, she said. She had to leave work for months to deal with the matter full time, she said.

"I remember there was one time he needed a procedure, but it was an out-patient one," Unger said. "He was in the hospital at the time. So they would not move him through the double doors from the in-patient area to the out-patient area to do it."

State House members serve two-year terms and have an annual salary of $39,400.

NW News on 10/16/2018