ROGERS -- Incumbent state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, has a Democratic opponent for the first time in her Senate career.
Former Benton County Circuit Judge Jon Comstock is challenging Bledsoe's bid for a third term. Bledsoe said when she announced, before Comstock entered the race, this would be her last term if re-elected.
State Senate
District 3
Cecile Bledsoe (R)
(Incumbent)
Age: 74
Residency: Rogers; resident of district for 40 years
Employment: Retired assistant office manager for a surgery clinic; full-time lawmaker
Education: Bachelor’s degree in journalism, University of Georgia
Political Experience: Arkansas House, 1999-2003; Senate, 2009 to present.
Jon Comstock (D)
Age: 68
Residency: Rogers; resident of district since 2008
Employment: Mediator, Jon Comstock Conflict Resolution Services
Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science, Oklahoma State University; law degree, University of Tulsa
Political Experience: Benton County Circuit Judge, appointed, 2011 through 2012.
Senate District 3 goes from the Missouri border on the north to northern Springdale in the south. It almost surrounds Beaver Lake on the east and extends through Rogers on the west. It includes all of Bethel Heights, Pea Ridge, Avoca and Gateway plus an eastern portion of Lowell.
Bledsoe said she's the more conservative match for the district and cited her experience. Bledsoe first won election to the House in 1998 and served three terms there, returning to run for the Senate in 2008. She cited her record on lowering taxes and on crafting a telemedicine bill, which she said will be of particular value to rural Arkansans.
Comstock said Bledsoe had gone unchallenged too long.
"A combination of things led me to consider it, including the fact that a two-party system is important," Comstock said. "Every time she has run for Senate, there has been no primary and then no opponent in the general election.
"She's been a huge critic of Arkansas Works," Comstock said, referring to the the state's health care plan that accepts federal taxpayer money to subsidize private insurance policies for low-income Arkansans. "She's been a hard 'no' on that plan."
Repeal of the measure would be "a disaster" for health care for all Arkansans and for rural hospitals in particular, he said.
Bledsoe's opposition in principle to accepting federal taxpayer dollars under health care reform passed by Congress in 2010 is no secret to voters in her district and she has had their support, the senator said.
Bledsoe is chairwoman of the Senate's Public Health Committee. Her husband, Jim, is a surgeon who now works for the state Department of Health and son Greg is the state's surgeon general. That isn't appropriate, Comstock said. Bledsoe countered her family members are more than qualified for the positions they hold.
Comstock criticized Bledsoe's decision in years past to provide some state General Improvement Fund grants to Ecclesia College in Springdale, a private religious school. The school was later found to be paying kickbacks to other lawmakers in return for larger grants, but Bledsoe was never implicated in the scandal.
Bledsoe said she supports the work study college concept used by Ecclesia in which students can work off much of their tuition while going to the college, leaving with little or no debt. Ecclesia is the only such work study college in the state.
Comstock said the grants were a bad idea on their face. The state Supreme Court last year found the whole system of lawmakers steering grants unconstitutional.
NW News on 10/20/2018