Collins-Garner race passes $250,000 mark

Candidates in the state House District 84 race in east Fayetteville have spent a quarter of a million dollars, campaign finance reports show.

Democratic challenger Denise Garner's campaign has raised $152,227 and spent $139,007 as of Oct. 27, according to the latest tally given in a report filed Tuesday.

Incumbent Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, reported raising $102,818 and spending $117,890 by Oct. 27, with the spending amount adding non-monetary contributions such as host services for fundraising events and voter outreach efforts by the state Republican Party, records show. His latest report was also filed Tuesday.

For comparison, the two candidates in Washington County's state Senate District 4 -- a district three times the size of House districts -- have raised a combined $80,687. Secretary of state records show Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, has raised $43,042 -- a figure Leding said Wednesday was too low. His opponent, Republican Dawn Clemence, has collected $37,645 by Oct. 27, records show. Leding said his campaign's actual total is $63,224.

The two candidates in Benton County's state Senate District 3 race reported raising a combined total of $184,549.

"The reality is that I view my campaigns as an 'all of the above' approach," Collins said. It requires just as much door-to-door retail campaigning as other Arkansas House districts, but also takes more such as advertising, he said.

"My hypothesis is that the most recent redistricting has a lot to do with it," Collins said regarding the district's campaigning costs. "Since that time, it is more difficult for a Republican to win it."

Most legislative districts are either safely Republican or safely Democratic, he said. House District 84 is neither, he said.

Garner, also of Fayetteville, said the expense of the district's campaign shows the need for further campaign finance reform.

"It breaks my heart. We are spending this much because we needed to," Garner said. "We tried to do as much as we could with people power, but found we had to spend more."

There are nine state House races in Tuesday's elections where the candidates are residents of Benton or Washington County. Out of those 18 candidates, only three besides Collins and Garner reported raising more than $60,000.

Incumbent Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, reported raising $107,488, but has spent only $42,467 in her race against Democratic challenger Kelly Scott Unger in District 87. Unger has raised $50,217 and spent $47,889.

In Bentonville's House District 93 race, first-time candidate and Democratic nominee Gayatri Agnew reported raising $99,296 to the $68,691 of incumbent Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville. In spending, though, those two candidates are almost equal. Agnew reported spending $79,183 to Dotson's $77,947, thanks largely to $17,429 in non-monetary contributions to Dotson such as campaign assistance by the state Republican Party.

Collins has represented District 84 since his first election in 2010. He said this year's spending is in line with his spending in previous years starting with the 2012 election. He reported spending almost $108,000 in 2014, the last time he had a Democratic challenger.

Legislative district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years, after each U.S. Census, to ensure an equal number of constituents in each House and Senate district. Exceptions have been allowed in the past to increase minority representation by federal court order, but in principle each district is supposed to have, as closely as possible, exactly as many people living in each of them after redistricting is done.

That redistricting is done by the state Board of Apportionment. Under the state constitution, that board consists of the governor, the attorney general and the secretary of state. In 2011, all those offices were held by Democrats. Whether all those offices are held by Republicans in 2020 depends on the Nov. 6 election's results.

"The district was drawn in 2011 to make it more difficult for a Republican to win it," Collins said.

In this year's race, though, Garner had a different impression.

"It seems pretty red to me," Garner said when asked about the district's partisan makeup, red being the color shown for Republican districts on most election maps. "I have found a lot of voters who no longer identify with the national Republican Party. National politics are not the same as local politics."

Also, the district has grown and many new arrivals are "a little more progressive," she said.

Collins' top donor is himself, according to campaign records. He has put $39,400 into his race. Individual contributions, including his own, make up $62,215 of his campaign's donations. Another $32,368 come from political action committees and the remaining balance comes from business organizations, small donations that are not itemized and party support.

Garner's individual contributions make up $134,368 of her campaign funds reported to date with another $14,889 coming from non-itemized individual donations. Another $2,170 comes from political action committees and $800 from business organizations.

NW News on 11/01/2018