Leding leads in Senate race

Long-serving House member set to take Lindsey’s position

Denise Garner, the winner of the House District 84 race, gets a hug Tuesday from Greg Leding, who was elected to the state Senate’s District 4 seat, during a watch party at Farrell’s Lounge in Fayetteville. Garner defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Charlie Collins.
Denise Garner, the winner of the House District 84 race, gets a hug Tuesday from Greg Leding, who was elected to the state Senate’s District 4 seat, during a watch party at Farrell’s Lounge in Fayetteville. Garner defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Charlie Collins.

Rep. Greg Leding opened up a commanding lead in early vote results Tuesday in his bid to hang on to Fayetteville’s state Senate District 4 seat for the Democrats.

His challenger was Republican newcomer Dawn Clemence.

Winning would give a rare victory in Northwest Arkansas for Democrats running in Senate races. No district changed party hands in the predominately Republican region.

In the Leding-Clemence race, sitting Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, didn’t run for re-election. The district includes almost all of Fayetteville and Farmington, all of Greenland and small portions of West Fork and Prairie Grove. It includes much of rural, eastern Washington County.

The early, unofficial vote totals were:

Leding 9,740 . . . . . . . . . . . . (67%) Clemence 4,778 . . . . . . . . (33%)

Leding, 40, is a self-employed Web and graphic designer. He said previously he doesn’t presume he can fully replace Lindsey, but believes his legislative experience is a big asset.

“No one in the House has served longer than I have, and I’ve served longer than a third of the members of the Senate,” Leding said. Leding also served one term as House minority leader for the Democrats.

Clemence, 55, said before the election Leding has served Democratic causes more than district ones. She would be less partisan and more results-oriented, she said.

“I’m a pragmatist,” said Clemence, who is a saleswoman for a pharmaceutical company. “I’m not a righty or a lefty. My opponent seems proud to be left of the Democrats at the Capitol.”

Leding said he worked with notably conservative Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, on landowner protection measures and other issues. He’s able to work with conservatives in the Northwest Arkansas delegation effectively while still representing one of the most Democratic House districts in the state, he said.

SENATE DISTRICT 3

Incumbent state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, a Republican, defeated the first Democratic opponent she had faced in her career representing District 3.

Former Benton County Circuit Judge Jon Comstock, 68, a Democrat, said previously Bledsoe had gone unchallenged too long.

The complete but unofficial vote totals were:

Bledsoe . . . . . . . . 13,838 (63%) Comstock . . . . . . . 8,218 (37%)

Bledsoe, 74, said when she announced, before Comstock entered the race, this would be her third and last term if re-elected.

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 during the campaign she s the more conservative match for the district. She 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.

SENATE DISTRICT 5

State Rep. Bob Ballinger was leading two opponents Tuesday night to claim the seat for Senate District 5, retaining the Senate slot for Republicans. He succeeds Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who Ballinger defeated in the GOP primary in May. He was prevailing over Democrat Jim Wallace and Libertarian Lee Evans on Tuesday.

The unofficial vote totals for early and absentee voting were:

Ballinger . . . . . . . . 3,793 (56%) Wallace . . . . . . . . . 2,793 (41%) Evans..............215 (3%)

Senate District 5 includes Madison County, most of Carroll and Crawford counties and parts of Franklin, Johnson and Washington counties.

A lawyer with the Story Law Firm in Fayetteville, Ballinger, 44, was a co-sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed voters to cap lawsuit damages and attorneys’ fees. The state Supreme Court ruled the proposal unconstitutional last month.

SENATE DISTRICT 8

State Rep. Mathew Pitsch, a Republican, was winning the Senate District 8 seat Tuesday night originally vacated by state Sen. Jake Files, who resigned from the Senate in February after pleading guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud, money laundering and bank fraud.

William Hyman, a Libertarian and Fort Smith attorney, also lost in a special election this summer to fill Files’ unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31.

With 41 of 67 precincts reporting, unofficial vote totals were:

Pitsch . . . . . . . . . 10,797 (77%) Hyman. . . . . . . . . 3,269 (23%)

Pitsch was second in a three-man primary May 22 for the Republican nomination for the new District 8 term., but won in the runoff.

District 8 covers part of Sebastian County. It includes part of Fort Smith, and Greenwood, Hackett and Bonanza.

Pitsch, 54, is executive director of the Western Arkansas Intermodal Association. He has served in the House since 2015 and was the House Republican leader during the previous two years.

He lost a 2012 state House race but regained the seat in 2014.

SENATE DISTRICT 17

State Sen. Scott Flippo, a Republican of Bull Shoals, was defeating Kevin Vornheder, a Libertarian of Mountain Home, to retain his seat in Senate District 17.

With 11 of 55 precincts reporting, unofficial vote totals were:

Flippo. . . . . . . . . . 5,083 (80%) Vornheder . . . . . 1,250 (20%)

The district includes parts of northern Boone, Marion and Baxter counties.

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