First District Congress: Rockwell Out

For the past six months, northeast Arkansas businessman Steve Rockwell publicly flirted with running for Congress against incumbent Rick Crawford.

Rockwell visited with various leaders locally and and in DC, exploring the possibility of running for office.  Yesterday, he made his official announcement – he’s not running.

This is second time that Rockwell considered running for Congress.  When Marion Berry announced his retirement in early 2010, Rockwell also considered jumping in the race, but ultimately did not.   Rockwell told the press yesterday he believed he could have won, but now was not the right time to run.

Currently, there are only two announced Democratic candidates in the 1st Congressional District, State Rep. Clark Hall of Marvell and ASU economics professor Gary Latanich.