Democrats Support Incentives for Business

Three Democrats vying for Arkansas’ vacated 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives said more tax incentive programs are needed for business.

The party front-runner, State Rep. Jo Carson, D-Fort Smith, said she’s especially interested in programs that would aide infrastructure and intermodal transportation projects in Northwest Arkansas.

Former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson was recently appointed by the Bush Administration to head the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Gov. Mike Huckabee set Nov. 20 for a special election to fill the vacated House seat.

Carson led the Democrats in fund raising through the June 30 midyear reporting period. She had raised $90,264, followed by State Rep. Mike Hathorn, D-Huntsville with $78,622 and businessman Bill Williams of Bella Vista with $5,000. Carson had contributed an additional $12,000 to her war chest.

The last Democrat to win the seat was Jim Trimble in 1964. All three candidates said that since nearly 90 percent of the district’s elected county and city officials are Democrats, it shows voters are ready for change.

The following is a brief glance at the Democratic candidates. Profiles of the four Republicans in the race were published in our last issue and may be viewed by searching our archives at www.nwabusinessjournal.com.

State Rep. Jo Carson

Lawyer

Jo Carson Attorney at Law

Fort Smith

State Rep. Jo Carson, D-Fort Smith, taught from 1985-87 at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School. Unfortunately for her opponents, she taught debate.

“Teaching in the public school gave me a couple of perspectives,” Carson said. “For one, I was surprised at the good salary I made. Unfortunately, what I made there 15 years ago still compares favorably to what teachers are paid now.”

Carson, 46, was elected to the state House in 1998, and again in 2000. Twenty-eight of the 31 bills that she was lead sponsor for passed. She’s chaired committees on “children and youth,” and “military affairs,” and was selected one of the most affective legislators by numerous publications and organizations.

A mother of three and wife of 28 years to Doug Carson, the Fort Smith lawyer initiated an intermodal transportation study for Northwest Arkansas in the last legislative session. She’s vocal about economic development projects that could help Arkansas’ small railroad companies and river ports. She hopes the study will help find a funding mechanism.

Born in Norman, Okla., Carson moved to Arkansas in the mid-1950s and has lived in the state for 42 years. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1981 and worked briefly in the retail sector.

Carson said, “character is as character does,” but that every person makes mistakes. She said it’s far more important for the campaign to focus on Northwest Arkansas’ most pressing issue — growth. Infrastructure concerns such as water and sewer systems must be dealt with now, so that local business and neighborhoods can continue to grow, she said.

Quality of life issues include the quality of education, Carson said. It’s exciting to read that more businesses are looking for new kinds of leaders that don’t necessarily fit the Type “A” manager mold, she said. Carson is for making the work visa process more efficient, and thinks workers compensation should be addressed in a level-headed way that labor and business can both live with.

She was in the sixth grade the last time a Democrat won this seat.

Mike Hathorn

Lawyer

Mike Hathorn Attorney at Law

Huntsville

A lawyer with a modest cattle operation on his grandfather’s 123-acre homestead near Kingston, Mike Hathorn is the youngest candidate in the race. But age didn’t stop Hathorn, 27, from winning District 24’s state House seat in 1998 when he was still a senior at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Hathorn was elected that November, graduated from law school in December, served in the 1999 winter session and passed the bar that July. It’s a good thing, because he became chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee.

Hathorn is an avid hunter and defender of the Second Amendment. He co-sponsored and helped pass a bill that prevents liable suits against firearms manufacturers for the “irresponsible acts” of gun users.

Hathorn wouldn’t advocate the use of U.S. troops along the border to curb the flow of immigrants from Mexico. But he’s very opposed to President Bush’s plan to grant amnesty to the 3 million illegal aliens already in the United States.

A UA graduate (in political science) and former intern for U.S. Sen. David Pryor, D-Arkansas, Hathorn is the vice chair of the 3rd Congressional District Caucus. That traditionally means he’ll chair the group at 2003’s session, if he doesn’t make it to Washington.

He previously was a partner at Garrett and Hathorn in Huntsville until starting a private practice this year. Hathorn said character is an issue in every race because people have to trust who’s representing them.

He has received 51 endorsements from current and former state legislators, including all of the Democrats in the 3rd District except for opponent Jo Carson and Jan Judy, D-Fayetteville. Hathorn said he supports tax incentives that would stimulate business and the economy. He said “infrastructure concerns” my be addressed for local businesses to continue growing, but that “health care” is the biggest issue facing the 3rd District.

He is married to the former Amanda Peacock, 25.

Norman F. Bill Williams Jr.

Technical partner

The B. Williams Group

Bella Vista

Born in Jackson, Miss., during World War II, Bill Williams said he could have played a number of parts in the recent film, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”

The entrepreneur’s wit and worldly experiences make him more the “horse sense” candidate than a dark horse. Williams said not only does a Democrat actually have a real shot at winning, he’s convinced it’s a cinch because his party’s view is “positive” and its vision is “forward.”

“I’ve learned that it’s easier to pull a long chain than to push one,” Williams said.

“The relationship of government and business should be like that. Tax incentives help businesses move, but we don’t need government to be a partner.”

Williams, 57, owns The Inn at Bella Vista bed-and-breakfast with his wife, Beverly. He grew up in Little Rock and graduated from Hall High School before attending the University of Arkansas and UALR.

Williams covered the 1968 National Democratic Convention as a television photographer for KARK-TV in Little Rock. From Feb. 1975 to July 1981, he served as a patrolman and detective with the Little Rock Police Department.

For the last 20 years, Williams has done contract computer programming work. During 1996 and 1997, he was a retail vendor to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for Hewlett Packard, and from 1993-95 his B. Williams Group managed a $2 million account that meant $12 billion in revenue to AT&T.

He considers amnesty for illegal immigrants an insult to “honest” people. But Williams said the two loudest voices on that issue are those who seek to “inflame the worst instincts in people” and those “trying to pander to immigrants being inconvenienced by current law.”

“Character, not scandal,” Williams said, should always be an issue for candidates.

He also likes to fly airplanes, fly fish and said he’s a good a machine shop welder.