DeLay sets announcement schedule for 3rd District bid

It would appear that Fort Smith attorney Gunner DeLay will formally announce Wednesday his entry into Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District race.

DeLay issued a press advisory Monday saying on Wednesday (Feb. 24) he would make “an announcement concerning his intentions for the upcoming election to replace US Representative John Boozman.” The Fort Smith announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Riverfront Amphitheater (west end), and DeLay will be announce in Fayetteville at Noon near outside the Student Union Building on the University of Arkansas campus.

DeLay will begin the day in Russellville at 8 a.m. and end the day at a 5:30 p.m. announcement in Harrison. If DeLay is not entering the race, he is certainly going to great lengths to bow out.

This will not be DeLay’s first attempt at the 3rd District seat. He and Boozman were part of a four-person GOP primary in the 2001 special election to replace Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson was appointed by Pres. George W. Bush as director of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The election placed DeLay second behind Boozman.

DeLay also was elected to represent Fort Smith in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1995 to 1998, and in the Arkansas Senate from 1999 to 2003. DeLay lost to Dustin McDaniel in the 2006 general election race for Arkansas Attorney General.

DeLay was appointed in late November 2006 to an interim term as prosecuting attorney for the 12th Judicial District. DeLay replaced Steve Tabor who was appointed to circuit judge.

The crowded GOP primary for the 3rd District now includes:
• State Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers;
• Gunner DeLay of Fort Smith;
• Steve Lowry of Springdale
• Kurt Maddox of Gravette
• Boone County Judge Mike Moore;
• Bernard Skoch of Elkins; and,
• Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.

Bledsoe was endorsed Monday (Feb. 22) by former 3rd District Congressman Asa Hutchinson.

“I have no comment on Asa’s endorsement of Senator Bledsoe. The only endorsement I care about is the endorsement of the people of the Third District on May 18th,” DeLay said when asked about the Bledsoe-Hutchinson alliance.

Also rumored to be considering the race on the GOP side are State Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, State Rep. Jonathan Barnett, R-Siloam Spring, Benton County Judge David Bisbee, and State Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, and John Arthur Hammerschmidt of Harrison.

David Whitaker, former assistant city attorney for Fayetteville, is the lone Democrat to enter the race.