The City Wire endorsement: Steve Womack

Editor’s note: The City Wire is endorsing candidates in the Democratic and GOP primaries for the U.S. Senate; the GOP primary for the 3rd Congressional District; and the GOP primary races for Arkansas Senate District 13, Arkansas House District 63 and Arkansas House District 64. Link here for our endorsements in the U.S. Senate primaries.

3rd Congressional District — GOP primary
If you’re looking to hitch your wagon to the likely winner in the eight-person GOP primary for the 3rd Congressional District, we recommend you vote for Steve Womack. And to be tepidly unequivocal, he’s our choice.

But we could live with this Bernard Skoch fella. He offers interesting recipes for a new Washington menu of ideas, and doesn’t come across as Ross-Perot crazy (although if he had bigger ears he’d be a great Ross Perot look-alike). If you feel the urge to vote against the machine, Skoch would suffice.

But let’s return to our endorsement of Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.

To be honest, this endorsement has been downgraded from solid to not-quite-as-solid based on the May 4 revelation that Womack used his city office and computer to engage in campaign-related activities.

With that full disclosure out of the way, we believe Womack is the most qualified to represent the 3rd District in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives. He has managed a family business, worked in the private sector as a financial consultant, served more than 30 years in the Arkansas Army National Guard and has been mayor for more than 10 years of the booming city of Rogers located in the middle of the dynamic Northwest Arkansas economy.

Womack has served on boards and commissions ranging from chambers to hospitals to colleges to parks. He’s seen a community from outside and inside an elected office.

One of the knocks against Womack is that he supported Gov. Mike Beebe in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Womack disputes the claim, but so what if he did support Beebe? In almost any other state but Arkansas, Beebe would be a Republican. And we can think of worse things than sending a person to Washington D.C. who knows how to build relationships with proven conservative Democrats.

However, to best build those relationships, we would respectfully request Mayor Womack dial back the hubris and dial up the humility. He’s wound up a bit tight. If he’s not careful, that big stage in Washington could eat him up and limit his effectiveness.

But Womack’s strong self-confidence is, in our estimation, part of a person who has respectable intentions and sincerely believes his experience and skills can help make a positive difference in the socio-economic realities of the 3rd Congressional District.

We are also convinced his combination of real world business experience mixed with his government service — municipal and military — will result in a Congressman with the greatest diversity of leadership skills.

The next few Congressional election cycles could bring big changes to the political makeup of Congress. We’ll need to be mindful to have a representative in place who is not afraid to forcefully — but as graceful as possible — elbow their way into leadership positions. We’re convinced Womack has the elbows and the stomach to survive and help the district thrive in that scenario.