The City Wire endorsements: J.R. Dallas and Gary Campbell

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, link here for our endorsement in the 3rd District GOP primary, and link here for our endorsement in the Arkansas Senate District 13 race.

• Arkansas House of Representatives — District 63
This race pits newcomer J.R. Dallas with Sen. Denny Altes, who has spent many years in the Arkansas Legislature. The GOP primary is the race in the District because no Democrats filed for the seat.

Despite Altes’ time in Little Rock, we’re supporting Dallas.

Why? For the same reason you pull a quarterback who is unable to get the ball in the end zone and go with anyone else just to see if you can get some spark in the offense. Altes has been going to Little Rock for more than a decade and has little to show for it.

We don’t say the following to be mean-spirited. We say the following because it’s a fact in the halls of Arkansas’ Capitol. And what we say is that Altes is one of the least effective Senators in modern Arkansas political history. He files a lot of bills and opposes a lot of bills, but he’s not come ANYWHERE NEAR the production and respect of folks like Travis Miles, Morril Harriman, Ed Thicksten, Carolyn Pollan and B.G. Hendrix. (And yes, we know Harriman and Thicksten weren’t from Fort Smith, but their leadership pulled together the entire region.)

And we don’t think it’s too much to ask for a Fort Smithian to become a productive and respected member of the Arkansas General Assembly.

Altes has said before that he takes great pride in going to Little Rock and defeating bad legislation. There’s a place for that, but we’re hoping for a legislator with more skills. Dallas referred to a broader mix of legislative skills when he said in his announcement that he wanted to help “put Fort Smith and the River Valley into the political mix on the state level where it rightly belongs.”

Will Dallas be the leader the state’s second-largest city deserves? We’re not sure (who is ever sure of a politician?), but we sure as hell hope so. He pulled together an impressive military career, ending as the commander of the 188th Fighter Wing based in Fort Smith.

Our discussions with Dallas find us much more confident he will do the things Altes has been unable to do in more than a decade. Dallas will build political bridges and guard against government growth while at the same time creating healthy working relationships with Arkansas’ constitutional leadership.

• Arkansas House of Representatives — District 64
Just like the District 63 race, the GOP primary is the race in this District because no Democrats filed for the seat. And the race finds Fort Smith City Director Gary Campbell trying to unseat first-term Rep. Stephanie Malone.

Experience, connections and the lack of anything substantive from Malone in her first term force us to go with Campbell. In the age of term limits, we don’t have time for on-the-job training in the Legislature.

We’ve watched Campbell for about 15 years in his work on the Fort Smith board. And while we’d like to give him an earful for a few of his votes, we can’t ignore the breadth of experience he could potentially bring to the Arkansas Legislature.

The toughest thing to ignore is a side-by-side comparison of Campbell’s experience compared to that of Malone. For a quick review of the comparison, link here to Campbell’s campaign Web site.

OK, so maybe it is odd for us to refer to a candidate’s Web site. But if Campbell’s assessment is 50% in error in Malone’s favor, he still overwhelmingly trumps her background.

Also, Malone has shown poor judgment in the pursuit of an unwavering political philosophy. For example, she voted “Present” on the appropriations bill (SB 438) for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission that included the $50 million quick action closing fund. Gov. Mike Beebe subsequently used the fund to help bring Mitsubishi to Fort Chaffee. Mitsubishi plans to build a $100 million wind-turbine assembly operation and employ up to 400 by early 2012. Prior to the 2009 legislative session, Beebe also used the fund to help bring the $80 million Mars Petcare plant and up to 200 employees to Fort Chaffee.

Malone, employed the the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, voted “Present” based on her objections to a clause in the bill that included “The Minority Business Loan Mobilization Revolving Fund.” The fund is used to promote development of minority businesses.

Does a reasonable legislator run the risk of nixing an economic development package that has already brought more than 200 jobs to your city because it contains a carrot for minorities? We don’t think so.

And one other point made by Campbell caused us to reflect in his favor. He notes that 13% of Arkansas House members have “hands-on city experience,” but about 65% of the Arkansas population lives in cities.

He notes that “it will be to our advantage to elect more people with a full understanding of the challenges facing cities and towns day to day.”

We agree.