Fort Smith Tea Party Forum Offers Peek at 2012 Elections

Several dozen people gathered at the Fort Smith Riverfront Pavilion on Monday night (Dec. 5) to hear Republican candidates at the federal, state, and local levels make early cases for votes in 2012. The forum was sponsored by the River Valley Tea Party.

Marcus Richmond, a Republican running for U.S. House in the 4th Congressional District, decried the federal healthcare overhaul, saying that it could spell the beginning of the end for limited government in America.

“Obamacare moves the culture of America so far to the left,” Richmond said, “that future conservatives will have to battle so much of this that we may never again have limited, constitutional government.”

Richmond said many Arkansans were telling him they thought it was too late to turn back what they see as a liberal tidal wave.

“I say we have to try,” Richmond said. “It starts by sending someone who will stand up strong.”

Richmond, a Waldron native who now lives in Harvey, is a former Marine lieutenant colonel and the president and CEO of America’s Pet Registry Inc.

State Rep. John Burris, R-Harrison, showed up to speak on behalf of Tom Cotton, who is also seeking the GOP nomination for the 4th Congressional District.

Cotton grew up in Dardanelle and lives there. He is a Harvard graduate and an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Burris compared Cotton’s intellect and knowledge to that of conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer. When it comes to an argument, “Tom is like the big guy that can help you if you’re being beat up,” Burris said.

“You want good people to represent you,” Burris told the audience. “That’s why you send people like Denny Altes and Frank Glidewell to Little Rock. I think if you send Tom to Washington, you’ll get similar results.”

STATE LEGISLATORS
State Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, who is eligible to serve one more term in the House, also spoke to the group. He said if he wins reelection, in 2013 he will be the only GOP House member with over 180 days of legislative experience.

Altes contended that if the GOP takes control of the House — a feat the party hasn’t accomplished since Reconstruction — the party will need to rely on the experience of veterans like him.

“We need people who have been in the trenches and fought in the wars,” Altes said.

Altes also pointed out that he has never voted for a tax during his time in the state House and Senate. Altes faces Mat Pitsch in the GOP primary for the House seat.

The group also heard from two Republican state representatives who are seeking to move up to the Senate. The first was term-limited Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who in 2012 will run for the new Senate District 5, which includes parts of Sebastian, Crawford, Washington, Franklin, Johnson, Madison, and Carroll Counties.

King touted his conservative track record, pointing to a survey conducted by the Arkansas Citizens First Congress, a liberal activist group. He said the group, which ranks lawmakers by how liberal their voting records are, had ranked him dead last out of 135 state legislators in two separate general sessions.

King also said he and his friend, Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, deserved credit for engineering a Republican surge in the House over the past two election cycles that has culminated in 46 current GOP state representatives.

Though he admitted he isn’t as familiar with the Fort Smith region as with Northwest Arkansas, King said he has the support of area Reps. Altes, Jon Eubanks, Stephanie Malone, and Gary Stubblefield, among others.

Stubblefield, R-Branch, a first-term state rep. who will run for the new Senate District 6 seat in 2012, told stories about his experiences in the House and championed a tort reform bill that would establish a “loser pays” model for personal injury lawsuits.

Stubblefield introduced a “loser pays” bill earlier this year in the regular session, but the bill didn’t make it out of the House Judiciary Committee. In his remarks, Stubblefield also spoke about the role redistricting played in his decision to run for state senator.

“I had no desire to be in the Senate,” he said.

But according to Stubblefield, he was drawn out of his district in the new state House map, which was finished this summer by the Board of Apportionment. Stubblefield was put in the same district as his Republican colleague and close friend, Rep. Jon Eubanks.

The pair had no desire to run against each other in a primary. Stubblefield also believed the state Senate map had been drawn to facilitate a new bid for former State Rep. John Paul Wells, D-Paris, who had been defeated in 2010 by Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood.

It was the redistricting maneuvers, Stubblefield said, that pushed him to attempt the jump from House to Senate.

Luke Hobbs with our content partner, The City Wire, is the author of this report. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].