Party Leaders Eyeball Incumbents On Target List
by June 4, 2012 5:46 pm 98 views
John Lyon with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau, interviews party chairmen Doyle Webb and Will Bond.
Webb, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, provides a short list of incumbent legislators he says will be ripe for turnover in 2012. Bond, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, offers a counter-list.
From the Arkansas News Bureau:
Looking at legislative races, Webb said Democratic incumbents likely to lose seats this year include Rep. Leslee Milam Post of Ozark, a freshman who won her seat in 2010 after her Republican opponent was ruled ineligible.
“The only reason she got in there was by default,” Webb said.
Webb also predicted defeat for Sen. Steve Harrelson, D-Texarkana.
Harrelson made headlines last year after police were called to his home in response to a fight between Harrelson and a male friend of his then-wife. No charges were filed, and the incident did not stop Harrelson from defeating Rep. Larry Cowling of Foreman in the Democratic primary with 54.7 percent of the vote.
Bond said Post and Harrelson have proven themselves as legislators and he expects them to win re-election.
Republican
incumbents likely to lose their seats in November, in Bond’s view, include:
– Rep. Loy Mauch of Bismarck, who has called Abraham Lincoln a war criminal, praised John Wilkes Booth and filed a bill that would require the public to be notified if mood-altering drugs are placed in the water supply.
– Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro, who had filed bills to require presidential candidates to show a birth certificate to get on the ballot in Arkansas and to require all state publications to be in English only.
– Sen. Jason Rapert, who has filed a resolution calling for a U.S. constitutional convention to amend the Constitution to ban raising the federal debt ceiling unless a majority of state legislatures approve.
“Our candidates in each particular district are qualified, responsible, respected people who are willing to work with Gov. (Mike) Beebe to continue the progress that he’s made, versus many Republican candidates who are extreme,” Bond said.
You can read more at this link.