Coleman Tells Political Animals That Data Will Make Him Competitive

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Curtis Coleman told the Central Arkansas Political Animals Club that he wants to see greater business tax cuts than the GOP frontrunner Asa Hutchinson has proposed and he revealed a new portion of his campaign strategy to help his candidacy.

John Lyon with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau, reports that Coleman said rival Asa Hutchinson’s suggestion to gradually eliminate the individual income tax won’t make the state competitive for business growth.

“In fact I will tell you, I doubt that eliminating the state income tax in Arkansas will do much at all for making Arkansas more competitive for businesses,” Coleman told the club.

“If you want to make Arkansas more competitive and attract more businesses to Arkansas, we’ve got to look at the corporate tax rate in Arkansas and reform the corporate tax code in Arkansas — one of the highest in the region. And we’ve got to eliminate the capital gains tax in Arkansas,” he said.

Coleman, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010, also addressed concerns that his bid for governor is a long-shot. A former CEO of North Little Rock-based Safe Foods Corp., Coleman trails Hutchinson in the fundraising category and in name identification.

Coleman said he believes he can and will win, thanks in part to a statewide grassroots organization and his purchase of a data bank of voter information which he said his campaign is using to “micro-target” voters, reports Lyon.

“We’re in the process now of identifying every registered Arkansas voter and rating their propensity to voting for Coleman for Arkansas, under the assumption and now political belief that data is as valuable as dollars. In fact, the last two presidential campaigns proved that data is the great equalizer,” he said.

Asa Hutchinson and State Rep. Debra Hobbs (R-Rogers) are also seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Democrat Mike Ross is the only announced Democrat in the race.