Tolbert: Republicans Engage In Spirited Debates (UPDATED)

Nine Republican candidates in four Arkansas primaries debated each other Saturday morning in a spirit and sometimes contentious debate.

The debates were sponsored by the Arkansas Federation of Young Republicans and began at 9:00 am lasting until almost 1:00 pm before the last debate wound down.

The two Republican gubernatorial candidates – former Congressman Asa Hutchinson and retired businessman Curtis Coleman – squared off first.  Much time was spent following up on a previous interview with Coleman from Roby Brock regarding Coleman’s business experience.  Coleman has touted his experience as CEO of Safe Foods throughout his campaign.

Hutchinson made the point that Safe Foods received heavy support from the state in the company’s start-up phase, including developing the company’s main product at UAMS and a loan of several million dollars from the state.  The two candidates disputed if this was inconsistent with Coleman’s position that government should be less involved in business rather than more.

The gubernatorial candidates also discussed a variety of issues, such as the private option Medicaid expansion, the feasibility of their opponent’s tax cut proposals, and whether they support superprojects such as the Big River Steel development in northeast Arkansas. Asa supports it, while Coleman does not.

The Second District Congressional Debate was perhaps the most contentious of the morning.  Both State Rep. Ann Clemmer and veteran Col. Conrad Reynolds took aim at banker French Hill, who as a result certainly had the appearance of looking like the frontrunner. Hill has a marked advantage in fundraising over both opponents.

Clemmer critized Hill for his past support of Democratic candidates, such as former State Treasurer Martha Shoffner.  Reynolds went after Hill on a variety of topics and got under Hill’s skin when Reynolds insinuated that Hill supported a Little Rock city tax increase in order to get a sidewalk built near his house. During most of the criticism, Hill remained calm but on this point Hill told Reynolds, “Don’t get your panties in a wad” over this issue.

By contrast, the Fourth District Congressional debate between State Rep. Bruce Westerman and Tommy Moll was quite tame.  The candidates spent most of the debate agreeing on the issues, such as the need to repeal Obamacare, the problem with the amount of food stamp funding in the Farm Bill, and on ways to help utilize the natural resources of the Fourth District for economic development.

There were some shots fired by both sides. Moll focused on Westerman’s early support for the private option Medicaid expansion during the early drafting of the bill that became law.  Westerman highlighted Moll’s recent move to Arkansas from New York City, which Moll admitted was within the past year.

Perhaps the biggest point scored during the debate was on Moll’s voter record.  Following up on a question as to why Moll voted in a Democratic primary in 2006, Westerman pointed out that Moll did not vote in the general election in 2006 when Republican candidates, such as Asa Hutchinson, “could have used” his vote.  Moll responded that he did not keep up with his voting record that closely.

The attorney general’s debate lacked as much significance due to the absence of one candidate, David Sterling, who told me he had family and church obligations today.  Nevertheless, Little Rock attorneys Patricia Nation and Leslie Rutledge squared off on the issues.  Much of the discussion centered on how both would use the office to fight against what they view as on over-reaching federal government.

One sort of odd line of attack came from Rutledge who criticized Sterling for belong to the American Bar Association (ABA) who she says is a “liberal organization.”  According to the ABA’s website, the organization is “one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world” having over 400,000 member lawyers.

For more analysis on the debate and these primary races, you can view my interview on this week’s edition of “Talk Business & Politics.”