AG Candidate Nate Steel Distinguishes Himself From Opponents

From Jacob Kauffman with our content partner, KUAR FM 89.1:

The Democratic nominee for Arkansas attorney general Nate Steel took steps to distinguish himself from his Republican opponent Tuesday at the Political Animals Club in Little Rock. Steel said unlike his closest competitor Leslie Rutledge he will not focus on lawsuits against the EPA and federal government but instead on issues related to crime.

“The focus of the attorney general’s office ought to be on improving criminal justice policy and making the public safer whether that’s children, seniors or consumers,” said Steel to applause. “So I think the staff will know early on that my focus will not be on Washington D.C.”

Steel, a state representative from the southwest Arkansas town of Nashville, cited high prescription drug abuse rates, methamphetamine use, and parole problems as reasons for his focus on drug courts and alternative sentencing.

He further tried to differentiate himself from Rutledge by promising to propose a legislative package to the part-time legislature. Rutledge has said she would not propose a legislative agenda.

“If we don’t have somebody ready on day one to go the legislature next session between January and March and propose ideas that stop the bleeding in our parole process and stop paroling out people we don’t need to be paroling out; if we don’t have somebody that’s ready to go there and expand these alternative sentencing regimes; if we don’t have somebody that’s ready to fix this cyber crimes unit ,we will be going at least another two or three years before we start to resolve this problem. Before you know it, we’ll be building another $100 million prison,” said Steel.

Libertarian Aaron Cash is also in the race.

You can access the full report at this link.