Attorney General Candidates Spar Over Obama, Allegations

Republican Leslie Rutledge said she is the only attorney general candidate who will stand up to President Obama’s “overreaching federal government,” while Rep. Nate Steel, D-Nashville, touted his legislative package and said the attorney general should focus mostly on Arkansas issues during a spirited AETN debate today.

The debate, which was televised Wednesday night, can be viewed along with other debates at this site.

Rutledge said a law dating back to the 1940s gives the attorney general the role of opposing federal encroachment.

“I’m the only candidate on stage that has experience fighting Obama’s liberal agenda and his overreaching federal government, but I’m also the only one willing to,” she said. She said she would fight the EPA and the Affordable Care Act.

Steel said he is also frustrated with the federal government but that the job should be “focused on trying to make Arkansas a safer place to live and raise a family, not worried about Washington politics.” He said he would oppose certain federal regulations, such as an anti-coal EPA regulation that affects the Turk power plant in Hempstead County.

Libertarian Aaron Cash, the third party candidate, said opposing Obama should not be the focus of the job.

Asked about the recent murder of real estate agent Beverly Carter by a seven-time offender, Steel said he supported fixing the state’s parole system and expanding drug courts, adding these are funded arbitrarily based on political popularity, not on need. Rutledge also said she wants more drug courts, veterans’ treatment courts, and mental health courts.

Libertarian Aaron Cash said drug treatment should be handled by the private sector and said people should not be prosecuted for nonviolent drug crimes. He said marijuana should be legalized.

Asked about the rupturing of the Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower, Cash said more oversight on the cleanup is needed. Rutledge said she would work on the front end with pipelines to protect citizens because pipelines are the most efficient way to move the product. Steel said the state needs an “objective” attorney general. “There’s no Republican or Democratic way to clean up an oil spill,” he said.

The candidates were asked about recent campaign allegations – a lawsuit by the GOP claiming Steel had illegally worked as Nashville city attorney while serving as a legislator, and questions about Rutledge’s voter registration in Pulaski County and her work at the Department of Human Services, where a “do not rehire” tag was placed on her file after she left the agency in 2010.

Steel called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said it was filed 17 days before the election. He said his work there was not illegal.

Rutledge said her file had been altered 10 days after she left, an abuse she said shouldn’t happen in state government. She said questions about her voter registration were politically motivated by a Democratic county clerk who had contributed to Steel’s campaign. Steel said she had committed voter fraud by registering to vote in Washington, D.C., and then voting absentee in Arkansas.

Asked about their priorities on day one, Steel mentioned the state’s parole system and protecting children. Cash said his first priority would be “physical safety” of Arkansans and reiterated his opposition to prosecuting nonviolent drug offenders. Rutledge said she would enhance the attorney general’s cybercrimes investigative unit, including protecting children and combatting I.D. theft, along with fighting federal government encroachment. Steel said he had helped create the cybercrimes unit while serving in the Legislature.

The three candidates’ answers were so succinct that they covered 10 questions instead of the scheduled six.