Election Central: AG Race And Political Anniversaries

KATV’s Elicia Dover delivers Wednesday’s Election Central Daily Brief, which includes more news on Republican Attorney General nominee Leslie Rutledge and a pair of partisan “anniversaries.”

RUTLEDGE ELIGIBILITY
Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane removed Republican Attorney General candidate Leslie Rutledge from the voter registration rolls yesterday. He says he did so because he received a letter saying that Rutledge is registered to vote in Washington D.C and Virginia.

Upon checking into the issue, Crane confirmed Rutledge was registered in those other places and he said under Arkansas law he had no other choice but to remove her registration under Amendment 51. Crane says he has a “mandatory” duty to cancel the registration of anyone not qualified to vote in state. Rutledge says the move is politically motivated.

The Republican Party of Arkansas says it is sending FOIA requests to Crane’s office in hopes of discovering who else may have been thrown off the voter rolls in the last year and “what partisan communication may be going on between his office and Democrat strategists.”

The Democratic Party of Arkansas also responded to the controversy today, saying “if Ms. Rutledge cannot personally abide by the very law she vigorously defends and the standards to which she hold others, then how can she go on to effectively be the state’s lead attorney?”

Read more on KATV.com or Talkbusiness.net.

ANNIVERSARIES
Which anniversary did you celebrate today?

It was the one year anniversary since the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare exchanges rolled out. A note in the inboxes of reporters reminded that Sen. Mark Pryor voted for the health care law, or as Republicans put it, “cast the deciding vote.”

Democrats noted it was the one year anniversary since “Tom Cotton’s government shut down.” Several Democratic candidates and operatives reminded the press that Cotton cast a vote that closed down national parks and other government agencies among other things for a while.