Goodson, Kemp offer arguments for their Chief Justice candidacies, address controversies

The two candidates vying for the Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice seat – Justice Courtney Goodson and Judge Dan Kemp – offered their arguments for election and defended themselves on controversies that have arisen in their campaigns.

Kemp cites his years of experience as the main reason for his electability. He said he was a practicing attorney for 10 years, has served as a municipal judge, has 30 years on the bench as a circuit judge, nine years as an administrator for his region’s judgeships, and has handled more than 30,000 cases.

He said an attack ad from the Judicial Crisis Network running against Goodson and her ruling in a 7-0 decision overturning Arkansas’ voter ID law are unfair as it was part of a unanimous decision. “To just pick on her individually and relate that to some kind of national immigration issue, I believe that’s unfair,” he said.

Kemp, who believes that judicial elections should remain in the hands of voters and not change to an appointment process, predicted one of two scenarios based on the so-called dark money advertising that’s being spent in this campaign cycle.

“I believe there’s going to be one of two outcomes from this campaign season. Either reform in our present system of electing judges and justices on the appellate courts or a proposal to change to an appointment process for appellate judges and justices,” he said. “My preference is elections. We just need to reform the system, I believe, to make it more transparent. Hopefully, that can be done by looking at what other states have done to elect judges and justices.”

Kemp defended his role in a case involving the daughter of a friend and eventual campaign contributor. The Blue Hog Report has reported that Kemp signed off on a plea agreement in the case reducing initial felony drug charges to the misdemeanor level, and later Kemp received maximum contributions from the husband and wife of the defendant.

Kemp said the deal was worked out between the prosecutor and the defense attorney and presented to his court in a routine manner. “It’s fairly common,” he said.

Goodson has served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals and is in the sixth year of an eight-year term on the Arkansas Supreme Court.

She’s been the target of attack ads from the Judicial Crisis Network for her ruling in the voter ID case and for gifts she received as a judge. Goodson has complained that the ads are “lying” about her.

“There’s been a coordinated effort to leave a narrative that they are playing out that there has been some kind of wrongdoing. When, in fact, I have disclosed every single campaign contribution, been very transparent about gifts, and all of that is on record at the Secretary of State’s office,” she said.

An implication of one of the JCN ads states that Goodson has sided with trial attorneys in her court decisions – a dig at her husband, John Goodson, a successful trial attorney. Justice Goodson rejected that notion.

“I think I’ve been abundantly fair. I decide each and every case on the merits of the law brought before me. I’m not beholden to any of my donors, I’m beholden only to the people of Arkansas, to the Constitution and to the rule of law,” Goodson added.

Goodson has called on Kemp to refute the JCN ads, which he has done in messages to his donors and through the media. Goodson said his response was “lukewarm” and that he should go further. She said she would if he were being attacked.

“If my opponent truly wants to be the candidate of integrity, if he truly wants to be the candidate who keeps politics out of the courtroom, then he would stand up to this dark money group and he would demand that they get out of Arkansas, that they get out of this race. He would ask the television stations to take those ads down.. that’s absolutely what I would do.”

Goodson also believes that judicial elections should not be shifted to a merit selection process and she said she would be willing to testify to the state Legislature in an effort to support changing legislation to encourage more disclosure.

“I will always be an advocate for transparency in elections,” Goodson said.

Watch both candidates’ full interviews, including their thoughts on how they would operate as Chief Justice, if elected.