AG Rutledge will support GOP Presidential nominee, does not expect contested convention

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R), says she will support whomever the eventual Republican Presidential nominee is and the former legal counsel to the Republican National Committee said she does not expected a contested GOP convention.

Rutledge, appearing on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, also discussed the current U.S. Supreme Court controversy, dark money in Arkansas campaigns, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, and her domestic violence prevention initiative.

On the high-stakes and chaotic GOP Presidential campaign, Rutledge said she hopes Republicans do what many Razorback football fans do when rooting for the Southeastern Conference during bowl games.

“I hope that Republicans will come together, get behind our nominee, and defeat Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton come November,” she said.

When asked if she would support Donald Trump, the controversial current frontrunner, Rutledge said, “I will support the Republican nominee. If Donald Trump is our nominee, I will support him. I will support John Kasich. I will support Senator Cruz if any of those three gentlemen are the Republican nominee, I will support them.”

Rutledge served as legal counsel to the Republican National Committee in 2012. She said she believes party leaders will avoid a split summer convention in Cleveland without a clear Presidential candidate.

“I do not believe we will have a contested convention,” she said. “I believe we will have a nominee before we get to Cleveland before the convention and that we will be rallying behind that individual and be ready to take on the Democratic nominee.”

She noted that in 2012 Mitt Romney was declared the presumptive nominee before he had secured half of the delegates needed to win the GOP nomination.

On the current debate in Washington D.C. over filling the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, Rutledge said she’s in agreement with Senate leadership’s position to wait until after the November elections to consider Judge Merrick Garland on any other nominee put forward. Rutledge signed a letter with nearly two dozen other Attorneys General to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in support of their position.

DARK MONEY, CLEAN POWER PLAN, LAURA’S CARD
The issue of dark money in political campaigns surfaced again this year after the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV to defeat Justice Courtney Goodson in the recent Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice race. Rutledge was a target of JCN negative advertising during her 2014 election.

While not committing to any current proposals being debated, Rutledge said she is open to discuss any legislation that will allow for more disclosure on political spending by outside special interest groups.

“I believe we are better served when more sunshine comes in,” Rutledge said. “If someone is going to spend money in Arkansas on an election and they name a candidate, we should know who those individuals are, the name of the organization as well as who their donors are.”

The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a stay on a lower court decision involving President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a regulation he’s supported through the EPA to curtail carbon emissions from power plants. In an extended interview after TV taping, Rutledge said she agreed with the high court’s decision as well as a recent move by state regulators to halt their planning tied to the environmental rule.

“I think it was the right decision. I was pleased that the Public Service Commission as well as the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality put their plans on hold because this is an unprecedented stay. What we don’t want to do is waste state resources. Had they moved forward with those plans, it could have potentially wasted those state resources for something that never would have needed to go into effect,” she said.

Rutledge said she will continue to oppose EPA regulations that she views as harmful to business and consumers. Currently, she’s intervened in six similar regulatory cases.

“I am not going to stand on the dock and simply wave goodbye as the EPA embarks on this voyage to take statutory claim of our nation’s economy,” said Rutledge.

Recently, Rutledge launched a new initiative to fight domestic violence. A new law, sponsored by Rep. Charlotte Douglas, R-Alma, called Laura’s Card has gone into effect. It provides resource cards to law enforcement and domestic violence shelters for distribution of information to victims of abuse or violence. Rutledge said more than 14,000 cards have already been disbursed.

“This card – to victims of domestic violence – is not just a resource tool, but it’s also a little piece of hope for them to know there are resources available to get out of the situation they’re in,” she said.

Watch her full interview below.