Kemp, Womack win in Arkansas Supreme Court races

With 42 of 75 counties partially reporting, Circuit Judge Dan Kemp was leading big in the Arkansas Supreme Court chief justice race, while Circuit Judge Shawn Womack was leading even bigger in the race for associate justice position 5.

With 189,597 votes cast, Kemp was leading Associate Justice Courtney Goodson, 60-40%. Kemp had 114,395 votes, while Goodson had 75,202.

With 184,974 votes cast in the associate justice’s race, Womack was leading attorney Clark Mason, 68-32%. Womack had 126,635 votes, while Mason had 58,339 votes.

Kemp has served 29 years as a circuit judge and 12 years as a drug court judge. He also served nine years as a municipal court judge. He said during the campaign that he had handled more than 30,000 cases.

Goodson has been an associate justice since she was elected in 2010 (and is now one of four female justices on the seven-person court). She previously served two years on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Before that, she was a law clerk at the Arkansas Court of Appeals from 1997 to 2005.

If Kemp wins the election, Goodson will remain on the court as an associate justice.

Womack was elected a circuit judge in 2008. Prior to that, he served 10 years in the Arkansas Legislature, including as chairman of the Joint Budget Committee. Mason is an attorney and former president of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association.

The race for chief justice became the most expensive in Arkansas history thanks in part to advertising paid for by the Judicial Crisis Network, which criticized Goodson’s ruling in a 7-0 decision overturning Arkansas’ voter ID law and for gifts she received as a judge. Kemp was questioned after the blog Blue Hog Report 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.

In the associate justice’s race, Mason was the recipient of support attacks from the Republican State Leadership Committee – a national group not affiliated with the Republican Party of Arkansas.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that Mason received support from the Republican State Leadership Committee.