Webb elected to Arkansas Supreme Court

Barbara Webb was elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court March 3, defeating Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch. Webb will occupy the Position 4 seat held by Justice Josephine “Jo” Hart, who did not run for re-election. Webb’s election maintains the Court’s 5-4 female majority.

With almost 66% of the state’s areas reporting, Webb was leading, 54-46% and by nearly 33,000 votes. She was leading 217,968 to 184,979.

Webb is the chief law judge at the Workers’ Compensation Commission and previously served as the commission’s CEO. She also has been a circuit judge for Saline County and a prosecuting attorney for Saline, Hot Spring and Grant Counties.

As prosecutor, she took over the seat formerly held by Dan Harmon, who went to prison on drug and corruption convictions. During a speech before the Arkansas Bar Association Feb. 6, Webb said, “I told the media at the time that we were going to change the headlines from ‘Criminal charges filed against prosecutor’ to ‘Prosecutor files criminal charges.’”

Supreme Court races are nonpartisan, but Webb is the wife of Republican Party of Arkansas chairman Doyle Webb. The low-key race attracted more statewide attention late in the campaign as Welch accused Webb of running a partisan campaign. The Republican State Leadership Committee, an outside group, reported that it had spent $225,000 on advertising backing Webb. Earlier in the campaign, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce held a fundraiser in which it touted her possible support of tort reform in an invitation.

But Webb insisted she was nonpartisan. In her speech before the Arkansas Bar Association Feb. 6, she said, “I have never in my 14 years on the bench ever let politics get involved in my decisions.”

She countered in a joint appearance on KARK-TV’s “Capitol View” program that Welch has a history of donating to Democrats, including President Obama, and that he ran for the state Legislature as a Democrat in 1980. Welch argued that Democrats controlled the Legislature at the time and that he had donated indirectly to Republicans.

Welch is the 16th Division Circuit Judge for the 6th Judicial Circuit, which consists of Pulaski and Perry Counties. He was president of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers’ Association, which awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.