Rep. Rice, Pitsch capture legislative wins; voter turnout low

Legislative primary races in the Fort Smith area were decided Tuesday night (May 20), with winners from both primaries for House District 76 and Senate District 9 able to call the election over since neither have Democratic opponents in the Fall.

Both races took ugly turns, with District 76 mired by allegations of domestic violence and other unsavory issues against candidate Bobby Altes in the lead up to the race while the District 9 race was plagued by a barrage of direct mail attack advertising and a surprise mailer claiming to be from Democrats in support of Incumbent Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood, in the final weekend before the primary. Both Altes and Holland lost their primaries to their competitors, Mat Pitsch and Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron.

Northwest Arkansas legislative primaries were also mired in controversy, with the District 96 House race overshadowed in recent weeks by Republican Damon Wallace's educational background after it was reported that his bachelors degree was awarded by a degree mill eventually shut down by the feds. Wallace ended up losing the race to Grant Hodges, who will face off against Democratic and Libertarian opponents in November.

DISTRICT 9 SENATE
Rice said late Tuesday that he was thrilled to have won the race to represent District 9 in the state senate, which includes parts of Crawford, Franklin, Scott and Sebastian Counties.

Rice secured 56.94% of the vote to Holland's 43.06%.

"I'm worn out and happy and appreciate the confidence the people put in me and I hope to earn all the confidence in the district," he said.

Asked how he was able to unseat Holland, a two-term senator from Greenwood, he said it was a combination of boots on the ground, direct mail and getting to know the voters.

"We had a lot of support and people working in different areas that believe in us. While we were known at least in the bottom half (of the district), we had to get introduced in Crawford County and Franklin County and parts of Sebastian, even."

Overall, Rice said his background as a small business owner and his focus on issues won voters over in what was a highly negative race.

"It was overall, I think, a negative campaign," he said. "We tried to stay as factual and positive as we could. I think people get turned off on negative things."

As for what he expects to do once moves up to the Senate in January, Rice said he would be focused on the private option, one of topics most often discussed during the campaign.

"We've got to look at what the true costs are and what the federal government will pay and what the state's portion is going to pay. We'll continue to scrutinize that and look at it. We've got time before anything has to be done."

Rice said regardless of who voted for him or Holland, he was committed to earning each constituent's respect as he goes back to Little Rock next year.

"You have to prove yourself to them and why you can't… you won't ever be able to satisfy everyone on issues. In being able to work on the issues for constituents, you will earn their trust and the right to serve that. That's up to me to do. I think I've done that in my district the last six years and I'll continue to do that in the Senate."

Holland did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

DISTRICT 76 HOUSE
Republican Mat Pitsch can say the second time is charm in his fight to represent District 76 in the Arkansas House, having won Tuesday's primary against Republican Bobby Altes. Pitsch lost to Altes' father, Denny, in 2012.

Pitsch secured 53.31% of the vote to Altes' 46.69%.

The race was overshadowed in recent weeks by the release by left-leaning blogger Matt Campbell of documents that appeared to show Altes had been arrested on assault charges and had even encouraged one of his ex-wives to have an abortion.

Following publication of the article and supporting documentation, Altes said the allegations were not true, but it was not enough to save the election.

"Did it help? I'm not sure," Pitsch said. "But there were quite a few more voters this year than two years ago."

Pitsch called the situation sad before saying he had nothing to do with the release of the information.

"I felt bad for the family," he said. "There were children involved with that scenario. I know there were accusations we were involved. We weren't. But it was a sad situation."

What really helped drive voter turnout more than anything, Pitsch said, was his strategy early on of encouraging supporters to bring friends to the polls with them.

"One of our strategies was to tell our supporters to bring four of your friends with you. If you look at what our numbers were from two years ago, that's what people did. We knew (the Altes's were) a formidable family and we needed our supporters to bring friends and families and that's what they did."

Altes did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

EARLY VOTING
Overall, early voter turnout was lower across the state and the region when compared to the state's last mid-term election in 2010 (according to the total provided by the Secretary of State's office as of Monday morning).

In Crawford and Sebastian Counties, only 1,089 and 2,976 people, respectively early voted compared to 2010's totals of 1,798 and 4,520.

In Benton County, 5,256 people early voted compared to 8,031 in 2010. Washington County had 2,384 early voters this year compared with 3,301 in 2010.

Statewide, only 82,229 people had voted early compared to 114,052 in 2010.

According to Democratic strategist Will Watson of Fayetteville-based Natural State Strategies, the big difference this year was the lack of competitive races in both of the major party primaries versus 2010's draws of major primary battles in both the Democratic and Republican U.S. Senate races.

"In 2014, we don't have a big primary at the top of the ticket," he said. "The Republicans don't have a primary for Cotton and no seriously contested primary for Governor. Those are the races that really drive turnout. I don't see much turnout in those races," he said.

Another big driver in the Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas regions in 2010 was the open seat for Congress, which was eventually won by then-Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.

With this year's lack of super competitive races, Watson said the final numbers for the primary would likely mirror that of early voting — smaller turnout.

"Local races aren't really driving turnout. We have one house race and a county assessor (race) that is countywide (in Washington County). We just have that one state house race (Rep. Randy Alexander versus Lance Eads) and not a lot of money being spent on those races. There's not a lot of attention."

FORT SMITH AREA RESULTS
Senate District 9 (GOP Primary)
• Sen. Bruce Holland 43.06%
• Rep. Terry Rice 56.94%

House District 76 (GOP Primary)
• Bobby Altes 46.69%
• Mat Pitsch 53.31%

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS RESULTS
House District 88 (GOP Primary)
• Rep. Randy Alexander 41.81%
• Lance Eads 58.19%

House District 90 (GOP Primary)
• Paul Caldwell 34.99%
• Jana Della Rosa 53.26%
• Mike Whitmore 11.76%

House District 93 (GOP Primary)
• Rep. Jim Dotson 64.80%
• W.P. "Bill" Burckart 35.20%
(The winner of this race will face Democrat Leah Williams in the November general election)

House District 94 (GOP Primary)
• Rebecca Petty 54.47%
•Margaret Wolf 45.53%
(The winner of this race will face Democrat Grimsley Graham in the November general election)

House District 95 (GOP Primary)
• Rep. Sue Scott 54.88%
• Dane Zimmerman 45.12%
(The winner of this race will face Libertarian Eddie Moser in the November general election)

House District 96 (GOP Primary)
• Grant Hodges 68.56%
• Damon Wallace 31.44%
(The winner of this race will face Democrat Tom McClure and Libertarian Michael Kalagias in the November general election)