More Party Switches From Arkansas History

Here is the video below from my appearance on Talk Business this past Sunday.  Since it aired,  I learned a couple of interesting clarifications to the statement I made regarding Rep. Linda Collins-Smith’s party switch.  I said on the show that this was the first Arkansas legislator to switch from the Democratic to Republican Party, but it has been pointed out to me there are actual two interesting other occurences back in the 90’s.

As best I can tell (and I am sure someone will correct if I am wrong), Phil Wyrick of Little Rock was the first Democratic to Republican party switcher in the state legislature. In 1996, then-State Sen. Vic Snyder was elected to his first term in Congress creating an opening for his seat.  Democratic Rep. Phil Wyrick had seen the handwriting on the wall and planned to seek the senate seat in a special election, even seeking an AG opinion before the November election on if and how he could do this as an incumbent State Representative.  Campaigning for the special election was going to take place over the Christmas holidays and the political parties opted for a convention process versus special primaries to select nominees. Wyrick assessed he wouldn’t get the Democratic nod in the convention process, and the next day, he flipped his party allegiance to the Republicans who adopted him as their nominee. Who did Wyrick assume he’d lose to in the Democratic convention? Interestingly enough, it was Talk Business editor-in-chief Roby Brock, then an upstart Young Democrat.

The only other switch I have been able to track down was Lu Hardin, who never exactly ran as a Republican, but nonetheless did make a high-profile party switch.  Hardin served 14 years in the State Senate as a Democrat.  In 1996, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary against Attorney General Winston Bryant who went on to lose in the general election against Republican Tim Hutchinson.  In that race, Hardin was criticized for being too conservative, particularly on the right-to-life issue. With Sen. Dale Bumpers’ retirement in 1998 creating another open race for the U.S. Senate that Hardin was rumored to be considering, he switched to the Republican Party.  Ultimately, he did not run but instead was appointed as Director of the Department of Higher Education by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.  Of course, all of this was before his infamous days as President of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

There is also of course several other examples from the 1990’s outside the state legislature, as well as former Congressman Tommy Robinson, former Democratic Prosecuting Attorney Betty Dickey who ran as a Republican for Attorney General against Mark Pryor, and former Democratic state auditor Julia Hughes Jones who ran as a Republican for Secretary of State in 1994 against Sharon Priest. Any others I am missing? Let me know.