LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas’ latest experiment with moving up the state’s primaries could give voters greater say in a presidential campaign that features two candidates with ties to the state. But it’s just as likely to change the state’s political dynamics, at least temporarily, in a way that detractors say won’t be welcome.
From a shortened window to recruit candidates to the prospect of a campaign that begins over the winter holidays, moving Arkansas’ primaries from May to March carries its fair share of headaches for political insiders and voters alike.
“The one complaint we all hear about is people get sick because it’s a never-ending cycle,” said Senate Minority Leader Keith Ingram, a Democrat from West Memphis, who opposed the move. “You’re going to run from November to November.”
An extended campaign season is nothing new for Arkansas, which was swamped by a barrage of campaign ads by both sides and outside groups in one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the country last year. But the fear that Ingram and other opponents have is voters will be subjected to the same barrage in dozens of legislative races with the ramped-up timeline.
It’s a timeline that could also give an advantage to incumbents, with challengers facing less time to get their names out there before the primary elections.
Supporters of the move have dismissed the complaints and say this ensures that Arkansas won’t be simply an afterthought in a presidential race that features two candidates with Arkansas ties. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination, and Democratic hopeful former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton served 12 years as the state’s first lady.
The earlier primary is part of an effort to create a regional nominating contest that supporters have dubbed the “SEC primary” after college athletics’ Southeastern Conference.
“The people of Arkansas want to have a meaningful vote deciding the next president of the United States, both on the Democrat and Republican side,” Hutchinson said the week before the special session, saying he believed both parties’ nominees would be decided before May.
The fight over the SEC primary provided a rare bit of drama in a three-day special session where the top agenda item – an $87 million incentive package aimed at landing a defense project in south Arkansas – won with scant opposition. The measure only advanced in the Senate after legislative leaders agreed to make the earlier primary – and a related plan to move the start of next year’s session from February to April – expire after 2016.
Supporters say the sunset provision will allow them to revisit the issue and see whether the earlier nominating contest has any benefit.
“I think if we see the increased voter turnout that we expect, that will make a stronger argument to make a permanent change in the future,” Republican Rep. Andy Davis of Little Rock, who sponsored the proposal, told lawmakers last week.
It also could allow lawmakers to test whether holding next year’s fiscal session – which will focus primarily on the state’s budget – later in the year has any lasting appeal. The move means the Legislature will take up potentially controversial budget matters, including reauthorizing the state’s compromise Medicaid expansion, without the threat of a primary challenge looming.
The move will mark the second time in recent years Arkansas has shuffled its primary calendar. The state moved up its presidential primary in 2008 to February, but reversed course a year later.
Opponents of the latest move say voters are going to tire of the state’s primary date being a moving target.
Making a temporary move that would then potentially move back only serves to greater increased voter confusion,” said Republican Rep. Nate Bell, who opposed the change.
Andrew DeMillo has covered Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press since 2005. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/ademillo.
(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)
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