Voters Will Choose Chief Justice In Costliest Arkansas Court Race Eve

The Arkansas Supreme Court building in Little Rock.

LITTLE ROCK – The most expensive court election in Arkansas history ends on Tuesday with voters choosing a new Supreme Court chief justice from either a current justice who vows to represent “conservative values” or a circuit judge who says prayer will guide him not politics.

Associate Justice Courtney Goodson would become the first woman elected to lead the seven-member Arkansas Supreme Court if she defeats Dan Kemp, a circuit judge from northern Arkansas.

The winner replaces interim Chief Justice Howard Brill, who last year replaced an ailing Jim Hannah, who has since died. The race for another open seat on the high court pits a former lawmaker and judge against a longtime Little Rock attorney.

Goodson was first elected to the court in 2010 and before that had served two years on the state Court of Appeals. Kemp has served on the bench in Arkansas’ 16th Judicial District since 1987.

Kemp vowed in an ad that he would be guided by “prayer, not politics.” He’s proposed banning justices from accepting gifts and stricter rules on when they should recuse themselves from cases.

Outside conservative groups targeted Goodson, claiming she was beholden to trial lawyers. The Judicial Crisis Network spent more than $600,000 on television ads running throughout the state that criticized Goodson over gifts and contributions she had accepted from trial lawyers.

The network and another group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, also sent mailers throughout the state criticizing Goodson. She condemned the ads and accused Kemp of coordinating with the network. Kemp said he had no prior knowledge of the ads.

Goodson launched her campaign last year promising to represent “conservative values” and in the final days of the campaign had called on Kemp to disavow the outside groups.

“It’s dark money, a shady interest group from Washington trying to bully your vote,” she said in one TV ad.

Goodson would be the second woman to lead the high court, and the first elected in her own right. Betty Dickey was appointed as an interim chief justice in 2004 by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Tuesday’s balloting comes after an unusually public split among justices over the court’s months-long delay in considering the case to legalize gay marriage in the state. Hannah and Justice Paul Danielson last year accused the court’s majority of unnecessarily delaying work on the lawsuit by creating a spinoff case over which justices could participate in the appeal. The makeup of the court changed after it heard arguments but before releasing a decision.

The court ultimately dismissed the gay marriage lawsuit hours after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Goodson was among the majority that supported creating the spinoff case.

The election also features a race between Circuit Judge Shawn Womack and Little Rock attorney Clark Mason for the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Paul Danielson. Womack is a former Republican state lawmaker who once advocated banning gays and lesbians from fostering or adopting children. Mason has touted his background as someone who hasn’t run for office before, saying it shows he doesn’t have an agenda.

That race has also drawn outside involvement, with the Republican State Leadership Committee buying $250,000 in television airtime to run ads criticizing Mason.