Unlikely backers on roster for GOP
Posted on Friday, April 18, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/223100/
The incoming House speaker and 11 other Democratic representatives are hosting a fundraiser for a Republican House member in Little Rock, a move that the chairman of the state Democratic Party said left him feeling “somewhat betrayed.”
Incoming Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, and the other House Democrats are listed as members of the host committee for a Thursday fundraiser for Rep. Bryan King of Green Forest, a Republican.
Democrats hold a strong majority in the House and the state Senate.
Wills said Wednesday that he agreed to be listed on the committee for the fundraiser after King supported him in the speaker’s election. At the time, King did not have any Democratic opponent.
After David Stoppel announced he would run against King as a Democrat, Wills said he decided to stick to his word when King asked if he still wanted to be listed.
“I don’t think it’s going to help or hurt his re-election chances one bit,” Wills said. “I made a commitment to him and wanted to keep my word.”
King said other legislators hosting the fundraiser include Democratic Reps. Bill Abernathy, Larry Cowling, Billy Gaskill, Eddie Hawkins, Johnny Hoyt, Barry Hyde, Robert Moore, Bobby Pierce, Lance Reynolds, John Paul Wells and David Wyatt.
Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney said he was disappointed by the Democrats who are supporting King.
Some of them were assisted by the party when targeted by a Republican-backed advocacy group in the 2006 election, Gwatney said.
“We feel somewhat betrayed because they may not have gotten elected [without ] the help of the Democratic Party in 2006.... We’re limited in what we can do, but there are some people who are going to have some long memories,” Gwatney said.
Gwatney also noted that in a recent special legislative session that King voted against Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposed natural-gas severance tax increase for highway improvements.
The hosts also include all returning House Republicans, King said.
“I appreciate their support,” King said. “We have Democrats and we have Republicans when we’re looking at issues, and there are areas we can agree on and work together on.”
Wills said he hasn’t given any money to King’s campaign and won’t be attending the Republican House member’s fundraiser.
“I certainly try to work with people, regardless of party affiliation,” Wills said. “I think that’s what a good speaker does.”
The Central Arkansas Leadership political action committee, overseen by a friend of Wills, gave $ 250 to King’s general election campaign in March.
Stoppel, who said he ran as a Republican for a county judge position 10 years ago and voted in the Republican presidential primary in February, called the Democratic support for his opponent “interesting” but declined to criticize Wills or the other House Democrats.
“It seems a little strange is all I can say, that they would do that. But you never know,” Stoppel said. “Without talking to those guys, I don’t know how it came about.”
The fundraiser isn’t the first time Democrats in the Legislature have crossed party lines to support Republicans. Last year, Jack Critcher, Senate president pro tempore, and Sen. Bob Johnson, who will serve as Senate president in 2009, hosted a campaign fundraiser for Sen. Gilbert Baker, the former Arkansas GOP chairman.
Critcher, D-Batesville, and Johnson, D-Bigelow, said that they agreed to host the fundraiser because Baker was a good friend and that they believed he had been a good senator since taking his seat in 2001.
Baker, R-Conway, faces a re-election from Democrat Joe White.