Campaign Focus : Party loyalties only recently set for House 62 candidates
Posted on Sunday, October 19, 2008
The political party linkages are not easy to keep track of in the race for state House District 62 in the Nov. 4 election.
A son of former Democratic Rep. W. R. “Bud” Rice of Waldron is the Republicans’ hope. His aim is to stop former GOP Sen. Bill Walters, who is the Democrats ’ candidate.
The occupant of the office is term-limited Rep. Shirley Walters of Greenwood, a Republican.
Terry Rice of Waldron, 53, is president of Rice Furniture and Appliance Inc.
Walters of Greenwood, 65, is a lawyer.
The district includes Scott County and part of Sebastian County.
Both men are married. Rice has two sons, Walters three daughters.
Walters served in the Senate as a Republican from 1983-2001, but he startled party leaders in March by filing as a Democrat. He is a former Greenwood city attorney and district judge in Charleston.
He said he had become “a little bit disenchanted” with the state GOP. He pointed to Senate Republican leaders not supporting GOP state Sen. Dave Bisbee of Rogers in Bisbee’s unsuccessful bid in 2005 to be the Senate’s leader.
Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, supports Walters. Most state lawmakers and all of the state’s constitutional officers are Democrats. That puts Walters in a more favorable position to help rural fire departments and other local projects get state funding, Walters said.
Rice said he considered himself an independent, not a Republican or a Democrat, until he filed in March to run as a Republican. Rice believes voters wanted a new viewpoint and a new set of eyes in the Legislature when they voted for term limits.
TAXES As is customary in campaigns, there’s talk of taxes. Rice said he’s a conservative who opposes raising them. Walters supported a diesel tax increase proposal in 1989 and a gasoline tax increase in 1991 and opposed repealing the sales tax on groceries in 1997, Rice said. The diesel increase was aimed at cutting the state’s liability in a lawsuit challenging the state’s weight-distance tax on big trucks. That measure failed to clear a Senate committee in 1989.
In 1991 the Legislature enacted a bill to increase the gasoline tax 5 cents per gallon and the diesel fuel tax 2 cents per gallon to raise $ 71. 4 million a year. Walters said he voted for it because that was the right thing to do to provide money to improve highways. He has no regrets about that vote, he said.
Rice pointed to news reports that Walters said that in 1997 that the grocery tax would be repealed if it was on the ballot and “that will create havoc for our cities and counties,” which rely on their local sales taxes for a good bit of revenue. Senate records show that he voted for a 1997 bill that would have phased out the state’s sales tax on groceries over a four-year period.
Walters said he’s always sup- ported repealing the state sales tax on groceries and voted to do that many times in the Senate. He said that he supports eliminating the state’s remaining 3 percent tax on groceries and would follow Beebe’s lead as to how much of it the state can afford to cut. Rice said he plans to push for eliminating the tax. The state must be fiscally responsible, he said, and completely axing the tax is “do-able.”
BINGO TAX Both oppose the penny per card state bingo tax. Rice said the $ 1. 1 million it raised in fiscal 2008 took money away from charitable groups who use bingo proceeds for things such as scholarships and summer camps. The state spent $ 464, 000 of the bingo tax to regulate the games in fiscal 2008. Rice said local prosecutors and law enforcement should be responsible for regulating the games. Walters said he’s agreed to sponsor a bill to repeal the tax, keep registration requirements and allow for enforcement largely through the charitable groups reporting any problems to local prosecutors. Walters’ wife sponsored Act 338 of 2007 setting up the bingo tax and the regulation of charitable bingo. Last month, she said, she believes the law is bad.
EDUCATION On school-related matters, Walters said he plans to work to reduce the high cost of health insurance for teachers. Rice said he supports granting vouchers to help parents send their children to private schools. Walters said he opposes vouchers. Walters said he wants to warn the state’s colleges and universities their state support could be cut if they don’t trim their tuition and textbook costs. College is too expensive for many students, he said.
WHO PAYS Rice said he’d try to make sure that he “doesn’t have an appearance of anything that might be compromising my situation.” “ I have paid my own way all my life, ” and having others pick up the tab “is not something I am interested in,” he said. Rice pointed to a report that Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. paid for several lawmakers and their spouses, including then-Sen. Walters and his wife, to attend the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association meeting in Washington, D. C., in 1999. On his financial disclosure statement, Walters reported that the electric cooperatives paid $ 3, 143. 99. There was nothing improper about it, Walters said, calling it an educational trip.
BALLOT ISSUES Both support the Family Council Action Committee’s proposed initiated act to bar unmarried cohabiting couples from fostering or adopting children. Rice opposes Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s proposed constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature to create state lotteries to pay for college scholarships. The government shouldn’t be in the business of taking money from poor people, Rice said. Walters said he’s undecided about the lottery. Many Arkansans play lotteries in surrounding states. That money leaves the state, he said, but a lottery also could drain income from people who should spend it on needs, he said.
ABORTION Walters said he opposes abortion except if the life of a mother is at risk. Rice said he doesn’t support abortions in any case. But if abortion is legal, “that is a personal choice for those involved,” Rice said. OTHER MATTERS Walters wants to expand the state’s program of selling bonds to raise money for loans to small businesses and industry. To help relieve prison overcrowding, he wants to develop a home detention program for non-violent offenders. They would need to be sponsored by a family, church or a civic organization and have a job before they are released from prison, and pay for their supervision and drug tested each month.
CAMPAIGN FINANCES Through September, Walters reported raising $ 99, 175, including $ 79, 000 in personal loans from himself. Rice reported raising $ 62, 967. 50, including $ 21, 000 in personal loans from himself. Walters spent $ 52, 790. 96 through September. Rice spent $ 32, 974. 84. Walters said he has focused his efforts on campaigning and hasn’t had any organized efforts to raise money for his campaign. Rice said this shows that it’s going to be a close race. The salary for representatives and senators is $ 15, 362 in the fiscal year that started July 1. The salary for House speaker and Senate president pro tempore is $ 17, 203 in the current fiscal year. In addition, lawmakers collect an average of $ 30, 000 to $ 35, 000 a year in payments for per diem (a daily allowance ), mileage and reimbursements.
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