Ex-lawmaker aims to run GOP; treasurer’s bid likely
Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Former state Sen. Doyle Webb of Benton said Tuesday that he’s vying to be the chairman of the state Republican Party, while the party’s treasurer, Joseph Wood of Fayetteville, said he will likely seek the post.
House Republican leader Bryan King of Berryville said he’ll decide by next week whether to seek the post being vacated by outgoing party Chairman Dennis Milligan of Benton. Several Republicans said former Rep. Jake Files of Fort Smith is another potential candidate.
Milligan’s announcement Saturday that he wouldn’t seek re-election next month as the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas cleared the way for prospective successors to begin jockeying in GOP circles.
Milligan of Benton in Saline County has been the party’s leader since May 2007.
The party’s State Committee will select a chairman during its Dec. 13 meeting in Little Rock.
Webb, a 52-year-old lawyer, said he’s uniquely qualified to build the party up based on his work for the party and as a state senator.
He was chairman of the state GOP’s coordinated campaign to elect Republicans to local, state and federal offices for this year’s election. He was in the state Senate from 1995 to 2002, when he resigned to become chief of staff for the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller. He held that position through 2006.
Webb was a justice of the peace in Saline County from 1987-92.
Wood, a 43-year-old humanresources and career consultant who has been the party’s trea- surer since 2007, said he’s “90 percent sure” that he will run to be the party’s chairman. He said he believes he would be the party’s first black chairman and believes his race is neither a hindrance nor help to his potential candidacy.
Vice chairman of the Washington County Republican Party, Wood said he switched from the Democratic Party in 1988 in Chicago and has been active in Arkansas Republican circles since 1997. Among other things, he said he would continue efforts to diversify the party.
Milligan said he’s supporting Wood to succeed him as party chairman because Wood “has all the tools we need to build on the successes we had. [Wood ] gets along wonderfully with everybody and doesn’t bring any baggage into the chairmanship.”
In the Nov. 4 election, Republicans increased their numbers from 25 to 28 in the 100-member House and their ranks remained at eight in the 35-member Senate.
King, a 40-year-old farmer, said he’s been approached mostly by Republican lawmakers about running for party chairman. He said he’ll make a final decision by next week. He’s a former chairman of the Carroll County Republican Party.
Files could not be reached at his office Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Arkansas’ State Committee will elect a successor to interim Chairman David Pryor at a meeting in the first quarter of next year, said party spokesman Darinda Sharp.
A date hasn’t been set for that meeting, she said.
Pryor, a former U. S. senator and governor, agreed to serve as the party’s interim chairman in September after the Aug. 13 fatal shooting of then-party Chairman Bill Gwatney, a former state senator.
Governors in Arkansas traditionally play a major role in choosing the chairman of their party.
Gov. Mike Beebe said there has been no progress in picking a chairman yet.
“I haven’t focused on it,” he said. “There’s probably a whole list of folks who it could possibly be, but I haven’t been thinking about it a whole lot lately. Obviously, I’m going to have to do that between now and the middle of January.” Information for this article was contributed by Seth Blomeley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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