Two vie for state GOP’s top job
Posted on Sunday, December 7, 2008
The race for chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas is a contest between a former state senator who wants to be paid and the party treasurer who believes he would be the state GOP’s first black chairman.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is backing the former senator, Doyle Webb of Benton, over Joseph Wood of Fayetteville, who has the support of the current chairman, Dennis Milligan of Benton. Wood isn’t seeking a salary for himself in the role of chairman.
Some of the party’s other major figures — U. S. Re p. John Boozman of Rogers and 2006 gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson of Little Rock among them — aren’t taking sides.
The party’s State Committee is to choose Milligan’s successor on Dec. 13. Milligan announced after the Nov. 4 election that he wouldn’t seek re-election as chairman, an office to which he was promoted — from party treasurer — in May 2007 after state Sen. Gilbert Baker of Conway resigned from the chairmanship.
Others looked at the possibility of joining the race but bowed out. Among them: Former Huckabee spokesman Rex Nelson of Little Rock and former state Rep. Jake Files of Fort Smith. Files is considering running for Sen. Denny Altes’ seat in 2010. He’s backing Webb. Nelson isn’t taking sides.
The field could grow. House Republican leader Bryan King of Berryville said he hasn’t ruled out running for chairman. But he’ll probably support one of the other two candidates for the post, he said.
Wood has Milligan’s support because Wood has what’s needed to build on the party’s success in this year’s election, Milligan said, and “doesn’t bring any baggage into the chairmanship.”
The GOP increased its number of seats in the 135-member Legislature from 33 to 36 in the election.
Huckabee supports Webb because they’ve been friends since high school, said the former governor’s daughter and spokesman, Sarah Huckabee. And Webb served in the Senate and worked for the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller when Huckabee was governor, she said.
“More importantly, [Webb ] and his wife have been faithful, loyal friends to [Mike and Janet Huckabee ] since they have known them,” Sarah Huckabee said.
Webb’s been “a huge asset” to the party and would serve it and the people of Arkansas well, she said.
Wood is 43. He’s a human resources and career consultant. He’s been treasurer since 2007.
Webb, 53, a lawyer, was chairman of the GOP’s coordinated campaign — aimed at electing Republicans to local, state and federal offices — this year.
Th e pa r ty ’s rules allow the chairman either to be paid or to be a volunteer.
However, a candidate “shall designate in writing whether he or she intends to serve with or without salary,” the rules state. “Should a candidate designating paid status be elected, the Executive Committee shall be empowered to establish the salary and conditions of employment for the term of office to which he or she was elected.”
Baker was the last paid chairman.
If elected, Webb said he plans to work for the party three or four days a week and continue a limited law practice.
“The state party may only be able to pay me a nominal amount a month and I am willing to receive that,” Webb said. “It would help the party to move to a new level of professionalism” and enable him to go throughout the state for party-building activities.
Wood, who also is vice chairman of the Washington County Republicans, said he doesn’t want to be paid because that would cost the party money that should go toward the good of the party.
He said he’d work as much as is needed in Little Rock or across the state. He’s not sure how many days a week that would be.
“I may be putting in more time” than Webb estimates, Wood said. “It may be seven days a week.”
Wood has said he switched from the Democratic Party in 1988 in Chicago and has been active in Arkansas Republican circles since 1997.
Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe has yet to decide which Democrat he’ll recommend to succeed interim Democratic Party Chairman David Pryor of Little Rock, said Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample.
Pryor, a former U. S. senator and governor, agreed to serve as the interim chairman in September after the Aug. 13 fatal shooting of then-party Chairman Bill Gwatney, a former state senator and close friend of Beebe.
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