Spotlight: Arkansas Green Party candidates

Ballot Access News reports that

On October 21, former Arkansas Democratic legislator Dwayne Dobbins asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to put him on the ballot as the Democratic nominee for State House, district 39. He had won the May primary but the party had removed him from the ballot anyway. Dobbins argues that the party had no authority to overturn the results of its own primary, without a court order. As noted in earlier blog posts about this matter, if Dobbins doesn’t get on the ballot, the only name on the ballot for this position will be Green Party nominee Richard Carroll.

Green Party Watch
reports

In an article at The Daily Citizen, linked at the site Don’t tase me bro, Arkansas Green Brian Barnett is said to have been arrested for holding up a sign that said:

Debate Brian
Chickenshit
1. Kyle Reeves
2. Monte Betts

Betts and Reeves are the two corporate candidates in the race and they have refused to debate Barnett. According to the article Barnett agreed to change the wording on the poster he was holding but was handcuffed and plopped into the backseat of a cruiser when he “didn’t move fast enough” to satisfy the police on hand at the time.

And:

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) had to date not responded to any requests for a debate from his only challenger, Rebekah Kennedy of the Green Party, who had requested a debate in August by letter followed up by several phone calls.

During a question and answer session following a speech at the Political Animals Club in Little Rock, Pryor called on Rebekah Kennedy, who according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette asked:

“I was just wondering, my campaign wrote you a letter back in August questioning you about scheduling a debate and had several follow-up calls since then and received no response… Do you feel like the voters in Arkansas are entitled to a debate? If not, do you feel responding would be an appropriate response? Do you feel like a straightforward refusal would be more appropriate?”

Pryor replied that no media group had offered to host a debate, it was too late to schedule a debate, his schedule was really busy, he never saw the letter requesting a debate but the campaign probably got one, etc, etc,.

In related news, 4029TV.com reports that around 800 ballots in Franklyn County mistakenly list Rebekah Kennedy on the ballot as the Republican. There is no Republican in the race.

Also the Times Record reports that the Democratic State Representative removed from the ballot by his own party earlier this year waited too long to sue for re-admission. This decision means that the only candidate on the ballot for State Representative in District 39 will be the Green Party’s Richard Carroll.

In the Green Party Watch comments, former Arkansas Green Gubernatorial candidate Jim Lendall writes:

I’m going to toot our own horn. The Arkansas Green Party has 14 candidates on the ballot, not including the Presidential ticket. We have a certain win in the Arkansas House of Representatives, Richard Carroll. Of the 5 Congressional seats open this year, we have 4 with Greens in 2-way races.

[…]

STFU is maybe what I want to say to Green national delegates’ griping. But it really stands for the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union which began in Arkansas in the 1930’s. It started in the bleakest areas during the bleakest times. Maybe Greens need to know what “bleak” is. Then “hope” will really mean something.

disclaimer: the author of this post and friends I recruited got the bulk of the signatures which put the Arkansas Green Party on the ballot in 2006 and 2008