Spouses lose House seats’ primary bids
Posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tuesday wasn’t a good night for wives who hoped to follow their husbands into the state Legislature.
Linda Bisbee of Rogers, Vickey Boozman of Cave Springs and Vickie Critcher of Batesville all lost bids to win seats in the state House. Critcher and Bisbee are married to current state senators, while Boozman is the widow of a former senator.
Name recognition can be a political plus, and Arkansas is a state in which some names — Pryor and Hutchinson, for example — have enjoyed repeated success at the ballot box.
But the only legislator’s spouse to come out ahead on Tuesday was Jody Dickinson of Newport, wife of state Rep. Tommy Dickinson. And she didn’t win, at least not yet. She came in first in a close four-way Democratic primary in House District 58 and now faces L. J. Bryant of Newport in a runoff June 10.
Boozman, whose husband, Fay, was director of the Arkansas Department of Health when he died in 2005, said she’s not sure what factors were in play in the spouses’ poor showing. But she said she suspects there’s a connection.
“There were so many of us running this time,” said the Cave Springs Republican. “I don’t think it would necessarily be a detriment to one of us [to run ], but we had several across the state. I think that was probably a consideration.”
She lost the District 99 primary to Tim Summers of Bentonville.
Jay Barth, associate professor of political science at Hendrix College in Conway, said it does appear the group had less success on the whole than spouses have had since the state’s term-limits amendment passed in 1992.
Still, each candidate may have lost because of local fac- tors and not some statewide trend, he said.
“Even good names can be beaten,” he said, “if they’re faced with good, strong opponents.”
Bisbee, whose husband, Dave, has been a lawmaker since 1993, said she thinks some sort of backlash was a factor, though it’s hard to know how much. She lost the Republican primary in District 95 to Duncan Baird of Lowell.
Her campaign had the added complication of her husband simultaneously running for Benton County judge. Dave Bisbee will be in a runoff in that race.
She said campaign material produced regarding her husband’s legislative voting record yielded a “double punch” that hurt both their campaigns.
“Still, I was proud to be associated with him,” she said.
Like Linda Bisbee, Critcher had to answer for her husband’s record. Sen. Jack Critcher, DBatesville, said Wednesday that his wife’s opponent, James McLean, distorted that record and used it against her.
McLean made a campaign issue of an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story about Jack Critcher collecting the most among lawmakers in legislative payments beyond their state-paid salary last year. The senator has said he received the most, $ 54, 577, largely because of his work as chairman of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.
But Critcher said McLean did a better job of getting his people out to vote when turnout was “ridiculously low.”
McLean said Vickie Critcher had more campaign funds and more name recognition because of her husband. A large part of her campaign was based on the fact that she was her husband’s political partner for many years, McLean said.
Jack Critcher’s record would give voters of House District 72 “a road map” of how she would act in office, McLean said. He said he didn’t distort that record.
Vickie Critcher, who didn’t return a telephone message left for her on Wednesday, addressed some of McLean’s criticisms this way during the campaign: “I am the one in this election and not my husband. It sounds like he is running against my husband.”
Jody Dickinson said “issues” were raised during the campaign regarding her husband’s role, though she didn’t want to elaborate.
“I tried to make it clear from the beginning that this is my race,” she said.
She said she’s not just a lawmaker’s spouse but a former teacher and 34-year Newport resident.
“I have support on my own. I have many good friends and neighbors, and people who know me well. I didn’t just come out of the blue,” she said.
Bryant said he has no doubt that Jody Dickinson’s role as legislative spouse will come up, though he said he won’t bring it up. He said people mention it fairly frequently in relation to their support of term limits.
Former state Sen. Bill Walters of Greenwood is another spouse seeking a legislative seat. He’s running for his wife’s seat in House District 62. He said he took note of the other spouses ’ losses Tuesday.
A former Republican who switched parties to be a Democrat this year, Walters didn’t have an opponent in the primary. But he faces what he expects to be stiff opposition in Republican Terry Rice of Waldron in the November election.
If there’s a trend toward rejecting candidates who are running to succeed their relatives, he doesn’t expect it to extend to him, Walters said.
“I don’t take anything for granted, but I actually think Shirley will be one my biggest assets because of all she’s accomplished,” he said.
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