NLR rivals in race for House seat

One Democrat claims outsider title; other says she’s set to go

Two North Little Rock High School graduates have polar-opposite pitches in their candidacies for a state House seat that represents the community where they grew up.

Isaac Henry, director of North Little Rock’s health and wellness program, believes that his outsider perspective on politics best positions him to represent House District 37.

Jamie Scott, director of Pulaski County Youth Services, said voters should choose her, in part, because her decision to run came after years of calculated preparations and involvement in the Democratic Party.

She’s gone through a variety of storied leadership programs — John F. Kennedy Harvard School of Government Executive Education Authentic Leadership Program, Yale’s Women’s Campaign School and the Presidential Leaders Scholarship program — and worked on a variety of local and national political campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid.

“I didn’t just wake up and decide to run one day,” she said. “I’ve been very intentional.”

Henry has spent the past two decades in the Army Reserves, mentoring children and working in city government. He decided to run for the seat after several people asked him to consider it.

“Politics wasn’t my life plan,” he said. “If we continue

to get the same type of people in office, we’re to get the same results.”

Scott, 36, and Henry, 34, are vying to replace Rep. Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock, who isn’t running for re-election after serving three terms.

The winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary will face Mark Stephen Foster, an independent, in the November general election.

District 37 is entirely in Pulaski County, catching portions of North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Sherwood and Maumelle.

A logistics officer in the Army Reserves, Henry worked at North Little Rock High School, the

Boys and Girls

Club and as a special assistant to North

Little Rock Mayor Joe

Smith before assuming his current duties with the city. He also referees high school football games.

He graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff with a bachelor’s degree in social science, and he attained his teaching license through the nontraditional route.

If elected, he wants to fight for more funding for youth programs, which he said has slowly shrunk in recent years.

“I don’t know that youth are the focus anymore,” he said. “Something is going to have to be done at the state level.”

Scott received bachelor’s degrees in criminology and sociology and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Arkansas

State University. In addition to the Clinton campaign, she also worked on campaigns for state Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock and former U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, all Democrats. Prior to working for Pulaski County, she owned her own consulting firm and directed Arkansas Baptist College’s Upward Bound program.

Scott plans to place a heavy focus on education, particularly increasing funding for preschool and higher education, which she said has been funded at the same level for too long.

“I think economic development is driven by education,” Scott said, adding that she’d be a strong fighter for public schools. “I think the biggest and best investment we can make in this state is in education.”

Henry is more open to nontraditional schools.

“I’m for education, period,” he said. “I’ll never say public school is the only route for our kids.”

Henry also said he’d like to support legislation that would require high schools to offer an ACT prep course as an elective.

Both candidates support Arkansas Works, the state’s version of Medicaid expansion, and they’re wary of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s proposed income-tax cuts for Arkansas highest earners.

“We’ve got to get back to caring for people, and I don’t know if that’s giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us,” Scott said.

Henry said he’d want to be certain of a tax cut’s impacts before supporting it.

“Tax cuts are always good, but we have to figure out what’s being cut before we jump the gun and vote on something,” he said.

They both oppose Issue 1 — a so-called tort-reform measure on the November ballot that would cap certain damages and attorneys’ fees in civil lawsuits and give the Legislature rule-making authority over the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Scott said she’s supportive of law enforcement, but she’d like to see more funding for body cameras and dashboard cameras. She’d also like to see legislation requiring independent investigations of police shootings, which Henry also said he’d support.

“That’s protecting everybody, that’s showing transparency,” Scott said.

Both candidates said too many low-level, nonviolent offenders have been sucked into the justice system, and they hope the state will use more diversion courts and solutions that don’t include incarceration.

On abortion, Scott and Henry both said they hold abortion-rights views and support “a woman’s right to choose.”

Scott reported raising $23,529 and spending $17,698, according to campaign-finance reports on file with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office. Henry reported $7,119 in contributions and $6,278 in expenses. clined to say whether the security plans involve metal detectors, noting that state law prohibits the public disclosure of security details.

“The legislature made clear the importance of preserving confidentiality related to security plan details by creating an express exemption to their disclosure in the acts,” Trainor said in an email. “It would obviously undermine the intent of the security plan exemption if public officials are permitted to verbally disclose those details.”

The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in November tested metal detectors at a home football game. Monica Watts, the University of Alabama’s associate vice president for communications, did not respond to an email and voice message Friday asking whether metal detectors would be used by the school this fall.

War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, which hosts some Razorback football games, is considered a firearms-sensitive area, said Meg Matthews, a spokesman with Arkansas State Parks. She did not respond Friday to a question about whether metal detectors are planned for the stadium.

Kansas State University in 2017 paid about $382,000 for metal detectors and related equipment, Casey Scott, an executive associate athletic director for the school, said last year.

State Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, said in a phone interview that lawmakers “specifically in the law did not require metal detectors.”

Collins said a decision on whether to install the equipment is “the university’s business,” adding that “I’m sure they’re making all of their decisions based on facts and costs and benefits.”