2 hopefuls vie to finish up Files’ term
Fort Smith men run quiet race for state Senate time that’s over at year’s end
Former Republican state Rep. Frank Glidewell and Libertarian candidate Whitfield Hyman are vying in an Aug. 14 special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat in western Arkansas until January.
The Fort Smith men said they’re not raising funds or planning on campaigning much for the post.
Early voting for the Aug. 14 special election starts Tuesday, said Chris Powell, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.
Also on the Aug. 14 ballot in Sebastian County are three-candidate races for both mayor and Fort Smith director position 5.
Glidewell said he isn’t taking anything for granted in the special election, but he figures the odds are that he’ll win.
Hyman said no Libertarian candidate has won election to a state office in Arkansas, but he’s still hoping to be elected.
“If I won this election, it would put me in a great position to defeat Mat Pitsch in the general election,” Hyman said.
The winner of the special election will serve in the Senate District 8 seat until the start of the regular legislative session on Jan. 14. Glidewell advanced to the special election by defeating former Rep. Denny Altes of Fort Smith in the May 22 Republican primary election.
In the Nov. 6 general election, Hyman is vying with Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, to serve a four-year term to represent the district starting Jan. 14.
As a state representative, Pitsch was precluded under the Arkansas Constitution from running to fill the Senate vacancy this year. Pitsch ran instead to fill the seat next year and defeated Glidewell by 79 votes to win the Republican nomination in a June 19 runoff election.
The seat has been vacant since Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, resigned in February. Files pleaded guilty in late January to felony charges of wire fraud, money laundering and bank fraud. In June, he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and reported to prison Thursday in Oklahoma.
District 8 covers part of Sebastian County. It includes part of Fort Smith and Greenwood, Hackett and Bonanza.
Glidewell, a 72-year-old retired electrical contractor, said he plans to put out a few campaign signs.
“But I don’t think I am going to do much campaigning. If [Hyman] goes to campaigning a bit, I am probably going to join him,” he said in an interview last week. He said he isn’t raising funds for the special election either because “I don’t want to bother my friends for this.”
Glidewell said he isn’t taking the special election for granted although he said the odds are that he will win.
He said voters should cast their ballots for him instead of Hyman because “I have a record of opposing taxes, corruption and Obamacare.”
Glidewell served in the House of Representatives from 2005-11, but lost in a 2010 Republican primary runoff to Files running for the Senate. Glidewell also served as county judge in Sebastian County from 199798 and several terms as a Sebastian County justice of the peace.
Hyman, 32, said his wife, Natalie King Hyman, is on maternity leave. They’re both attorneys who work on cases together, so he now has more work than usual, he said.
“I am probably not going to go out any more and campaign until the situation here changes,” he said. He said he isn’t accepting donations for his Senate campaign either and spent $50 to file as a Libertarian candidate.
Hyman said voters should cast their ballots for him because he believes that he is for more personal freedom and getting government more out of people’s lives than Glidewell. He said he wants to end corporate welfare, restrict occupational licensing and legalize all uses of marijuana, although he acknowledged the latter isn’t going to happen in Arkansas. (Voters approved medical marijuana in 2016.)
Hyman acknowledged that he voted for Glidewell in the Republican primary and runoff elections.
Both candidates said they oppose Arkansas’ version of Medicaid expansion that provides private health insurance to about 280,000 low-income Arkansans.
They also oppose Issue 1, a legislatively proposed constitutional amendment that would limit non-economic and punitive damages in civil lawsuits, limit attorneys’ contingency fees and allow the Legislature to amend and repeal the state Supreme Court’s rules of pleading, practice or procedure with a three-fifths vote.
In a YouTube video that was posted last month on his Facebook page, Hyman said, “[In] the special election, we are having an election for that to have a person basically in there for three months during the fiscal session … so there is going to be some important financial votes.
“I will be voting no against increased spending on just about every project, no against funding things that we shouldn’t fund like Arkansas’ version of Obamacare, or just increased funds to our prisons for crimes that should probably be dealt with in more of a mental health aspect and not a prison aspect,” he said.
In an interview, Hyman said he mistakenly thought there was going to be a fiscal session in June when he taped the video.
The Arkansas General Assembly’s 29-day fiscal session ended on March 12.
As a Libertarian candidate in 2014, Hyman lost a race for Washington County constable to Republican John Duggar after earning his law degree at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 2013. As a Libertarian candidate in 2016, he lost a race for Sebastian County justice of the peace to former Rep. Jim Medley, R-Fort Smith.
The Arkansas Senate is made up of 25 Republicans and nine Democrats.
State lawmakers are paid $41,393 a year, while the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore get salaries of $47,277. They also are paid per diem and mileage for attending legislative meetings and sessions.