LR board positions draw 14 hopefuls
One incumbent is unchallenged
Fourteen candidates are running for four seats on the Little Rock Board of Directors, including one incumbent who will be unopposed in November
The filing deadline was noon Friday. The election is Nov. 3.
No one filed to run against Ward 4’s Capi Peck, a restaurateur who was first elected to the seat in 2016.
Peck said she had raised about $40,000 in case of a challenger and plans to either refund the money to donors if they want it back and donate the rest to charitable causes throughout the city.
“I’m just so delighted that I’ll be able to do that,” she said. “I had a pretty good idea that I would not get an opponent, but we’ve had a couple of people file at the eleventh hour. You never know until you get to that filing deadline.”
Ward 4 covers an area mainly west of Mississippi Street, north of Markham Street, east of Hinson Road, and south of the Little Maumelle River.
All three at-large seats on the city board are up for grabs, and two of the three incumbents are running for reelection.
Dean Kumpuris, a gastroenterologist who was appointed to the at-large Position 8 seat in 1997 and has been continuously reelected since, will have two opponents in November.
Phillip Bryant, a retiree and writer, and Russ Racop, a blogger and local government critic, are challenging
him for the seat.
Seven candidates are running for the at-large Position 9 seat, which Gene Fortson will vacate at year’s end. They are:
■ David Alan Bubbus, president of David’s Burgers;
■ Tom Horton, a retired pharmacist;
■ Leron McAdoo, an educator in the Little Rock School District;
■ Rohn Muse, a professor and interior designer;
■ Dale Pekar, a community activist and former economist;
■ Antwan Phillips, an attorney;
■ Glen Schwarz, a marijuana decriminalization advocate.
Joan Adcock holds the atlarge Position 10 seat, which she first won in 1992.
She has drawn two challengers: Greg Henderson, publisher/president of Rock City Eats, and Sheridan Richards, a human-resources professional. The 2020 city board race ties with the 1996 and 2000 elections for the highest number of candidates for the Ward 4 and at-large seats, according to information provided by Scott Whiteley Carter, the city’s public affairs and creative economy adviser. The first year such an election took place was 1996.
The other six city director seats, as well as the mayoral position, will be up for election in the next cycle in two years.