District 19 senator to seek re-election

Another lawmaker earlier announced plan to challenge GOP’s Collins-Smith

During the spring legislative session, Collins-Smith introduced a socalled bathroom bill to make public restrooms assigned to a specific gender off limits to transgender people who have a different sex printed on their birth certificates.

Republican state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith of Pocahontas announced her re-election bid Wednesday, joining a race that already includes a GOP candidate seeking to move from the House to the Senate.

Collins-Smith, 54, who’s in her second Senate term, originally declined to say whether she was running for re-election when state Rep. James Sturch of Batesville announced for her seat in June. On Tuesday, she issued a release confirming her campaign.

Senate District 19 in northeast Arkansas includes Independence, Izard, Sharp and portions of Fulton and Randolph counties. Sturch represents House District 63 in Independence County.

Democrats have not announced a candidate for the Senate seat.

During the spring legislative session, Collins-Smith introduced a so-called bathroom bill to make public restrooms assigned to a specific gender off limits to transgender people who have a different sex printed on their birth certificates. Gov. Asa Hutchinson had made it well known he thought such a law unnecessary, and the bill ultimately failed.

Also in that session, Collins-Smith criticized efforts by some Republicans to reduce concealed-carry restrictions in public places, saying the efforts did not go far enough in supporting the right to carry guns.

In a phone call with a reporter after her announcement, Collins-Smith said she would reintroduce her bathroom legislation if re-elected. She also said she would work to “clean up Second Amendment law … which you almost have to carry a book to figure out.”

In her news release, Collins-Smith pointed to two bills she co-sponsored — one to stiffen penalties for protesters who interfere with first responders and another to make truck drivers take a human-trafficking-prevention course — as examples of her legislative work in 2017.

In his own campaign announcement, Sturch, 26, touted his ability to work with Hutchinson, a Republican governor, on taxes and continuing the state’s private-option Medicaid expansion.

Collins-Smith has opposed the Medicaid expansion, which uses federal dollars to buy health insurance for low-income people. She supported Hutchinson’s main tax-cut proposal this year, but voted “present” on a related measure.

“If elected to the State Senate, I will continue being a reasonable, conservative voice for North Central Arkansas,” Sturch said in an email.

Collins-Smith said she has a positive relationship with the governor, while pointing to Medicaid expansion as an area where they will not agree. Asked if she had an alternative plan for providing health coverage, she said she would share it at another time.

“Where we can work together, we do,” Collins-Smith said of Hutchinson.

Her husband, 3rd Judicial Circuit Judge Philip Smith, sent Hutchinson a letter earlier this month announcing his intention retire at the end of the year, instead of finishing his current term, which ends in 2020.

Reached at his office Wednesday, Smith said he was 68 years old and wanted to have more free time to “do things I want to do.” He said he hoped that would include campaigning with his wife next year.

“I wish politicians would simply do what they say they’re going to do,” Smith said. “She’s among the very finest of legislators.”

Hutchinson has not announced a replacement for Smith’s spot on the bench.