Libertarians in state announce nominees

The Libertarian Party of Arkansas announced Thursday that it has nominated candidates to run in all four Congressional districts, three state Senate districts and a state House district, the first time the party has met the requirements to field candidates for office other than president.

The U.S. Congressional candidates are Jessica Paxton of Marion for the 1st District, Chris Hayes of Little Rock for the 2nd, David Pangrac of Van Buren for the 3rd and Robert “Bobby” Tullis of Mineral Springs for the 4th.

Candidates for the state legislative races are Frank Gilbert of Tull for Senate District 13, David Dinwiddie of Pine Bluff for Senate District 25, Glen Schwarz of Little Rock for Senate District 31 and Rodger Paxton of Marion for House District 5.

Candidates were nominated at the party’s convention April 14, a news release from the party states.

Arkansas Code Annotated 7-7-205 says a new party seeking to be recognized must submit at least 10,000 signatures of registered voters to the secretary of state. The party submitted more than 16,000 signatures of registered voters to the secretary of state in 2011 to be certified as a new political party, the release states.

Tullis is running in the Libertarian Party after stints with two other parties.

Tullis ran on the Green Party ticket to challenge Democrat state Treasurer Martha Shoffner in 2010. He lost with 32.46 percent of the vote. He ran simultaneously for mayor of Mineral Springs, but lost the runoff election.

Tullis was a Democratic state representative from 1979 to 1993.