3 at-large LR seats on ballot this week
For the first time in 16 years, Little Rock voters will be asked to cast ballots Tuesday for all three at-large seats on the Little Rock Board of Directors.
This year, all three incumbents decided to run for re-election to the fouryear terms, and challengers stepped up in all three races. The positions each pay $12,000 annually.
For at-large Position 8, incumbent Dean Kumpuris, who was appointed to fill an open position on the board in 1995, is facing challengers Lynette Bryant and Adam Lansky.
Kumpuris was the first person elected to the citywide at-large seat in 1996 — when that seat was phased in — and he has not had an opponent on the ballot in the three elections since.
Bryant, a substitute teacher studying for her medical boards, lost a bid for the Ward 5 seat to Director Lance Hines in 2010.
Lansky is a first-time candidate who has been an outspoken member of the Occupy Little Rock movement. He won a court challenge to get on the November ballot after he and another potential candidate sued the city clerk’s office over signatures that were disqualified from candidate petitions because the addresses didn’t match the voter registration list.
A Pulaski County circuit judge ruled that Lansky should be put on the ballot but sided against Kaitlin Lott appearing on the Position
10 ballot because one of her signatures did not include an address at all.
Lott has appealed the ruling, but the case will not be heard in time for the election this week.
For at-large Position 9, incumbent Gene Fortson is running for his second full term against challengers Willard Proctor Jr. and Glen Schwarz.
Fortson was appointed to fill the seat held by Barbara Graves in 2006, when she resigned to make an unsuccessful run for mayor. He was elected in 2008, beating out two opponents, including Schwarz.
Schwarz is making his seventh run for elected office and is also running as the Libertarian candidate for the Arkansas Senate in District 31 against incumbent Joyce Elliott.
Schwarz is the president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Proctor is a lawyer and a former judge who was removed from the 6th Judicial District bench in 2010.
The state Supreme Court stripped Proctor of his judgeship over a conflict of interest with what it called an unlawful civil-probation program, Cycle Breakers Inc., and personal contact with some defendants, according to court documents.
Proctor appealed the decision and launched a challenge to the law that barred him from sitting on the bench in Arkansas in the future, but lost when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal last year.
Since then, Proctor has taken on some high-profile cases: representing a school board member suing those who set her up to make it appear that she was taking a bribe, fired Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper and others.
In the race for at-large Position 10, incumbent Joan Adcock is facing Robert Webb. Adcock was elected to the board in 1993 and has held the citywide position since it was phased in. If she wins re-election, she will be the longest-serving city director in Little Rock history.
Webb is a community activist who has taken vocal stands against the citywide sales tax passed in 2011, the millage extension passed in September and the vote in 2007 to increase the city mayor’s powers. Webb made an unsuccessful run for Ward 1 director in 2010.
The candidates have faced off about a half-dozen times in candidate forums over the past month.
The incumbents have said they want to return to office to make sure the board keeps its promises for spending the capital projects millage extension passed by voters in September and the citywide sales tax increase passed in 2011.
Webb, Bryant and Proctor have said they want voters to decide if the city should keep at-large directors or redistrict to make 10 ward-specific representatives.
Proctor said he hopes to work on providing all people with access to government, creating opportunities so young people don’t feel they need to leave to succeed, and advocating for prevention and intervention programs.
Webb said he wants to better represent the entire city and “give government back to the people.” Webb said he hopes to work on dividing the city’s tax revenue fairly, revitalizing older neighborhoods, passing a residency policy for city employees, and working on prevention, intervention and treatment programs to address black-on-black crime.
Bryant said she is concerned about how the board is spending tax dollars and serving the entire city.
Schwarz said his main attention would be on supporting a medical marijuana dispensary inside Little Rock and finding ways to make the city more sustainable for the “postpetroleum age.”
Lansky said he ran for office because of the contention over the location search for the Little Rock Technology Park. He said he hopes to shift choices at the city level from business-based decisions to values-based decisions.
According to campaign-finance reports filed last week, all three incumbents have outraised and outspent their opponents by large margins.
Kumpuris raised close to $83,450 and spent more than $43,933 as of Oct. 27, according to his report. Bryant had not filed her pre-election report as of Friday, and Lansky had raised and spent about $500.
Fortson had raised about $56,000 and spent about $49,230, according to his report filed Monday. Schwarz had not filed a report as of Friday, but in previous interviews he said he raised and spent less than $500, meaning he would not have to file a report. Proctor raised about $2,110 and spent about $3,513 — partly from his own money.
Adcock raised a little more than $17,020 and spent $11,429, while Webb raised $3,150 and spent $2,792, according to their reports.