Democratic candidate filing fees unchanged

HOT SPRINGS — The Democratic Party of Arkansas on Saturday decided not to lower its filing fees for the next election cycle, bucking a wing of the party pushing for over a year to make the fees more affordable.

Members of the party’s state committee, meeting in Hot Springs, agreed after several hours of debate to keep filing fees at $3,000 for state House candidates and $4,500 for state Senate candidates in 2020.

Both major political parties in Arkansas have filing fees for state legislative candidates averaging the highest in the nation,

according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The state is one of three, along with Delaware and Alabama, where filing fee amounts are set by political parties, not the state.

The Republican Party of Arkansas’ filing fees are $3,000 for state House candidates and $7,500 for state Senate candidates.

Filing fees have remained the same for GOP candidates for the past two election cycles, and party chairman Doyle Webb said Saturday there are no plans to change the fees before 2020.

A working group of Democratic Party members assembled earlier this year to look into filing fees and presented its proposal Saturday to the state committee. The proposal included a 5% cut for filing fees for legislative races in 2020, followed by a commitment to cut filing fees an additional 10% across all races in 2022.

A contingent of Democrats on the state committee, however, complained the proposed cuts didn’t go far enough. Others stated concerns cutting the fees too dramatically would strain the party’s budget.

“In order to be responsible financially, our proposal to you is to cut fees slowly,” said Betty Pickett, a former state representative who served as chairman of the Democrats’ filing fees committee.

An amended motion to increase the filing fee cuts to 10% failed, and a motion by state party chairman Michael John Gray to raise fees in incumbent Democratic districts while lowering them elsewhere was withdrawn, after it was determined the motion was out of order.

In a final voice vote, the party adopted the plan to keep the fees the same, with a commitment to an acrossthe-board, 10% cut in 2022, subject to another vote in two years.

Cutting the filing fees 10% would cost the party about $18,000 from state legislative races — or about the annual cost of the party’s mortgage on its offices in Little Rock — Gray said, assuming the same number of candidates file for office as in 2018.

The party’s decision also included a commitment to draft clearer rules for how candidates who have trouble affording the filing fees may petition for ballot access. The Republican Party doesn’t allow candidates to use petitions to avoid paying filing fees.

One of the leading proponents for reducing the filing fees, state Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, was unable to attend the meeting Saturday because of a family commitment, he said.

Leding, who described the working group’s proposal as “timid,” and the eventual result of the meeting “incredibly disappointing,” said lowering the filing fees would remove a barrier in finding candidates willing to run for office.

“There are clear calls for the party to do something, and it came away today with the same fees in place,” Leding said.

Gray said he agreed the fees should be lower, but he called on members of the state committee to focus their energies on fundraising more generally, in order for the party’s budget to be less reliant on filing fees.

Speaking afterward, Gray said the lengthy debate reflected new membership in the party, which for years was headed by a string of Democratic governors. The party’s grip on state government dissolved in 2015, when Republican candidates posted big wins in statewide and congressional offices.

“In order to be responsible financially, our proposal to you is to cut fees slowly.” — Betty Pickett, a former state representative who served as chairman of the Democrats’ filing fees committee