Newcomers take on veteran legislator in House District 74

FORT SMITH — Two Republicans are seeking to oust a long-standing state representative in western Arkansas on March 3.

Tuesday will be the first day for early voting in the Republican primary for the state Representative District 74 position. Two challengers who have never run for the position before — Shawn Bates, 46, and Curtis J. Varnell, 66 — will face incumbent Jon S. Eubanks, 68, who is serving his fifth term in the state House of Representatives. The winner will face Democratic candidate June Anteski in the Nov. 3 general election.

Eubanks says he has the experience of knowing how “the process” works.

“It’s everything from knowing how to get the bills drafted to knowing the relationships that you have to be able to develop and build, not only within the House of Representatives, but with the Senate and with the governor’s office if you want to be successful in getting legislation passed and enacted,” Eubanks said. “Part of that process is knowing who to contact within state agencies in order to help deal with constituent issues.”

Eubanks also serves on the House Education Committee, the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Joint Budget Committee, the House Rules Committee and the Legislative Council Committee.

However, Eubanks’ perspective isn’t shared by his competition.

Varnell said he strongly believes in term limits, saying voters will not have to worry about him for more than two terms.

“That’s all I believe anybody should run, and the reason being is once you’ve been in office for a while, you forget that you represent District 74 and you start representing the interest in Little Rock, and I think that’s where we’re at,” Varnell said.

Although he never ran for any position in the past, Bates says nothing is getting done, District 74 is losing jobs and its roads haven’t been repaired.

“The poverty level has risen here 15% in the last 10 years, and you know who’s been in office then,” Bates said.

The position comes a yearly salary of $42,428. District 74 is comprised of parts of Franklin, Logan, Sebastian and Scott counties.

Eubanks said he lives in rural Logan County, although he has a Paris mailing address. He has owned and operated a farm for 43 years. He graduated from Annapolis High School in Maryland in 1969, and attended Virginia Tech before graduating from Arkansas Tech University with an accounting degree in 1990.

Eubanks said he wants to emphasize continuing to improve the kindergarten-through-12th grade system in Arkansas, in addition to career education and workforce training.

“We’ve got to have the jobs, but in order to have the jobs, we have to have the skilled workforce, and so, those two things tie together, and have the biggest impact on families and the future of not only our communities, local communities, but the state as a whole,” Eubanks said.

Tied in with all this, Eubanks said, is continuing to make Arkansas competitive in both the region and the United States. This is being done through the reduction of red tape, or bureaucracy, and continued tax reform. Tax reform is crucial to how and where business and industry decide to locate, Eubanks said, with the number one factor being a skilled workforce.

“The relative tax structure, or tax rate, is also something that is very important in that decision-making process,” Eubanks said.

Varnell lives in Paris and works as regional science/ social studies coordinator for the Guy Fenter Education Service Cooperative. He’s been a teacher for 40 years. Varnell graduated from Paris High School in 1971 and earned a general science and history/political science degree from Arkansas Tech University in 1975, a master’s degree in social studies education from Arkansas Tech University in 1982, a specialist degree in science education in 1988,

and a doctorate degree in geology from the University of Arkansas in 2004.

Varnell said he’s interested in revitalizing the community so children there don’t move away.

“And the biggest way that I see of doing that, 80% of our students do not go to college, and so we need to stress vocational education for our children, and it should be a part of their high schools, especially the last two years of high school,” Varnell said.

“Right now, we have a program that we started in Paris that allows welding and nursing. There is one at Magazine for forestry. We would like to see that increased in Booneville to include diesel mechanics, heavy equipment operating, and we think that we can train our kids so they’ll have starting jobs at a decent salary and can find jobs in the area and remain here. That would be a big thing.”

Bates lives in Subiaco, said he works as a general contractor with his company Bates Stone Work, which he formed about 15 years ago. He got his start in the stone business by helping his father before graduating from Paris High School in 1992. He has completed some online college classes from Arkansas Tech University.

Bates said the district wants growth.

“Without growth, we’re not getting our roads fixed, our teachers are underpaid,” Bates said. “We’re going to make sure we get some of that money that they’re putting on the highways because we’re paying taxes here.”

Bates said his main priority is to get additional jobs in the district, citing losses of jobs in both Paris and Booneville. He claimed the district would “really like some high-tech jobs,” but will take any jobs at the moment.

“I go to so many doors, and I’m knocking on doors, and these ladies that [are] coming to the door telling me how scared they are, thinking they’re going to lose their house because they just lost their job last year, and there’s no help,” Bates said. “They’re going to have to get up and move from a place that’s a really good place. It’s a really good place to live. … But we need somebody out there fighting for us to get some jobs here because people are scared.” Information for this article was contributed by Hunter Field and Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.