Webb overtakes Welch in overall fundraising

Arkansas Supreme Court candidate Barbara Webb leapfrogged her opponent, Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch, to take a sizable overall fundraising lead last month in the race for an open seat on the state’s highest court.

Webb, the wife of Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb, raised $92,674 in January, according to her campaign’s latest financial report. More than a third of the money her campaign raised last month came from political action committees and local Republican groups.

It was the third straight month Webb out-raised Welch in fundraising.

Welch, who started his campaign earlier, maintained a total fundraising lead going into January.

Welch raised $39,575 last month, which his campaign reported came entirely from individual donors.

“The latest numbers are telling me that our campaign is seeing a lot of interest,” Webb said.

In response to the latest disclosures from the campaigns Monday, Welch repeated his criticism Webb’s close ties to the Republican Party erodes the nonpartisan nature of judicial elections.

“One of us is running a nonpartisan race,” Welch said.

In her financial report, Webb reported receiving two in-kind donations totaling almost $2,000 from the Republican Party of Crawford County and the Sebastian County Republican Women to purchase a billboard in Fort Smith supporting Webb. The billboard refers to Webb as a “conservative for Supreme Court.”

Webb also reported donations from Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s political action committee in January. Campaign literature mailed by Webb’s campaign features a quote from Hutchinson supporting Webb upon his appointing her to fill a vacant circuit judgeship in 2017.

Welch — whose daughter, Ashley Hudson, is running for a state legislative seat as a Democrat — has responded to questions about his own political ties by stating his son, Rick, is a Republican.

Responding to Welch’s criticism of her campaign Monday, Webb pointed out the majority of Welch’s donors were attorneys.

“My contributions are coming from a diverse group of people, as opposed to a small faction of people,” she said.

At the end of January, Webb reported having raised $163,454 since launching her campaign, and had $84,879 available.

Welch reported raising $138,671, with $21,392 cash on hand. Welch reported spending a much larger chunk of his fundraising haul on online ads.

Welch also recently began to purchase television ads in the Little Rock market.

Early voting in the March 3 election — the nonpartisan general election as well as party primary elections — begins today.

The candidates will have one final pre-election campaign finance report to submit before the election.

So, far out-of-state groups have yet to spend large sums of money in the race, as they have done in past years.

The Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative, which spent more than $2.6 million on judicial races in Arkansas in 2018, filed organization papers with the secretary of state’s office last week.

The committee has yet to report spending any money in Arkansas this cycle. Its representatives haven’t responded to requests for comment.