Judicial hopefuls share views

LITTLE ROCK — Candidates for the Arkansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals answered questions from voters Saturday afternoon in a forum organized by National Pan-Hellenic Council alumni ahead of the March 5 nonpartisan elections for judicial positions.

Saturday’s forum featured three candidates for the Court of Appeals’ District, 6 Position 1, two for

the Supreme Court’s Position 2 and three for chief justice of the Supreme Court.

It was the second of two forums organized by the Little Rock alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. at the Delta Presents Outreach Foundation in Little Rock.

The first, on Thursday evening, gave voters a chance to get to know candidates for Little Rock District Court, the Pulaski County District Court and the 6th Judicial Circuit Court, encompassing Perry and Pulaski counties.

All candidates were given a minute for their introduction and then answered both prepared and audience-submitted questions about their history, character and platform.

Supreme Court Justices Karen Baker, Rhonda Wood and Barbara Webb and Little Rock attorney Jay Martin are running for chief justice of the Supreme Court, although Baker was not present for Saturday’s forum.

Circuit Judge Carlton Jones and Justice Courtney Hudson are running for the Supreme Court’s Position 2, the position vacated by Robin Wynne, who died in June at age 70.

Circuit Judge Casey Tucker and attorneys Pam Hathaway and Molly McNulty are vying for District 6 Position 1 on the Arkansas Court of Appeals.

Martin is the only chief justice candidate who is not a sitting justice, but that is not a requirement for the position, the moderators said. By comparison, Wood has served as a judge for 17 years and is in her second term on the Supreme Court, while Webb was elected in 2019 and sworn in in 2020 after serving as a judge since 2005.

Wood and Webb both pointed to their history in the judicial field as their bona fides, while Martin, who is also a pastor, suggested his position as an outsider is a selling point.

He has an “attorney’s mind and a pastor’s heart,” Martin told the audience, and suggested that his time working with people on the streets of Little Rock to get their records expunged or serving at legal clinics was as valuable