2018 midterm Elections,
The 2018 U.S. midterm elections shook things up not only on the national level, but on the state and local levels as well. For residents of Siloam Springs, Nov. 6, 2018, was a day to decide who would represent Wards 1, 3 and 4 on the city board of directors.
The director of Ward 1, Steve Beers, chose not to run for re-election, prompting candidates Mindy Hunt and former mayor and board director David Allen to run for the seat; Hunt claimed victory by a margin of 59 to 41 percent.
Director Amy Smith of Ward 4 also decided not to run for re-election, resulting in a race between Morgan Scholz and Lesa Rissler (formerly Brosch). Voters were a little more divided in this case, with Rissler winning 54 percent of the vote compared to Scholz’ 46 percent.
As for Ward 3, the incumbent, Frank Johnson, was unseated by candidate Marla Sappington after she won a decisive 57 percent of the vote. With three new members and three new perspectives regarding the direction of the city, this is significant for the board. The first meeting for Hunt, Sappington and Rissler will take place on Jan. 2.
In a candidate forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 23, each of the six candidates fielded questions relating to a number of issues taking place in the city. A few of the more notable moments involved questions relating to recent proposals to rezone certain residential areas to make way for multi-family housing construction, whether streets and sidewalks are being adequately maintained by the city or whether they were supportive of the bike lane pilot project.
On the state level, voters were presented with the choice between incumbent State Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R), and her democratic opponent, Kelly Scott Unger, to represent district 87 in the Arkansas State House of Representatives. In the end, Lundstrum claimed victory by a margin of 70 to 30 percent.
The two participated in the chamber’s candidate forum and were asked about their stances on several hot-button issues such as abortion, increasing the minimum wage, same sex marriage or the use of medical cannabis. On all of these issues as well as others that were asked, both candidates walked closely along party lines.