Primary candidates self-fund campaigns

Funeral director Justin Nicklas has spent more than $13,000 of his own money in the Republican primary for Garland County coroner, according to the preelection report he filed with the county clerk’s office Wednesday.

Incumbent Stuart Smedley hasn’t filed a report detailing financial activity that occurred up to 10 days before the May 24 primary, telling The Sentinel-Record on Friday that his campaign hasn’t reached the reporting threshold. Candidates aren’t required to file preelection or monthly reports until they’ve raised or spent $500.

Tuesday was the deadline to file preelection reports.

Nicklas reported $13,339 in campaign expenses, including $4,458 for direct mail marketing

and $3,437 on signs and banners.

Senate race

Through May 14, Sen. Bill Sample, R-District 14, had outspent Justice of the Peace Matt McKee, R-District 9, by almost four to one in the Republican primary for the District 6 state Senate seat, according to reports they filed with the state.

Sample reported $125,345 in expenses and $125,704 in contributions, including more than $30,000 in personal funds he donated to the campaign in June. After reporting no March expenses, the campaign spent almost $90,000 in April and the first two weeks of May, including more than $40,000 on TV advertising and more than $17,000 on radio advertising.

The campaign reported a $359 fund balance.

McKee’s campaign reported $34,579 in expenses and $41,922 in contributions. The campaign outspent Sample’s during March, reporting more than $10,000 in expenses, and increased its spending in April, spending $10,764 during the month. Most of the money went to direct mail marketing.

The campaign reported a $9,342 fund balance 10 days prior to the May 24 primary, which included $2,000 McKee loaned to his campaign.

The new Senate map adopted last year put McKee and Sample in District 6, which comprises most of Garland County and northern Saline County. District 14, which Sample has represented for a decade, reaches farther into south and east Saline County.

JP races

Real estate broker Dayton Myers has been the most active fundraiser in the three-way Republican primary for the District 7 JP seat on the Garland County Quorum Court.

The $2,600 in contributions he reported through May 14 included 17 individual donations. He’s loaned $750 to his campaign and reported $3,258 in expenses.

Incumbent John Paul Faulkner, the manager of the city of Hot Springs public works department’s street division, self-funded his campaign, contributing $1,648 and reporting the same amount in expenses.

Retired pastor Bill Fleming reported $2,467 in expenses.

The three candidates are vying to represent southeast Garland County on the quorum court.

District 13 candidate Jerry Vaughn reported a $1,287 loan to his campaign and the same amount in expenses. Vaughn owns a masonry company and several other businesses. He’s running to unseat incumbent Larry Raney in the Republican primary.

Raney is seeking a fifth term on the county’s legislative and budgeting authority. He’s served on planning commissions for the city of Hot Springs, Tulsa, Okla., and the Houston suburbs.

District 13 runs from east of Highway 7 north and Fox Pass Cutoff to the Saline and Hot Spring county lines.

House race

District 90 is the county’s only state House race featuring two Republicans, Rep. Richard Womack, R-District 18, of Arkadelphia, and Alan Floyd, of Pearcy.

Womack, a contractor, reported $30,214 in expenses and $35,472 in contributions through May 14, leaving a campaign fund balance of more than $5,000. Floyd, a nurse, has self-funded his campaign, telling the Republican Party of Garland County earlier this month that he’s not accepting donations.

He reported $4,769 in expenses, most of which went to his $3,000 party filing fee, and a $219 campaign fund balance. Floyd had not filed a preelection report as of Friday, the secretary of state’s office said.

The northern edge of District 90 extends into the southeast Garland County area that’s been in District 26 since 2011. The new district reaches to the southern shores of lakes Hamilton and Catherine but is mostly in Hot Spring and Clark counties.