BENTON COUNTY — Seven candidates for the Arkansas 3rd District Congressional seat vied for support Saturday at an event held at Christ Ambassador’s Academy, a private Christian school in eastern Bella Vista known for its outstanding science program. The event was hosted by the Benton County Tea Party.

I am going to try to call this thing as straight as I can, but I have a bias. One of the candidates, Gravette City councilman Kurt Maddox, has hired me to consult with him on a very parttime basis. I like what I see and hear from him. Judging from the crowd response I’d say Maddox was the second-best received candidate, topped only by General Bernard Skoch, who has been in the race building support for months.

In addition to Maddox and Skoch, candidates were Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, State Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, Boone County Judge Mike Moore, former DEA agent Steve Lowery and businessman Damon Wallace.

The most fireworks from the night actually came from the candidate’s opening statements. The questions were such that there was general agreement on the answers and so there was no way to distinguish the candidates based on that segment of the program. One thing that did get my ears perked up was when Mayor Womack, who has a reputation for being tough on illegal immigration, said that he favored “some sort of glide path to citizenship” for illegal aliens so that we could “hang on to the good ones.” I always thought we had such a glide path, called “legal immigration.”

At any rate, if the only distinguishing feature on issues was that Womack sounded a little softer on illegal immigration than the others, it shows you that asa group the candidates are tough on that issue.

Skoch was challenging John Boozman before Boozman jumped into the U.S. Senate primary. The rest of them came into the race after Boozman left.

You can tell Skoch has been at this a while, he sounded confident and direct. He has also built up a base of support.

Skoch also threw the most elbows at the event.

“Peer into our eyes and ask yourself which of us is not a part of the problem,” he said. This was seen as a shot at Senator Bledsoe and Mayor Womack, who are widely perceived as the “establishment” choices in the race. But he rebuked all of the candidates when he chided them for waiting until Boozman left the race before jumping in.

Judge Moore was not having any of it. “Whether or not we got into this race months ago has no bearing on whether, or how much, we love our country.” Moore addressed the issue of whether a man from outside of vote-rich Benton County could win the nomination. “How many of you are going to pick your Congressman based on what county they are from?” Moore asked. “I’m with you” he said when no hands went up.

Bledsoe emphasized the positives in her record. “I did not know that beingin public office was such a bad thing, I thought it was a good thing,” she said. She also said that the people in her district, which includes northeast Benton County, will tell you that she has not forgotten them.

Agent Lowery had some good ideas and a good line, “I’ve been shot at in Bolivia and lied to in Washington,” but could not match some of the others in public speaking.

Damon Wallace spoke very well and cut a handsome figure, but did not give any compelling reason to back him over others in the race.

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Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, The Guide for the Perplexed. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 02/24/2010