You are probably aware that we had two positions on the Arkansas Supreme Court on our ballot in the non-partisan section. One of these positions had a lady Appeals Court Judge, Courtney Henry, opposing Judge John Fogleman. We will know the winner of this position by the time this edition of The TIMES arrives in our mailbox. The interesting thing about this race is Judge Henry’s radio ad asking us if we remember the cold days of February when 14,000 Arkansas voters signed petitions to put her on the ballot for this position. As well known as she became while seeking the seat on the Court of Appeals, I’m sure getting the necessary signatures was very easy.

What excites me about this situation is the process. According to her ad, this is the first time a ballot position has been obtained for the Arkansas Supreme Court by this method.

I wish all elected positions with or without political party affiliation were made available through the petition process rather than requiring using the “filing fee” method which we have come to accept. The filing fee for an associate justice on the Supreme Court was listed as $8,712 which in non-partisan races is paid to the state rather than a political party. It is my assumption that by filing by petition Judge Henry was not assessed even a small fee since that should be a method available to any qualified would-be candidate.

As my articles have expressed before, the political parties use filing fees as a means of raising funds to further their causes. You must decide for yourself how you feel about this system. In fact, if you look at the article from a few weeks ago about Florida’s problems with Republican Party finances, you may come to the conclusion they have too much money.

We have eight, count ’em, candidates running for the U.S. Senate as Republicans - Alexander, Baker, Boozman, Coleman, Hendren, Holt, Ramsey and Reynolds. The filing fee for the Republican Party is $12,500 per candidate for a total of $100,000 if I calculate correctly. (The filing fees were published Sunday, Feb. 28, in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.) There are only three Democrats in the primary - Sen. Lincoln, Halter and Morrison- and at $10,000 each, the Democratic Party would pickup $30,000. Either way you choose to file, that is a pretty hefty price tag to pay just to run under a party label to serve your state in Washington. (I know they all want to serve because they said they did.)

The necessity of candidates and their representatives meeting enough voters to get petitions signed should be reason enough for us to proclaim our right to demand that all politicalparties make this avenue of getting on the ballot available to every candidate.

This method of meeting the voters before the filing period might have discouraged some and might have made way for others to participate, but regardless it sure seems more “American” to me.

The Democratic Party would take in another $8,000 for the one person seeking the District 3 House Seat. The Republicans charge $7,500 to file as a candidate for the U. S.

House of Representatives so the eight candidates seeking the District 3 position as Republicans contribute another $60,000.

The total amount received through these fees will be a significant number if you take all the offices being sought by both Democrats and Republicans statewide.

It probably won’t make me very popular with my Republican friends, or with those who believe America can’t exist without political parties, but I’m of the opinion that the “official parties” are most of the problem. When the party - regardless of which one it is - isn’t willing to support good legislation being proposed by the other party, the big loser is the nation and we the people.

The parties have a lot to gain by controlling elected offices and we are perpetuating the problem when we vote a party-line.

Before anything could change to even balance out the effects of money and power in the voting process, you and I wouldbe required to learn more about Independent candidates and be willing to vote for them and actively support their candidacy.

They would be dependent on the voters and not the political party for support.

That would be a gigantic leap of faith for many of us since we have been “tied to the party” for so long. I really liked what I found while researching the information on Sen. Sanders (Independent Democrat) of Vermont. It was truly refreshing to hear a senator speak so candidly about “business in Washington.”

If the comments in the article appearing in the daily papers are anywhere near accurate, we might see some major shifts taking place in our Washington legislators. That makes it even more critical that we get serious about our expectations for thosewe send into the beltway to represent us. It is very likely, almost assured, that there will be a run-off election for both the Republican Senate and House seats, and possibly could even be a run-off in the Democratic Senate election.

It is an exciting and challenging time for Arkansans.◊◊◊

Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].

The opinions of the writer are his own, and are not necessarily those of The TIMES.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 05/19/2010