PEA RIDGE — Benton County’s “official website” doesn’t reflect it at this writing, but the area covered by this newspaper is going to be faced with decisions about local offices in the May 22 primary election. According to the daily newspaper (Rogers Morning News - Friday, March 2, 2012) both Justice of the Peace Districts 1 and 6 will have more than one Republican candidate for their seats on the Quorum Court.
District No. 1, somewhat smaller in gross area than before the 2010 census, has an incumbent, Dale King, being opposed by Mike McKenzie. The revised (redistricted) area will probably have little effect on the majority of readers of The Times since it is still the northeast most district in the county and includes Avoca, Garfield and Gateway.
District No. 6, which is “basically” a newly redrawn district as far as Pea Ridge is concerned, and includes Pea Ridge and Little Flock, has no incumbent. According to the filings listed in the March 2 edition of the Morning News, two individuals will be seeking the position as republicans in the May 22 primary. Herb Hawkins, who currently represents District 6, is in the revisedDistrict 6, but chose not to seek re-election in the newly-outlined district.
The names listed as filing for District 6 were Republicans William Pat Adams and Octavio Sanchez.
Other filings for county offices include incumbent County Judge Bob Clinard, who will be opposed by George Day, a Republican in the primary. An Independent, Robert L.
Smith, has made known his desire to qualify for the position by submitting petitions signed by registered Benton county voters. He will oppose the winner of the primary in the general election in November if he successfully completes the petition process by May 1, 2012.
The sheriff’s position is also open since Keith Ferguson chose to retire.
The two men in that election are both Republicans - Mike Jones, commander of the Sheriff’s Office’s Patrol Division, and Kelly Cradduck, a former police officer in Rogers who sought the position previously and lost to Sheriff Ferguson.
Our current county assessor, Bear Chaney will have an opponent, Valerie Brewer of Rogers, in the Republican primary. However, Circuit Clerk Brenda DeShields, County Clerk Tena O’Brien, Tax Collector Gloria Peterson, Treasurer Deanna Ratcliffe, Coroner David Oxford and Surveyor Ron Rideout (all incumbent Republicans) filed for re-election without opposition.
The new reduction in constable positions from 13 to five has resulted in changes to the township lines and I don’t have a map showing those changes. However, four of the five townships have multiple filings for the position. Township 1 has three Republicans filing, all with previous constable experience, Townships 2 and 4 have two Republicans filing and Township 3 has one Democrat and one Republican filing and they will oppose each other in November’s general election. Township 5 had only one person filing, a Republican.
The activity of county politics has at least cast a faint shadow on the Republican party’s presidential nomination process.
With “Super Tuesday” dominating the headlines, the four remainingcandidates have been busy bashing each other in pursuit of the 437 delegate votes at stake in the 10 states voting Tuesday, March 6.
The process of selecting state delegation members to the Republican Party’s National Convention is established by the National Party which leads to some interesting results. Ohio, which is generally considered the most significant of the 10 states in the general election in November, has 10 fewer convention delegates than Georgia, which has 76. The fewest delegate votes in Tuesday’s primary is Vermont with 17. Other states voting, or caucusing, Tuesday in order of delegates are Tennessee (58 seats), Virginia (49), Oklahoma (43), Massachusetts (41), Idaho (32), North Dakota (28) and Alaska (27). Wyoming seems to have an “ongoing” caucus primary process which in some internet articles indicates their results could be tabulated as an 11th state on Tuesday.◊◊◊
Editor’s note: 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].
News, Pages 4 on 03/07/2012