March 10 is the deadline for candidates to file in the Arkansas primary (for office other than president). The Republican Party state chair announced on March 10 that no Republican will run for U.S. Senate. Therefore, unless an independent candidate qualifies (which is unlikely; 10,000 signatures would be required by mid-May), the only two candidates on the November ballot will be Green Rebekah Kennedy, and incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor.
Go Rebekah! If she gets more than 3%, will that have implications for ballot access?
Why has the GOP decided to pass on this race?
Unfortunately, no matter what percentage Rebekah gets, it won’t affect ballot status. Only the vote for president counts in a presidential election year. The party needs 3% for that.
NF,
Probably because they’re going to have to play defense on so many seats that they didn’t even want to have to worry about Arkansas.
This is pathetic on the part of Arkansas Republicans. Is this the legacy of 10 and 1/2 years of Mike Huckabee?
Even the Mississippi Democrats have two candidates– Erik Fleming and Shawn O’Hara– vying for the right to get pulverized by Sen. Thad Cochran in November.
Bravo Arkansas Green Party!
Our Gail “for Rail” Parker traveled to Arkansas in August and helped collect signatures to assist the Green Party in gaining ballot access.
This is huge for the Green Party for several reasons. It will push up the Presidential votes. Helps to establish Greens in Arkansas as a positive, and true fiscally conservative alternative. Calling for counting and controlling unreasonable no bid contracts at pentagon etc.
Thanks for the great news.
As usual, Carey Campbell is confused about the Green Party, which he has been kicked out of twice and has no business speaking for, on a couple of levels.
First of all, having a candidate for US Senate on the ballot is not going to “push up the Presidential votes.” No one comes to the polls, especially in Arkansas, to vote for a 3rd party Senate candidate and then casts a presidential vote because he or she happens to be in the polling place anyway.
Second, the Green Party does not, and never would, identify itself as being “fiscally conservative.” That is one of Carey Campbell’s stock slogans he uses to describe his offshoot party in Virginia, a group that is affiliated with the Independence Party. Perhaps the IP can be described that way, although frankly it’s hard to tell what their ideology is or what they stand for, which, as it happens, makes it a perfect fit for Mr. Campbell and his group.