Independents Make Their Mark in County Races

As you may know, I am with Neighbors of Arkansas, an outfit which encourages decentralization and diversification in government. Specifically, we encourage citizens to go around the terminally corrupt two party system which has mismanaged this nation into fiscal and moral bankruptcy. One way they can do this is to run for office as something besides a Republican or a Democrat. We like the independent route because then it is clear they owe their offices to the folks back home, and not a party label managed from Washington D.C.

Going down the list of the election results, we noticed that quite a few independents either won or did well in their races. I went to the Secretary of State's website and made a quick list. I am sure that I missed some. I do not count races for city offices, or for constable, but only for paid positions in public office.

Here is the list of those candidates. If they got 25% or less of the vote I did not include them. If they lost, I put the vote percentage. If they are in a runoff I put an "RO" beside their vote percentage.

First Name	Last Name	County	Office Sought	Won/Lost
Beth	Rush	Ashley	Assessor	w
Sue	Croswell Gwin	Ashley	Assessor	L 44
David "Keith"	Medders	Ashley	Coroner	L 41
Corliss	MCCain	Ashley	JP 1	W
Glenn	Latham	Benton	Sheriff	L 28
Mark Steven	Fowler	Boone	JP 3	L 36
Bobby	Woods	Boone	JP 6	W
Tom	Calhoon	Clark	JP 6	W
Ricky	Arnold	Clark	JP 11	RO 35
Larry	Goff	Cleburne	JP 11	W
Ken	Stacks	Craighead	JP 1	W
Barbara	Weinstock	Craighead	JP 5	W
Connie	Beyerle	Crawford	Assessor	L 31
Elaine	Stanfield	Crawford	JP 10	L 30
Butch	Barnes	Crawford	JP 13	W
Hess	Michael	Cross	JP 6	L 37
Jerald	Clarke	Drew	Sheriff	L 36
Jim	Kendrick	Fulton	County Judge	L 48
Lynn	Guffy	Fulton	JP 2	RO 44
Billie J.	Gibson	Fulton	JP 7	RO 36
Clay	Herrmann	Garland	County Judge	L 30
Cash	Mike	Hot Spring	County Sheriff	RO 21
Damon	Dyer	Hot Spring	JP 6	L 33
James	Elbert	Izard	JP 9	L 43
Mike	Rowe	Lafayette	County Judge	W
William "Bill"	Powell	Lawrence	JP 1	W
Debbie	Anhalt	Logan	JP 6	W
Bob	Krepps	Logan	JP 7	W
Gerald	Hodgson	Logan	JP 9	W
Jim	St. Clair	Madison	JP 9	L 35
Michael	Scrima	Marion	JP 1	W
Jerry L.	Mitchell	Monroe	JP 8	L 44
Harl	Bohannon	Newton	County Judge	L 31
John D.	Phillips	Newton	JP 9	W
Russell	Weaver	Perry	JP 3	L 44
Barbara	Whiteley	Scott	Circuit Clerk	W
Randy	Shores	Scott	Sheriff/Collector	RO 35
Bill	Bates	Scott	JP 2	W
Alvin	Carnarhan	Scott	JP 5	L 43
Tommy	Roberson	Scott	JP 6	RO 39
Gene	Moore	Sharp	County Judge	RO 27
Tommy	Estes	Sharp	Circuit Clerk	W
Darrell	Kehrli	Sharp	JP 2	L 44
Jimmy	Qualls	Stone	JP 5	L 45
Kenneth R.	Horton	White	JP 7	W

Again this does not count city races, where they are all independents in almost all Arkansas cities. Nor does it count constables, or people who did not get a quarter or more of the vote (though I missed a few). I probably also missed a few because they were elected without opposition and so their totals did not show up- they were just grouped with those who automatically won. 

Of course the two party system, and its mostly the Republicans now in this state, are pushing back. They have been altering state law to make it harder to run as an independent for some time now. In fact, Neighbors of Arkansas is currently suing the state to try and roll back one of those laws. It is shameful the way the Republicans in this state are acting on the issue of ballot access for independents. It was not too long ago that they were on the outside looking in. Now that they are on top, they want to pull the ladder up after them so that people have to keep voting for Republicans and Democrats no matter how badly we feel they are doing at running our nation. If you want to help us fight back, go to the Neighbor's website and click the "Join Us" button!