Arkansas’s Third is one of the country’s most Republican congressional districts as well as one of America’s most inviting regions.
In the words of the Almanac of American Politics: “For most of the 20th century, the rounded green mountains and pleasant wide valleys, farmhouse and small towns of northwest Arkansas seemed left behind.
But the friendly atmosphere and strong religious faith of these communities have proved to be assets, not liabilities conducive to economic creativity.”
It was here that Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart and the district remains the international headquarters of the nation’s largest corporation. It was here too that Don Tyson built the world’s leading chicken processor—and a plethora of companies have risen to serve these commercial giants. The district also is the home of the University ofArkansas.
The district’s Republican tendencies date back to the civil war era when mountain-oriented regions in the South were estranged from slave-owning flatlanders. For nearly a half century, the Third has been safely in GOP hands with the only actually close race coming in the ’74 Democrat landslide when a young lawyer named Bill Clinton came close to winning the seat.
In this time, the Third has been either a comfortable home for a congressional institution like John Paul Hammerschmidt or a launching pad for higher office for the Hutchinson brothers (Tim and Asa).
Rep. John Boozman, who succeeded Asa Hutchinson in the seat, is now the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
But the appeal of this congressional seat is not the only reason the Third may well be the home of the most contentious Republican primary in 2010—between Rogers Mayor Steve Womack and state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe.
On the surface, Womack would appear to have a decisive electoral advantage. After all, he won better than 30 percent of the vote in last week’s eight-person primary, more than doubling the vote total of the motherly Bledsoe.
But scratch beneath the political surface and you encounter fire. After receiving a pledge of anonymity, one of Arkansas’s most important Republican leaders explains: “Normally I have a real distaste for name calling, but no one in the country more deserves the label RINO (Republican in Name Only) than Steve Womack. That is, unless you simply call him a professional politician.”
During the campaign, Gunner DeLay (a cousin of Tom), who lost a spot in the run-off by 158 votes, condemned Womack as “all that’s wrong with politics today.”
And the elegant Bledsoe, who is nearing the age when most are pondering retirement? Declares Asa Hutchinson: “She has the charm of a southern lady—and the convictions of Margaret Thatcher.”
Can she handle the rough-and-tumble politics of today’s House of Representatives? Ask former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who became so enraged at her fierce opposition to his tax increases when he was governor that he condemned Bledsoe and her anti-tax-increase conservatives as a band of “Shiites.”
Indeed, the June 8 primary will be a real test of the two distinct wings of the Republican Party in Arkansas—the tax-and-spend faction exemplified by Huckabee and Womack versus a growing band of largely under-40 Republican conservatives represented by the lady who has long served as their political godmother.
Womack is not without assets. He easily led the first round of voting in no small part because of the support he enjoys from the district’s developer-oriented business community.
But insiders expect none of the other six primary candidates to endorse him (DeLay already has endorsed Bledsoe), and Bledsoe will get the united support of the region’s religious-oriented conservatives.
Womack is irrepressible. For some time, he stood out as the only district GOP candidate who refused to sign the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to vote for no new taxes.
Then Dick Morris came to the district to speak to a series of tea party events, he called Womack a “liberal” and urged tea party voters to work against him. But before Morris could leave town, Womack had signed the pledge, and Morris withdrew his stinging rebukes.
At the next public candidates forum, however, Womack had reverted to his old ways, declaring that a future tax increase “has to be on the table.”
What kind of Republican Party will 2010 produce? The results in Arkansas’s coming Third District GOP primary may give us a good indication.
Kenneth Tomlinson is former editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest.
