LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Republicans and Democrats won’t agree on much in this year’s election in Arkansas. But they both are on the same page when it comes to avoiding the mistakes that have plagued them in past campaigns.
Tuesday’s primary showed just how much Democrats and Republicans are haunted by the ghosts of previous elections. Republicans were eager to fall in line behind establishment candidates after past elections where the GOP went with nominees who rallied the base but fell short in November. Democrats were happy to keep the field cleared for most of their races, avoiding a repeat of primary battles that left their nominees bruised and the party fractured.
The dynamics of the state’s top two races changed little after Tuesday night. Without any primary opposition, Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican rival U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton marked the start of the general election campaign with the same attack lines they’ve relied upon since last fall - Pryor portraying his rival as too extreme for Arkansas and Cotton trying to link the two-term Democratic incumbent with President Barack Obama.
The same goes for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Ross and Republican Asa Hutchinson. The two quickly dispensed with lesser-known, underfunded rivals and resume the general election campaign they’d effectively been running for nearly a year. Hutchinson marked his primary victory with a speech deriding Ross as a “Nancy Pelosi protege.” Ross began airing a television ad the day after the primary portraying his GOP rival as a Washington insider.
Hutchinson’s victory was among several where establishment-backed candidates prevailed against rivals who tried to run as the more conservative, tea party-affiliated figures. Hutchinson easily defeated Little Rock businessman Curtis Coleman, who made an 11th hour appeal to social conservatives by proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to veto any state court’s decision. Coleman’s announcement came days after the state Supreme Court suspended a judge’s ruling striking down Arkansas’ gay marriage ban.
The establishment picks include banking executive French Hill, who clinched the nomination for a central Arkansas congressional seat despite facing two rivals who questioned his conservative credentials.
The results were a shift for a Republican Party that in the past had opted for candidates who appealed to the GOP’s northwest Arkansas base but couldn’t compete statewide in general election matchups. The crowded primaries also marked a departure for the Republican Party, which failed to even field candidates for top offices like the U.S. Senate in 2008 or attorney general in 2010.
The lack of primaries was also a role reversal for Democrats, who were once so dominant that many of the state’s elections were effectively decided in the springtime in past years. The only contested statewide primary for Democrats was substitute teacher Lynette Bryant’s unsuccessful challenge to Ross in the governor’s race.
Democratic leaders said the drama-free primary night was no accident for the party, which tried to clear the path for high-profile candidates they believe have the best shot at preventing a GOP takeover this fall. They include former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt and former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays, who are running for Congress.
Both parties face challenges in their approaches to picking nominees. Democrats’ strongest candidates include hopefuls who have never run for office before, like Lieutenant Governor nominee John Burkhalter, who Republicans hope to exploit in the fall as untested.
Republicans, meanwhile, didn’t emerge from Tuesday’s voting free of bruises. Saline County Circuit Clerk Dennis Milligan’s win over state Rep. Duncan Baird for the treasurer nomination marked the end of a particularly bitter primary battle. And the runoff for attorney general could put a spotlight on fissures within the GOP at a time when the party wants to project unity.
The November election will ultimately test whether the parties have learned from their past mistakes, or whether they’ll find a new batch of flubs to avoid in future contests.
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Associated Press Writer Andrew DeMillo has covered Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press since 2005. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo
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