Legislative Council rejects judicial election guide funding

LITTLE ROCK — The state Legislative Council last week rejected Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s request to grant $200,000 in state rainy-day funds to the Administrative Office of the Courts to support the Arkansas Judicial Campaign Conduct and Education Committee’s judicial voter guide.

Without any debate, the council Friday approved a motion by Senate Republican leader Scott Flippo of Mountain Home to deny the Republican governor’s request.

Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Kemp wrote in a Wednesday letter to the council’s co-chairmen, Rep. Jeff Wardlaw and Sen. Terry Rice, that the Administrative Office of the Courts “does not get involved in judicial elections.”

“It is the primary duty of the AOC to administer the court system,” Kemp wrote.

Afterward, Rice, R-Waldron, said most of the council members felt like taxpayers shouldn’t pay for campaign literature for judicial candidates “even if it was bipartisan.”

Judicial races are nonpartisan. The Legislative Council oversees the operation of state government and meets when the Legislature isn’t in session.