By Doug Thompson
Stephens Media
ROGERS — A 61-year-old financial adviser from Rogers today became the seventh Republican to announce plans to run for Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln’s U.S. Senate seat next year.
U.S. Army veteran Buddy Rogers said he would provide Arkansas with the conservative representation he said it needs.
“We have a radical administration and an irresponsible Congress that’s often making bad decisions worse,” Rogers said at a local coffee shop where he made his announcement among nearly two dozen friends and supporters.
He joins a crowded field of announced contenders that includes state Sens. Gilbert Baker of Conway and Kim Hendren of Gravette; Little Rock businessmen Curtis Coleman and Tom Cox; real estate executive Fred Ramey of Searcy; and retired Army Col. Conrad Reynolds of Conway.
Lincoln is seeking a third U.S. Senate term in 2010.
Other GOP candidates have experience in business, in the military or in politics, but none has the variety of experience in key areas as he does, Rogers said.
“I have broad and deep experience in securities and finance, business, defense, education and health care,” he said.
Rogers said he spent much of his military career in health care-related areas, which he said would be particularly valuable with health care reform so high on the national agenda.
Rogers was a personnel and administrative officer for Army medical services. He retired in 1996 as a lieutenant colonel and director of the western region of the U.S. Army Health Professional Recruiting office covering 23 states.
“We have the best health care system in the world,” Rogers said today. “It’s not perfect, but we don’t need to shackle it to the proven failure of government control.”
Rogers and his wife, Brenda, came to Rogers after his retirement. He has been president of Rogers Wealth Stewardship in Rogers since 2001. He said he has not run a political race since he was a school board member and later board president for a U.S. children’s district at an Army base in Stuttgart, Germany.
“I’m not a rich guy looking to crown his career in politics,” Rogers said.
Rogers’ family is from Des Arc and he graduated from Watson Chapel High School near Pine Bluff.
“I believe I can represent any part of this state and that there are no people who should be left behind,” he said. “The Republican Party is not perceived as the party of the poor. We should be. Welfare reform did more to help the poor than decades of welfare programs.”
