By Jason Tolbert

In about a week, Arkansas voters will head back to the polls for the runoff, with most of the attention on the high-profile Democratic race between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. The winner then will get the chance to fight the uphill battle against Rep. John Boozman in November. But there’s another important runoff in the northwest corner of the state in which two Republicans are competing for one of the safest GOP seats in the country.

In the 3rd Congressional District, Rogers Mayor Steve Womack meets state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, also from Rogers. The winner likely will be the next representative even though there will be a November race against Democrat David Whitaker.

The dynamic of this runoff is rather fascinating. Womack won over 31 percent of the vote in an eight-way race, while the other seven candidates split the remaining votes fairly evenly. Bledsoe edged out Gunner DeLay by less than 200 votes for the right to go against Womack.
Since the election, it seems that Bledsoe has gobbled up all the momentum. Just two days after the primary, all eyes were on DeLay to see if he — within of 0.2 percent of Bledsoe — would call for a recount. Instead, he announced his endorsement of Bledsoe. This opened the floodgates for several other candidates to do the same.

It also appears that most of the elected Republican officials and party loyalists are firmly behind Bledsoe and most certainly against Womack. So what is driving this?

A lot of the criticism is due to Womack’s lack of party-building activities. Apparently his support for fellow Republican candidates has been lackluster. And there is the frequent charge that he supported Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe in 2006 over Republican Asa Hutchinson. However, Womack contends that while he is friends with both Gov. Beebe and Asa Hutchinson he did not support either candidate.

“In fact, I did not publicly support anyone and the reason is principally because the winner was about to be my Commander-in-Chief in the Arkansas Army National Guard and it would be very inappropriate (not to mention unwise) to be a public supporter of either candidate,” said Womack. He went on to say that since he is now retired from the Guard he will support Republican Jim Keet for governor this year.

The second charge is that Womack is soft on tax increases. Critics point to a debate at which Womack admitted that tax increases are “on the table.” A hard-hitting ad from Bledsoe’s campaign goes so far as to compare this statement from Womack to statements from President Obama.

Womack calls this charge “totally out of context” and points toward his record as mayor. “I have never raised taxes or advocated raising them,” said Womack. “The only way I would support any tax increase is to save my country.”

After a columnist’s reminder, Womack did admit to one exception — a 2-cent A&P tax passed in 1999 by the Rogers City Council with his support. “It was not a tax against the general population of my constituents,” said Womack. “It was only a bed-tax and purposed in promoting the hospitality services of the city.”

Perhaps of even greater concern to fiscal conservatives is the large increase in the mayor’s salary, which went from $43,216 when he took office to the current level of $115,003. A normal inflationary increase during this time period would put it around $56,000.

So is anything wrong with Steve Womack? That’s not for me to determine. But the voters of the 3rd District need to take a good look at both candidates before June 8. They are likely selecting their next congressman or congresswoman.

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Jason Tolbert is an accountant and conservative political blogger. His blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His e-mail is jason@TolbertReport.com.