By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — State Rep. Linda Collins-Smith of Pocahontas announced today that she has switched to the Republican Party.

“I haven’t left the Democratic Party, but the party has left me,” Collins-Smith, said in her announcement at the state Capitol.

The 49-year-old freshman lawmaker said she was raised a Democrat but that the party has moved too far to the left and no longer represents her constituents.

At the announcement, she was flanked by most members of the House Republican Caucus, along with Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Darr and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Little Rock.

She did not take questions from reporters afterward.

Collins-Smith currently represents Randolph County and a portion of Sharp County in northeastern Arkansas. Her district, however, was redrawn under a plan recently approved by the Arkansas Board of Apportionment that puts her in the same district with another incumbent, Rep. Lori Benedict, R-Salem, starting with the 2012 election cycle.

Legislative redistricting also puts her in the same Senate district as incumbent Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould.

Collins-Smith’s party switch does not change control of the House but does narrow the Democratic majority. Democrats now hold 54 seats to Republicans’ 46 in the House, and 20 of the 35 seats in the Senate.

In last year’s general election, Democrats saw their commanding majorities in the House and Senate dwindle significantly in a Republican surge.

Before the election, Democrats held 72 seats in the 100-member House and 27 seats in the 35-member Senate.

All 135 legislative seats will be up for election in 2012 following this year’s redistricting, which is done every 10 years in accordance with U.S. Census data.

During her speech today, Collins-Smith said had hoped to “help move the (Democratic) party back to the views and the values of those everyday voters.”

“Unfortunately, I found that the politics of Washington, and the politics of the liberal left, have become so entrenched in that Democratic Party of Arkansas that there is no room for conservatives,” she said. “Those who question the folly of excessive taxation are unwelcome. Those who stand for the rights of babies in the womb, they are outcast. And those who seek to create jobs by making Arkansas a business-friendly state are punished.”

Will Bond, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, disagreed with her assessment of the party.

“The facts are that Arkansas Democrats have been balancing budgets in this state year after year after year, and delivered the biggest tax cut in Arkansas history under Gov. (Mike) Beebe while maintaining essential services and increasing education spending,” Bond said.

He said he was not surprised by Collins-Smith’s decision, considering how her district boundaries were redrawn.

“She was very disappointed with the redistricting process and we’re not surprised with the announcement or the timing of it,” Bond said. “The one thing that Arkansans appreciate is common sense, and common sense tells us she switched for purely political reasons.”

House Minority Leader John Burris, R-Harrison, told reporters that Collins-Smith approached him about switching parties after the legislative session earlier this year. He also said Republicans are also talking to other Democratic House members about possibly switching parties but did not name them.

“I don’t think there is any mistake that the way the (redistricting) lines were drawn, they didn’t want her back in Little Rock,” Burris said.

He said he did not know if she would run for re-election against Benedict or challenge for Thompson’s Senate district.

During this year’s legislative session, Collins-Smith voted against or spoke in opposition to a number of bills supported by Democrats and Gov. Mike Beebe, and supported a number of Republican-backed bills.

Beebe said today that the lawmaker’s decision to switch parties was not a surprise and “probably best for everybody.”

“The feedback I got was that (she) has spent most of her seven months in the Legislature with Republicans and not the Democrats,” the governor said.

During the legislative session, Collins-Smith voted against the sweeping corrections reform proposal supported by the governor, saying on the House floor it was “an act that fools the public with ankle bracelets and lower offenses.” The measure ultimately passed.

She voted against a bill to ban cell phone use in school zones, which passed, and voted for a bill to allow people with concealed-carry permits to carry guns in church, a Republican-sponsored bill that passed the House but died in a Senate committee.

Collins-Smith also supported more tax cuts than the governor proposed. She was a co-sponsor of a bill to cut the capital gains tax, which passed in the House but died in a Senate committee. She also backed measures to cut the sales tax on manufacturers’ utilities and to create a back-to-school sales tax holiday, both of which Beebe opposed but the Legislature adopted.

She sponsored a bill to ban health plans that cover abortion from participating in the state’s health insurance exchange, which never got out of a House committee. She co-sponsored a similar Senate bill that got out of the Senate but failed in the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.