David Writer defeated Bud Phillips in a run-off election to become the Republican nominee for county judge in the November general election. He outpolled Phillips 1,360 to 1,015, for a 57 percent margin.
Writer said voters responded to his experience as foreman in the Road Dept. and an honest approach to dealing with others. “I’ve tried to be straight with people,” he said.
He had gone out to dinner with his family the night of the run-off and planned to go to the courthouse in Berryville to hear the votes announced. An emergency call came in, reporting a fallen tree blocking a road near the dam. Writer and an assistant went out to clear the road, and he was still driving back from the west side of Eureka Springs when his son called with the good news. “It made those crooked roads a lot straighter for the rest of the trip,” Writer recalled.
Writer said he appreciated the positive campaigns run by Phillips and by Rodney Ballance, who was eliminated in the May 24 primary. He will next face Rusty Rusterholz and Kelly Wood in November. “It seems like a long way off,” he said, acknowledging that he has a lot of work to do between now and then. He will start by taking some vacation time to recover from the primary campaign and from a challenging spring season at the Road Dept, where recurring heavy rains have caused a variety of problems.
Voter count is what counts
“I still don’t feel like it’s real yet,” former state senator Bryan King said after his run-off victory over Bob Ballinger to determine the Republican candidate for Senate District 28. King will face Jim Wallace in the Nov. 8 general election.
King said he felt confident going into the run-off, because of his margin of victory in the May 24 primary. However, in interviews leading up to the run-off, King explained that a candidate never knows which voters will come out for a run-off. The final count of 3,604 to 3,081 gave him 54 percent of the vote. King’s margin of victory was much larger in Carroll County, 1,629 to 763, or 68 percent. He attributed that margin to the local media.
“We need independent journalism,” King said, as he discussed the role of newspapers in educating voters about Ballinger’s continued use of cultural smokescreens to obscure his lack of accomplishments as a senator. “We put together a broad coalition of people who said, ‘We want our senator to work for us.’”
With the general election more than four months away, King will have time to change gears. During the primary, King made no secret of his disdain for Ballinger, as he brought up Ballinger’s financial connections and his diversion of tax funds to a private college in another senate district. By comparison, King said he looks forward to a positive race with Wallace. “I like and respect him, and we’ve already talked about conducting a civil campaign,” King said. “He’s a genuine, honest person, and he cares about the community.”