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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
 State Rep. Dawn Creekmore receives a hug from Mary Jean Busken of Benton on Tuesday; the two worked together this past session to adopt Juli’s Law, which is named after the Buskens’ daughter, who was murdered.
Creekmore, who recently moved to Bauxite from the East End area, formally announced her candidacy for the state Senate on Tuesday. She will seek the seat held by Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, who will be term-limited.
Standing on a political stump, Creekmore, a Democrat, said, “Shane is leaving big shoes to fill, but I plan to fill those shoes.”
“The people of District 22 have learned to expect that when they call the senator’s office, they get a response, and I will continue that,” she told a crowd of more than 100 on the Saline County Courthouse lawn.
Creekmore, 44, is in her third term as the District 27 representative in the Arkansas House. She and her husband, Mike, recently moved to Bauxite to make her eligible to seek Broadway’s Senate seat.
“Some legislators go to the Hill and that’s it, but I go to the Hill and work,” she said, noting that 17 of the 23 bills she introduced in the past legislative session at the state Capitol became law.
One of the bills is Juli’s Law, which says that DNA samples will be taken from all suspects charged with murder, kidnaping and sexual assault in the first and second degree.
Juli Busken, a student from Benton, was abducted in December 1996 from her apartment complex parking lot in Norman, Okla., then raped and shot to death in nearby Oklahoma City. The tragedy occurred shortly after the 21-year-old woman had completed requirements for her fine arts degree in dance performance at University of Oklahoma and occurred on the day she was planning to return to Benton.
Her parents, Bud and Mary Jean Busken of Benton, attended Creekmore’s announcement Tuesday. After her speech, Creekmore and Mary Jean Busken embraced.
Also among the crowd were various local officials, including Sheriff Bruce Pennington, County Clerk Freddy Burton, County Collector Chris Villines and Lamont Cornwell, community development director for the city of Benton.
State Rep. Dan Greenberg, R-Little Rock, and former state Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson, also of Little Rock, have been rumored as possible candidates for Broadway’s seat.
Creekmore said one reason she is choosing to run for the Senate is because “I have so many people encouraging me to run.”
“We got a lot done in my three as a representative, but there is still work to be done in many areas,” she said.
Creekmore is online at www.dawncreekmore.com and she also has two pages on Facebook.
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