Benton Courier - EDITORIAL: Voters have spoken, and we salute you for it

Saline County residents turned out strongly on Primary Election Day Tuesday, and we’re darned proud.
Just over 30 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in this year’s primary, which is considered pretty good turnout for a non-presidential primary.
You made some easy choices, some tough choices, some good choices and some non-choices — meaning several races were so close that run-offs will have to be held.
Easy choice No. 1: State Rep. Dawn Creekmore in the Democratic primary for the state Senate District 22 seat being left often by the term-limited Shane Broadway.
Creekmore has more than proven herself an advocate for the Everyman, working to introduce and pass several new bills in the last few years that protect victims’ rights and require harsher punishments for violent criminals.
Given her background and legislative conduct — and the fact that we didn’t hear a whole lot from her opponent, Todd Witham — casting a vote in her direction wasn’t too difficult a choice to make. Eighty percent of you agreed.
Tough choice No. 1: You chose David J. Sanders as your Republican nominee in the State House of Representatives District 31 primary race.
We are painfully aware that neither Sanders nor his opponent, John Parke — though they have appeared at several community functions of late — have not made their political differences all that clear in this race. So it surely was hard to decide for whom to cast your vote.
But, knowing, as we do, Sanders’ background — from his years of writing columns for Stephens Media newspapers around the state — we believe the voters won’t be disappointed in their choice. He’s a smart, outgoing, determined young man with the people’s best interest at heart, and he’s got what it takes to form the relationships in the state Legislature that are necessary for concensus-building, which is necessary to get anything passed into law.
Good choice No. 1: Jeremy Hutchinson over Dan Greenberg in the Republican primary for Broadway’s state Senate District 22 position.
You let us, and Greenberg, know that you don’t appreciate negative and attack campaign ads — particularly when those ads are revealed to be less than straightforward about the facts.
You also made it clear that it’s a turnoff when a candidate responds to a negative opinion column by vigorously attacking the writer and the newspaper in question.
For that, we are grateful.
But more importantly, we believe you chose the best man for the job: someone with solid ideas such as more fairly dividing up state Highway Department funding, and basing it on population instead of geography or commissioners’ favoritism.
Non-choice No. 1: It seems the electorate was split when it came to the three Democratic choices in the state House District 27 race.
Neither Vicky Morris, Bill Taylor nor Carlas Smith received enough votes to be declared a winner outright; so Morris and Taylor, who received 43 and 40 percent of your votes, respectively, will compete in a run-off election to be held in three weeks on June 8.
Non-choice No. 2: Though voters were split enough that neither candidate won a big enough majority to be declared the winner, it seems clear to us that you are ready for U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln to come home from Washington, D.C.
Lincoln, who received 45 percent of the vote statewide and 44 percent in Saline County, will now face Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a run-off. Halter received 43 percent of the vote statewide and 42 percent in Saline County.
Our biggest problem with Lincoln? Side-switching. Make up your mind, already. Stop playing to both sides. Stand on your convictions. And if you make a mistake and change your mind, say so.
Our biggest problem with Halter? Side-muddling, so to speak. On several issues — card check being one of them — Halter has waffled or outright refused to say where he stands.
“We’re just going to keep battling over the next 21 days to get that word out about the distinctions and the differences we have about policy, and the different direction we want to take the country,” Halter said last night after results were announced.
Please do, Mr. Halter. Please let us know, more clearly than ever, exactly where you stand.
We bet that if he does, he has a good chance of getting a large chunk of the 13 percent of votes cast for third-place finisher D.C. Morrison. And that would put him one step closer to Washington.
Either way, we hope you voters turn out to vote on run-off day just like you did for the primary. Let the people speak!
— Benton Courier

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