Arkansas Women Vote, an independent voter education group, is going to do some educating of voters in Sen. Jason Rapert’s district with a mailer going out today. We announced the formation of this group in September. Its leaders are familiar progressive political figures.

Is the incumbent Republican beatable by Democratic challenger Tyler Pearson? Rapert thinks not, no matter how outrageous his remarks happen to be. Pearson has run an energetic campaign with lots of volunteer help. And he’s gotten some important mainstream support, such as this letter today in the Log Cabin Democrat from Jerry Adams, one of the retired founders of Acxiom, a huge part of the Conway economy:

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We moved to Conway in 1973 from Dallas. I came to Conway to help start what turned out to be Acxiom. I spent 34 years at Acxiom — retired in October 2007. I have grown up in Conway, and I have fallen in love with Conway through my involvement in many of the wonderful civic minded organizations that are a part of the fabric of our community. That is why I feel the need to speak out about the state Senate race between Jason Rapert and Tyler Pearson.

In 2008, I started a second career that outs[sic, I bet this is typo for puts] me on the campuses of the five research universities in Arkansas as well as in many of the corporate headquarters in Arkansas. I continue to be very proud of Conway, and the state is very impressed with the leadership that has helped drive the success of Conway — there are many positive factors that have helped drive a successful Conway.

I can’t tell you how many times in the past few years I have been asked the question, “in such a progressive, successful community like Conway — how was Jason Rapert elected to rerpresent Conway — it doesn’t make sense.” I don’t have a good answer. We have built a thriving community by having leaders who build consensus, represent all of our citizens and take the long view of progress. Divisive leaders, narrow thinkers, combative, confrontational leadership had had no part of what has taken place in Conway.

So I, like many of my friends, want to support a candidate, Tyler Pearson, who will work diligently to represent all of the citizens of our community and take a positiove, collaborative, inclusive approach rather than put forth a narrow, personal agenda that divides our community and our state.


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