Family Council Releases Voter’s Guide Ahead of 2018 Primaries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 13, 2018

LITTLE ROCK, AR—On Friday, Family Council released its voter’s guide for the 2018 Arkansas Primary Elections.

Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “I am pleased to announce the 2018 Arkansas Primary Elections Voter’s Guide from Family Council is available. We surveyed candidates for every state and federal office this year. We asked them to respond to ten survey statements and three short answer questions. Our 2018 survey covers everything from abortion, marriage, and immigration to economics and education legislation. This will help voters understand where candidates stand on a wide variety of issues.”

The response rate from candidates for the 2018 Arkansas Primary Elections Voter’s Guide was one of the highest ever. Family Council has been surveying candidates each election year since 1990. This year, seventy-seven percent of primary election candidates completed the survey. “It is refreshing to see all these candidates displaying greater transparency to the people of Arkansas,” said Cox.

Cox said the 2018 Arkansas Primary Elections Voter’s Guide includes survey responses from Arkansas Supreme Court candidates as well. “In addition to candidates for state and federal office, we also surveyed and received completed surveys from all candidates running for the Arkansas Supreme Court,” Cox said. “Judicial candidates often get overlooked during election cycles, but I think everyone agrees judges play a major role in state government. This guide will help Arkansans better understand their Arkansas Supreme Court candidates as well.”

Cox noted the 2018 Arkansas Primary Elections Voter’s Guide is nonpartisan and free to anyone who requests a copy of it. “Our goal is to help Arkansans cast informed votes. The Arkansas Voter’s Guide does not favor one candidate over another. Family Council does not endorse candidates. We simply ask the candidates where they stand on issues Arkansans care about, and then we share the candidates’ responses with voters. We also have included contact information voters can use to contact candidates who chose not to complete our survey. Anyone can request copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide. All they have to do is call our office in Little Rock at (501) 375-7000, and we will send them as many guides as they need. Voters can also see candidates’ survey responses online at www.ArkansasVotersGuide.com.”

Family Council is a conservative education and research organization based in Little Rock.

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A.G. Rejects Another Casino Amendment

This week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to open four casinos in Siloam Springs, AR; Texarkana, AR; Omaha, AR; and the Little Rock area.

The A.G.’s office rejected the proposal due to ambiguities in the amendment’s ballot title.

This casino amendment reportedly is backed by the group Arkansas Wins, who sponsored a similar measure in 2016.

The Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma gave Arkansas Wins $6 million in 2016 to fund their casino proposal, but it ultimately was removed from the ballot at the last minute. The Cherokee Nation also would have operated one of the casinos the 2016 amendment authorized. It is not clear at this point if the Cherokee Nation would operate casinos under the 2018 proposal.

Meanwhile, The group Driving Arkansas Forward has partnered with the Quapaw Indian Tribe in Oklahoma to bring casino gambling to Arkansas. They’ve submitted ballot proposals for casinos in Jefferson, Garland, Pope, and Crittenden counties. The Quapaw’s leadership has said they want to put a casino in Pine Bluff. Fortunately, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has blocked their proposals as well.

Casino gambling is linked to homelessness, domestic violence, divorce, and bankruptcy. It’s a blight on the community. Arkansas already has enough problems from gambling. We don’t need any more.

You can read the A.G.’s entire opinion here.

Lottery Scholarship Funding Pathetic Despite Record Sales

Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of March.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $53.5 million last month, but paid out less than $8 million for scholarships — not even 15 cents of every dollar it made.

March was the Arkansas Lottery’s best month since January of 2016, but the college scholarships the lottery is supposed to fund still drew the short straw. In fact, since last July the Lottery has awarded only 16.7% of its revenue to the state’s scholarship fund. That’s pathetic.

As we have said time and time again, the Lottery doesn’t have a revenue problem; its priorities are out of whack. Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $36,885,396.81 $6,661,762.99 18.1%
August 49,320,459.23 8,912,741.54 18.1%
September 36,405,731.14 6,755,333.93 18.6%
October 39,802,740.53 5,667,305.74 14.2%
November 36,186,107.78 6,691,228.00 18.5%
December 44,716,219.32 6,583,355.77 14.7%
January, 2018 44,063,056.11 8,230,861.00 18.7%
February 39,389,927.57 5,947,647.50 15.1%
March 53,523,320.61 7,945,570.02 14.8%
Total $380,292,959.10 $63,395,806.49 16.7%