Benton County Democrats will pick their state House nominee at a closed party convention Monday night, shutting regular voters out of the process entirely — just like Republicans did two weeks ago.
The Democratic Party of Benton County called a special convention for 6:30 p.m. at its Rogers headquarters, where only registered party members may nominate and vote on a candidate for the Nov. 3 special election, according to a Saturday news release. No open primary. No rank-and-file ballot. Party insiders make the call, and the rest of the district gets whatever they hand down.
The seat opened Aug. 5 when former Rep. Austin McCollum, a 35-year-old Republican, resigned after his Aug. 1 arrest on suspicion of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and domestic abuse of his wife. McCollum had already opted not to seek reelection to the House but remains an unopposed candidate for Benton County judge — despite calls from Gov. Sarah Sanders and other officials to step aside from both races. His arraignment is Sept. 8.
Republicans moved fast to fill the vacancy on their side, nominating Kara Armas, 47, of Pea Ridge at an Aug. 14 special convention in Siloam Springs. Same closed process. Same insulated electorate of party faithful. Armas is the wife of Brian Armas, the unopposed Republican nominee for District 8's next full two-year term. Brian Armas can't serve as the replacement House candidate himself because state law bars an officeholder from running for a seat that would require resigning his current post as Benton County justice of the peace.
Gov. Sanders set the special election for the same day as the general election — Nov. 3 — with a nomination deadline of noon Aug. 28. Early voting starts Oct. 19. No independent candidate has filed yet; any would-be independent needs petitions in by the same deadline.
House District 8 runs from the Missouri border south to West Hudson Street, covering Pea Ridge and much of Bentonville, stretching west to U.S. 71 in Bella Vista and east to U.S. 62.
So both parties are running the same play: let precinct-level activists and county committee members pick the nominee in a room, then present the general electorate with a fait accompli. The Spokane Spokesman-Review's Sara Pequeño spent this week celebrating Democratic wins in Florida school board races as evidence that "all politics are local." But when local actually means a handful of party insiders in a county headquarters after hours, it's worth asking whose politics they really are.
Voters in District 8 will have a name on the ballot in November. They just won't have had any say in how it got there.
