On June 2, Arkansas Representative Nate Bell switched from being a Republican to being an independent. See this story. He also says he does not plan to run for re-election in 2016.
From the article cited, written by John Lyon:
Bell has differed with a majority of House Republicans on a number of issues over the years, including one of the key issues of last week’s special session — moving the state’s primary elections from May 20 to March 1 for the 2016 election cycle.
Senate Bill 8 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, which the House and Senate approved and Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law, is aimed at allowing Arkansas to play a bigger role in next year’s presidential primaries by participating in an anticipated March 1 super primary with other Southern states.
Bell opposed the bill, which was assigned to the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, a panel he chairs. Bell introduced a rival bill to delay the change until 2018 election cycle, but the committee members rejected that measure and advanced SB 8.
“We’re considering a proposal here that literally upends the way we do elections here in Arkansas,” Bell said at the time. “A lot of (potential candidates) don’t realize that to run in 2016 they have to start now.”
House Majority Leader Rep. Ken Bragg of Sheridan said Tuesday that Bell told him last week he planned to switch from Republican to independent but said Bell did not state a reason. He acknowledged that Bell had differed with the House Republican Caucus on a number of issues.
In any case I think we’ve established he’s not the greatest prospect for the LP…
He has a history of provocative statements, often bordering on the idiotic, so that doesn’t sound too out-of-character.
He has referred to LIbertarians as “terrorists” for running against Republicans.
“is there any indicatiom Mr. Bell is a libertarian leaning republican?”
On his Twitter page he refers to himself as a “conservaterian”. So, in other words, no.
The real travesty of the bill moving the primary from May to March is that the same bill moved the petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party to September 2, 2015! That is one of the most absurd election deadlines ever created anywhere in the world. Arkansas now says new parties must have completed their petition more than 14 months before the election itself, even though new parties nominate by convention, not primary.
Not particularly. His main issues seem to be abortion and gun control, both of which he takes typical Arkansas Republican positions on.
All the same, kudos to him for taking a stand against election law shenanigans. He’s got an excellent point about moving the primary up that early, ostensibly to benefit Huckabee and Hillary but which will have little impact on either’s campaigns.
is there any indicatiom Mr. Bell is a libertarian leaning republican?
I believe that there is a very active LP in Arkansas. Any possibility that Mr. Bell might be enlisted to run as a Libertarian?