By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
Pulaski County Clerk Pat O’Brien of Jacksonville kicked off his campaign for secretary of state at the Capitol on Wednesday, promising to make the same improvements he brought to the county clerk’s office over the past five years.
O’Brien said he’ll campaign on his success as county clerk. Until his election in 2004, the office was seen as inefficient and outdated, lacking accurate voter registration records.
He cited the changes he made as county clerk. O’Brien said he put “a team together to clean up that mess.”
“I’m very proud to say that after five years in office, we have taken what was once a perennial embarrassment and a train wreck and turned it into a point of pride around Arkansas.”
“When I took over as county clerk, they had a 19th Century model,” he said. “Most employees didn’t have access to the Internet. In five years, we turned ourselves into a 21st Century model.”
He said he could do for the secretary of state’s office “what we have done in the clerk’s office.”
O’Brien said, “The secretary of state’s office is very important. He is the chief election official.”
The office is responsible for voter records and must be modernized to avoid election disputes.
“In 2000, we could easily have had what happened in Broward County (Florida),” he warned.
O’Brien wants redistricting done more in the open so that voters know who will represent them in the Arkansas Legislature when districts are redrawn.
He said he’s raised more than $100,000 for the campaign and asked his supporters to spread the word about the race.
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels is term-limited and is running for state auditor.
O’Brien faces two Democrats in the May 18 primary — Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox and Sebastian County Clerk Doris Tate. Rep. Mark Martin of Prairie Grove is running as a Republican.
“I’m really optimistic about what we can do,” O’Brien told cheering supporters at the Capitol rotunda.
“I can win this primary in May and win this election in November and take office in January,” he added.
He thought there might be a runoff between the two top Democratic candidates on June 9.
Several Jacksonville supporters were at the campaign event, including Rep. Mark Perry, former Rep. Pat Bond and her husband Tommy, Alderman Kenny Elliott, attorney Ben Rice, Ivory Tillman of the NAACP, builder Jim Green and others.
O’Brien also has several family members in attendance, including his mother, Gladys, and brother Jim.
The candidate said his family credits Jacksonville for the many opportunities they found after moving here from Iowa. The
O’Briens opened Jacksonville’s first McDonald’s on Main Street in 1973.
He worked there as a young man and graduated from Jacksonville High School in 1988, going on to the University of Arkansas and graduating from its law school in 1995.
O’Brien practiced law in Jacksonville and served on the Pulaski County Special School District’s school board and then ran as a reform candidate for Pulaski County clerk.
“My parents taught me to work hard and give back,” O’Brien said.
He was one of the first Democrats to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president and helped open his headquarters in downtown Little Rock.
O’Brien, who was a delegate to the Democratic convention in 2008, was the only elected Democratic official in the state to support Obama.
The delegation supported Hillary Clinton until they were released from backing her when Obama’s nomination became a foregone conclusion.
O’Brien campaigned for Obama in Iowa and Texas.
