By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Following a disastrous general election nationwide for Democrats, Gov. Mike Beebe on Friday asked Jacksonville native Will Bond to chair the state Democratic Party.
If elected at the Hot Springs committee meeting Feb. 12, Bond, the managing partner of the McMath Woods Law Firm, will replace Arkadelphia Attorney Todd Turner, who decided not to run for re-election, Beebe said in a statement Friday.
“Will Bond is a friend and colleague,” Beebe added. “I believe he will be an excellent leader as the next chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Will has the energy and vision to lead the next steps in the road ahead. It won’t be easy, but I know Will is up to the job.”
Bond, 40, was Jackson-ville’s state representative for three terms.
Bond would be the sec ond Jacksonville native to hold that position in recent years. Former state Sen. Bill Gwatney, 48, was gunned down on the job at state party headquarters in Little Rock on Aug. 13, 2008, for reasons never determined, by a man who took his own life later that day.
Turner was well-known for his work in helping drive payday lenders from the state, and on his watch, Beebe was the only Democratic governor in the southeast elected in November.
“I look forward to more time with my family in Clark County and continuing my law practice there. Will Bond has been a friend of mine for many years and he will be an outstanding leader for the state party.”
Bond said he’s not taking the election Feb. 12 for granted, but said that typically the party elects the governor’s choice for the position.
“We just went through a tough election cycle and there’s probably a lot of people out there with ideas,” Bond said.
There’s a lot of work to be done, and “I have some energy to do that and to communicate some of the good things the Democratic leadership has done in this state.”
“Look around the country,” he said. Other states are having financial woes. “In tough economic times, under Beebe, we've been incredibly stable. We had the largest tax cut in Arkansas history in 2007.
“My job is not to Monday- morning quarterback the last election, it’s to figure out with the help of a lot of people the way forward. I don’t like the yelling back and forth.”
He said the challenge is to recruit candidates who want to fix problems, create jobs and balance budgets.
“If you have the right policies and solve problems, people will elect and re-elect you,” Bond said.
“I want to sit down with constitutional and federal office holders and see what they think is the role of the party chair. We have to remind the public that we’ve had the benefit of some great Democrat leadership.”
Bond, a 1988 Jacksonville High School graduate, received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbuilt in 1992 and his law degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1995.
He and his wife, Gabriel, have twin 5-year-old girls and a 10-year-old son. They live in Little Rock.
Bond won’t be giving up his day job as a trial lawyer, and said his partners at McMath Wood support his decision. “The firm has a long history of public service,” he said.
“Sam (Ledbetter) is on the state board of education and the firm was founded by a governor (Sid McMath) and a federal judge (Henry Wood).”
