Arkansas is one of roughly two dozen states that elects its Supreme Court justices, allowing individuals and PACs to give the candidates money.
Every voter who goes to the polls in Arkansas on Tuesday will have a pair of state Supreme Court races on their ballot — chief justice and Position 2.
While the two races haven’t seen the millions in fundraising and spending the Natural State saw in the last chief justice race, well over half a million dollars have been given to the candidates for Arkansas’ highest court.
After an analysis of publicly reported campaign finance data, here’s an Advocate breakdown of where that money has gone, how it’s been spent and who gave the most.
Total fundraising
In all, Arkansas’ Supreme Court candidates have raised $584,000 in contributions from individuals from across the country and PACs.
The vast majority of donations have come from Arkansas.
The candidates running to replace Chief Justice John Dan Kemp have also loaned their campaigns a collective $255,200.
Where is the money coming from?
The largest amounts of money comes from individuals working in fields that are among the most likely to end up before the Supreme Court — attorneys and business people. Retired individuals also give a large share of political contributions to candidates running for all types of offices.
Under state law, the maximum amount individuals and PACs can give a single candidate per election cycle is $3,300.
Here’s a list of those who have given a maximum contribution to a Supreme Court candidate:
Spending
Most candidates have spent the bulk of their fundraising on advertising.
Healthy chunks of money have also been spent to hire campaign consultants.
