Dawn Creekmore decided to run for House District 92 because legislative experience matters.
If elected, Creekmore, who lives in East End (Saline County) would return to the Arkansas legislature, which she left in 2010 because of term limits. She would replace Republican state Rep. Julie Mayberry who opted not to seek re-election last July. District 92 encompasses all of Grant County and a part of Saline County.
"When the seat came open, I met with Julie Mayberry and that's when I decided," Creekmore, who works a mortgage lender at People's Bank, said. "I prayed about it. My mom was in the hospital (she's home now) so I had to time to think and pray. I called a friend and she said she had been praying for me. Running takes a lot of sacrifice and time away from your family. I needed their blessing. I talked to them and decided."
The last time Creekmore was a legislator she was a member of the Democratic Party. Now she's a Republican. She's always been conservative, however.
Creekmore's Republican opponent, Eric Shepherd, is using her party switch several years ago as a negative against her. (Casey Reed was also in the House race but the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled he could not run in a complex situation dating back to 2012. Read about that here. Reed recently endorsed Creekmore.)
However, to understand why Creekmore was once a Democrat, you have to understand the way Arkansas politics were 20 years ago.
Let's take a look.
Back in the early 2000s, almost every member of the legislature was a Democrat while the state's governor, Mike Huckabee, was a Republican. Huckabee is now the United States ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee ran in a special election in 1993 at the urging of Asa Hutchinson, the Republican Party's chairman, to fill the lieutenant governor's spot after then Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker became governor when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, became president. When Tucker was forced to resign because of his conviction in the Whitewater scandal, Huckabee became governor.
By the time, Creekmore became a legislator in 2005, Huckabee was building the Republican Party in Arkansas as the dominant party, but the state had a way to go to become completely red.
When Creekmore followed her husband, who was also a term-limited Democrat legislator, into the legislature, most of Creekmore's constituents were even Democrats.
They were called Blue Dog Democrats, a branch of the party that hold conservative values. The Blue Dog Coalition, which still exist but not in the numbers they once did, "are pragmatic Democrats, appealing to the mainstream values of the American public," according to their website. "The Blue Dogs are dedicated to pursuing fiscally-responsible policies, ensuring a strong national defense for our country, and transcending party lines to get things done for the American people."
In short, Creekmore, although she had a "D" by her name for Democrat, was conservative before conservative was cool. Her voting record in the legislature proves it. So does her Republican primary voting record.
GOP Data Center shows Creekmore has voted seven times in the last seven Republican primaries. Shepherd has voted twice.
"I made that switch 1000%," Creekmore said. "The Democratic Party abandoned my beliefs, and I wasn't going to abandon my values. My values are 100% in alignment with Republicans. I have been pro-life, pro-taxpayer, pro-Second Amendment, and pro-fiscal responsibility."
Not to mention, Creekmore has always received an A rating from the National Rifle Association.
Legislative experience
Creekmore sits in Milltown Coffee in Sheridan discussing her experience in the legislature with a stack of documents for proof. Her previous experience matters, she says, especially because of the learning curve for a newbie during their first session.
"I know the legislative process," Creekmore said. "I can go right in and run a committee or be a participant. That is historical experience you can't pay for it."
Creekmore served on or led several committees.
Creekmore points out several bills she sponsored and got passed including many concerning victims' rights and identity theft. Why? Because when constituents come to her with problems, she likes to solve them.
Here are a few:
- To create the address confidentiality program for victims of domestic violence or their dependents
- Ac act to include the use of a scanning device or re-encoder the offense of financial identity fraud
- An act that prohibits registered sex offenders from working with children
- An act to increase the penalty classification of the offenses of indecent exposure and internet stalking of a child under certain circumstances
- An act to prohibit an award of child custody or visitation to a sex offender except under limited circumstances
- An act regarding disclosure of information regarding a sex offender to students at institutions of high education
- To enhance the penalty for financial identity fraud under certain circumstances; to create the offense of nonfinancial identity fraud; and to amend Arkansas Code 5-37-227
- To provide guidelines for law enforcement officers to use in determining the predominant aggressor in cases of domestic abuse for the purpose of arrest
- An act to amend domestic battering in the First and Second degree
- An act to modify the statute of limitations for the offense of rape when identified genetic information is present
- An act concerning the offense of stalking and to establish civil liability for stalking
- To increase the penalty classification for indecent exposure for a person in a position of trust or authority over the victim
The data center drama
Creekmore definitely has an opinion on the hottest topic in Grant County – the proposed data center.
She does not think the entire process between the Texas-based company Clean Cloud Energy and county leaders has not been transparent. Clean Cloud is based in Austin, Texas, and New York. The company "works closely with end users of data centers, utilities and regulators to co-locate utility scale energy projects with data centers," according to its website.
Clean Cloud has lobbied city and county officials, Sheridan School District and business leaders for support in the data center.
"I am not for this data center in Grant County because of the way it has been done," Creekmore said. "I'm 100% for transparency and there has been none. There has been secrecy, backdoor meetings and that's not fair to the community. Trust is earned, and they have done everything to bulldoze this through."
Creekmore highlights many questions she has including the type of cooling system such a data system will have, water run-off, water usage, light and noise pollution and long-term effects.
"What is Grant County going to gain?" Creekmore asked. "If you give a 65% tax abatement, what is Grant County going to get in return?"
With more than 37,000 potential acres of solar farms also coming to Grant County, Creekmore worries about what the fallout would be if a tornado hits one of these farms. What if a tornado hits the data center? Creekmore wants a lot more public discussion about the data center before a decision is made.
"This isn't about economic development," she said. "Citizens deserve to know what is coming, have their questions answered and their fear calms. It's their home. I'm not opposed to technology and where it's going but there has to be some guidelines."
