Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Barbara Webb officially announced this morning something that’s long been assumed: She’s running to replace outgoing Chief Justice Dan Kemp, who will retire at the end of his term.
Webb’s entry makes the chief justice race a three-woman contest. Justices Rhonda Wood and Karen Baker announced their candidacies in May.
It’s been clear Webb intended to jump in the race since at least June, when her husband, former state Republican Party chairman Doyle Webb, sent a text message to potential donors sniffing out financial support. Because candidates for the Supreme Court can’t officially collect donations until 180 days before the election (that would be in early September; the election falls on May 5, 2024), he emphasized he was merely asking for pledges, not cash. If that sounds ethically questionable, well, so does the fact that Doyle Webb’s day job is chair of the state Public Service Commission, the regulatory body overseeing power companies and other utilities.
Barbara Webb has served on the court since 2020, when she beat Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chip Welch in a race for an associate justice seat. She’s also served as a circuit judge and a prosecutor in Saline County.
Judgeships in Arkansas are nominally nonpartisan, but judicial candidates have become increasingly willing to tout their ties to the GOP. (The court’s newest justice, Cody Hiland, served as the state Republican Party chair before Gov. Sarah Sanders appointed him to the position.) Webb’s Republican cred runs deep — not only was her husband the state GOP chair, she’s a longtime party donor and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2016.
If Webb is hoping to frame herself as the conservative choice for chief justice, though, she’ll have competition from Rhonda Wood, who has her own partisan bona fides and has served on the court far longer than Webb.
With Kemp retiring, that means half of the seven-justice court’s remaining membership is now running for the chief justice seat. One has to wonder how that will affect the internal dynamic of the court when it does its routine business, especially on cases that might attract media attention.
Here’s Webb’s news release:
BENTON – Today, Justice Barbara Womack Webb of the Arkansas Supreme Court announced her campaign to be the state’s next Chief Justice. Webb, who has more than 20 years of experience on the bench, was first elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2020.
Her previous roles include Chief Law Judge at the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission, the first female Circuit Judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, and the first elected female prosecuting attorney in Saline County. Webb has also served as a special associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Justice Webb issued the following statement:
“From private practice, to prosecuting attorney, to justice on the supreme court – my over four decades of courtroom experience have more than prepared me for this opportunity to be our state’s next Chief Justice. With your support, I will continue to be a fair and independent voice that all Arkansans can trust.”A graduate of the University of Arkansas Bowen School of Law, Justice Webb has been a licensed attorney since 1982. She has been a member of the Arkansas Ethics Commission, Arkansas State Crime Lab Board, Arkansas Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and the U.S. Department of Justice Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
You can read Justice Webb’s full bio HERE and learn more about her campaign by visiting her website.