The political rumor mill gins this up: The state Republican Party is still searching for a candidate to oppose Gov. Mike Beebe next year. Comes a whisper that state Rep. Allen Kerr of Little Rock, currently drawing wide attention for a crusade over abuse of public employment retirement laws, might be the one.

 

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I asked Kerr. “I’m just trying to get re-elected state representative right now,” he said. The 52-year-old insurance man is in his first House term after one term as a Pulaski JP. Though he insists he hasn’t given the gubernatorial idea “any serious consideration just yet,” he acknowledges it has been “thrown around here and there.” He adds, “But, man, that would be a gigantic uphill battle.”

 

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He says, however, that he never rules anything out. And he says, “I don’t want to be the guy who ran because they didn’t have anybody else. Anything I do, I do seriously and with a purpose and I do to win.”

 

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