Free Republic

<p>Two Republican U.S. Senate hopefuls visited Mountain Home this week, both speaking to the Republican Party at its monthly meeting Tuesday.</p> <p>Andy Lee and Jim Holt will challenge each other in the May 18 primary. The winner will challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln for her seat in the U.S. Senate in November's election.</p>

ROGERS - Former Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee opened his campaign for U.S. Senate on Saturday, pledging to put God into a smaller government, protect the rights of gun owners and to support President Bush's policies in Iraq. Lee, who will be 56 in April, is the third Republican to declare a bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Little Rock. Businessman Tom Formicola of Little Rock and State Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, have already announced. The GOP primary is scheduled for May 18. "Sometime before I die, I'd like to see God back in our...

WASHINGTON -- Little Rock businessman Tom Formicola is exploring a bid to challenge Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., in next year's election. Formicola, 44, a health care executive and former Maumelle alderman, said Thursday he has met with prominent Republicans in Washington to gauge his chances of ousting Lincoln. "I'm still testing the waters," Formicola said. "I'm in the process of drumming up support from state and national Republicans." Formicola said he has filed exploratory paperwork with the Secretary of the Senate and would announce his candidacy in early December, if he chooses to run. Formicola joins former Benton County sheriff...

WESTNevada. Rep. Jim Gibbons, possibly Republicans’ best hope for defeating Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in 2004, is due to arrive in Iraq today as part of a fact-finding mission. Gibbons, who is traveling to Iraq with other members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence -- Chairman Porter Goss (Fla.) and Democrats Jane Harman (Calif.) and Bud Cramer (Ala.) -- is in his fourth term. He won reelection in 2002 with 74 percent of the vote. Nevada Republicans say Gibbons would make a good Senate candidate because he has high name recognition and his district encompasses most of the state....

Andy Lee, a colorful former sheriff known for his spartan operation of the Benton County jail, said he’ll decide by autumn whether to run for the U.S. Senate next year. "I’m leaning that way. I will say that," Lee said Wednesday. Republicans are looking for a nominee to take on U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a first-term Democrat who has announced that she’ll run for re-election in 2004. GOP officials have mentioned Lee as a prospect, among other, more widely known possibilities such as Gov. Mike Huckabee or Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Huckabee has said...