LITTLE ROCK — State Rep. Linda Collins-Smith, a Democrat, announced today that she is switching parties and becoming a Republican. Collins-Smith, of Pocahontas, announced the switch during a news conference at the state Capitol. She did not take questions from reporters and did not say whether she would seek re-election next year as a Republican. “I have not changed. I have not left the Democratic party, but the party left me,” she said. Rep. Linda Collins-Smith Collins-Smith called Republicans “hard-working, commonsense people” and said the GOP “most closely holds to the principles that I and most Arkansans believe in.” The...