A long week of televised debates ended Friday (Oct. 12) with three gubernatorial candidates mostly sparring over the policies of Republican incumbent Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running for a second term.

The election is Nov. 6, with early voting beginning Oct. 22.

Over the past week, candidates in eight races have participated in the Arkansas Educational Television Network’s (AETN) 2018 election debates, which were taped at the network’s studios in Conway, televised throughout the week and made available online.

A new poll conducted this week shows the race for Little Rock Mayor to be close and competitive among three of the five candidates with nearly one-third of the city’s voters still undecided on their choice less than a month before Election Day.

The Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College Poll, commissioned by KATV Ch. 7, surveyed 498 likely Little Rock voters on Oct. 8-9, 2018. The survey used automated and live calls and has a margin of error of +/-4.4%.

Voters were asked about their choice for mayor based on how their names will appear on the ballot:

Arkansas voters will be able to consider a casino amendment during next month's election, the state highest court ruled Thursday. The Arkansas Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the constitutionality of a voter ID law passed by the Legislature last year.

In one casino case brought by Ensuring Arkansas’ Future, the petitioners raised 27 challenges to Issue 4, which would allow casino operations at Oaklawn and Southland and also at sites in Pope County and Jefferson County.

There were no seismic moments in the only scheduled debate between the three candidates for Arkansas’ Second Congressional District. The nearly one-hour debate hosted at UCA and airing on AETN featured incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. French Hill, Democrat Clarke Tucker, and Libertarian Joe Swafford.

The three candidates rotated answers to questions surrounding the MeToo movement, immigration, election interference by Russia, the rising national debt, tariffs and raising the minimum wage.

The two top candidates from Arkansas's District 4 Congressional seat faced off Monday. Issues in the AETN debate ranged from the minimum wage to the opioid epidemic.

Recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, and the responses from other countries were points of criticism brought by Democratic candidate Hayden Shamel.

"These tariffs are doing nothing but hurting American consumers and American farmers. In fact, we've had to give welfare to our farmers here in Arkansas just to make for the problem that we created," Shamel said.

UPDATE: With rain in the forecast Tuesday evening, Tales of the Crypt has been postponed, now scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 16 beginning at 6 p.m.

ORIGINAL STORY:  

Parkview High School’s drama department will present its 24th annual Tales of the Crypt at Little Rock's Mount Holly Cemetery on Tuesday. Students will portray notable Arkansas residents who are buried at the historic cemetary. 

A seventh member of the Arkansas Supreme Court now faces ethics charges over the court's decision to prohibit a judge who participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration from handling any execution-related cases.

A Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission panel formally filed charges Thursday against Justice Shawn Womack over the court's handling of the case involving Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who was photographed lying on a cot outside the governor's mansion the same day he blocked Arkansas from using an execution drug last year.

Before an overflow crowed in the conference room at the state Capitol, Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday unveiled his long-awaited “transformation plan” to shrink the size of the Arkansas state government from 42 to 15 agencies. It’s a proposal that has been in the making almost since he took office in early 2015.