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Monica Ball
Monica Ball (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arkansas House of Representatives to represent District 39. She lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Ball completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2018. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2018
General election
General election for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Mark Lowery defeated Monica Ball in the general election for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mark Lowery (R)  | 54.4 | 6,069 |
 | Monica Ball (D) | 45.6 | 5,082 | |
| Total votes: 11,151 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39
Monica Ball defeated Joshua Price in the Democratic primary for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39 on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Monica Ball | 67.1 | 1,017 |
 | Joshua Price | 32.9 | 498 | |
| Total votes: 1,515 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39
Incumbent Mark Lowery advanced from the Republican primary for Arkansas House of Representatives District 39 on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Mark Lowery |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Monica Ball completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ball's responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
If elected, I will work to strengthen public education so that every child in the state receives the high quality education that they deserve. I will to ensure that all Arkansans have access to quality, affordable healthcare. And, I will fight for good jobs that pay living wages to sustain Arkansas families.
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
I am most interested in working on education policy in Arkansas, and specifically closing the opportunity/achievement gap that exists among students across the state. I am passionate about this cause because I am a retired National Board Certified Teacher high school science teacher. I spent 28 years working with a diverse group of students in North Little Rock and Little Rock public schools. I have worked with students at both ends of the achievement gap that exists throughout our state. This gap widens the longer we delay addressing it. As a state with a high poverty rate--46% live in poverty or low income--it is critical to address this disparity so we can prepare our children to enter the workforce of the 21st century and become productive citizens. High quality public education--pre-K through post secondary--is critical, especially for children that are lagging behind. We owe ALL of our children the opportunity to succeed. There is much hard work to be done in this area, but it must be done if Arkansas is to have a prosperous future.
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
The most important thing for an elected official to remember is that they are a public servant.
What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?
The first historic event I remember was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was in the first grade at Minneha Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas, when the announcement came over the intercom. A few months earlier, my Dad had taken me to get a glimpse of Kennedy as his motorcade passed by during a visit to Wichita. I was 6 years old at the time.
Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?
It is not necessarily beneficial for a state legislator to have governmental experience to do their job. It is more important for the legislative body to be diverse so as to reflect the demographic make up of the state so as to truly represent the collective constituency. Experience is good only if it actually benefits the public. If it benefits special interest lobbyists over the people a legislator was elected to represent, then it is NOT good experience.
What do you perceive to be your state’s greatest challenges over the next decade?
Lifting people out of poverty is our state's greatest challenge over the next 10 years.
Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.
Yes, it is important to work with other legislators to solve the State's problems. Working together has a synergistic effect that can accomplish much more than working in isolation from one another. Collegiality capitalizes on each memberss knowledge, strengths, and experience to bring about the best possible outcomes for the people we serve.
If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?
I would like to work on the Education Committee and the Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee. I would also like to work on the Joint Committee on Public Retirement and Social Security Programs to help protect our public retirement programs from the attempts of out-of-state funded special interest groups to undermine our public retirement systems as they have done in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Is there a particular legislator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?
I look up to Arkansas State Senator Joyce Elliott. She is a fantastic role model of a public servant.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- Arkansas House of Representatives elections, 2018
- Arkansas House of Representatives
External links
Footnotes
