Sample leading Neal in District 14 race

State Sen. Bill Sample held a 15 percentage point lead over Jerry Neal late Tuesday night, according to unofficial preliminary results from the secretary of state's office.

Sample led Neal by a 57 percent, or 1,267 votes, to 43 percent, 952 votes, margin by presstime, according to the secretary of state's office.

Final results from the race were not available by presstime.

Sample declined to comment before the official results were in Tuesday night and Neal was unavailable for comment.

Sample and Neal's most major policy disagreement has been over the Arkansas "private option" version of Medicaid expansion passed into law in 2013.

A total of 155,567 of the estimated 225,000 Arkansans who qualify for health insurance through the "private option" had applied and been determined eligible as of March 31, according to a late April news release by the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

The "private option" is basically a plan that uses funds through the Affordable Care Act, which passed the state House and Senate by a bipartisan vote in 2013, that allows Arkansans making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level to use federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private insurance.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Independent candidate, George Pritchett, in November.

Local on 05/21/2014

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