12 Facts About Marshall Chrisman

Marshall Chrisman served from 1969 to 1970 as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives.

In 1980 and 1982, Chrisman fell far short in primary bids against Frank D White for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Marshall Chrisman returned to Coal Hill, where over the years he has been engaged in principally a sand and gravel company as well as construction, cable television, and coal mining.

In 1969, Representative Marshall Chrisman worked reluctantly with Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, the first Arkansas Republican chief executive since the Reconstruction era, to pass a local-option bill to permit liquor in private clubs.

Marshall Chrisman first voted against the measure because Johnson and Franklin counties then had prohibition.

Marshall Chrisman then reversed himself at the request of constituents at the Clarksville Country Club in Clarksville.

Marshall Chrisman said that he considered White too new to the Republican Party.

Marshall Chrisman called White an "opportunist" who was attempting to take advantage of the opposition that had unexpectedly surfaced to Governor Bill Clinton's 1979 proposal to double automobile license fees.

Marshall Chrisman won his own Franklin County plus Ashley, Johnson, Madison, and Marion.

In 1982, Marshall Chrisman renewed his primary challenge to White, whom he called "a do-nothing governor" who did not consult the county Republican executive committees regarding patronage positions.

Marshall Chrisman said the state needed to raise taxes to improve education, drug rehabilitation, and other public services, and he promised a statewide work-release system for the prisons.

White won re-nomination with 11,111 votes ; Marshall Chrisman received 10.6 percent of the vote but led only in Madison County.