Someone’s Having A Birthday!

July 31, 2009

You’re not going to believe this, but it so happens that today is The Arkansas Project’s one-year anniversary, more or less. We went public on July 31, 2008, after blogging in the dark for a few days beforehand to try everything out. Oh, what a fun year we’ve had!

For all of you history buffs out there, I was looking back through The Arkansas Project archives and I came across the blog’s original business plan, in which we laid out our strategic goals for generating revenues and making this venture a sterling success. Here, let’s all take a look:

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Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: ,

Stuff From Around Arkansas, July 31

July 31, 2009

It’s that time of the year again!

Huck’s Bucks: Blogger Jason Tolbert, a Mike Huckabee fan, rips the former governor a new one for lousy fundraising numbers. Must read! (The Tolbert Report)

The Big Tease: Ooooh, is Republican Gilbert Baker gonna get in the U.S. Senate race? Is he? Is he? Is he? Oh, geez, Gilbert, just shit or get off the damn pot. (Political Buzz)

Indie Rock: Independent Jerry Coon plans challenge to GOP Rep. John Boozman in Arkansas’ Third District. (40/29 TV — link fixed)

Uh, No: Rex Nelson argues that the Oxford American is just a great, great, great magazine. Rex Nelson is very, very, very wrong. (Rex Nelson’s Southern Fried Blog)

Everything You Need: Greatest website ever? Greatest website ever. (Actually Has Nothing To Do With Arkansas, But I’m Sliding It In Here Anyway Because It’s My Damn Blog)

Sophie’s Choice: Howard Dean or Mike Huckabee: Whose cable television show is better? What, you mean I can only pick ONE? (The New Republic)

Smugglers Cove: Cigarette smuggling from out of state was expected to increase with Mike Beebe’s big tobacco tax hike, but revenuers say they’ve seen no evidence of smuggling activity. Which means I got away with it, ha ha! (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Poop Scoop: University of Arkansas employee discovers that someone defecated in an elevator; police are investigating, but they don’t have a suspect. Which means I got away with it, ha ha! (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Arkansas Constitutional Officer Races, 2010

July 31, 2009

As part of our ongoing project to develop and maintain authoritative lists (or, more specifically, what will eventually be authoritative lists) of 2010 political races in Arkansas, here’s a quick one I slapped together on statewide constitutional offices. Feel free to drop a note in the comments to correct or fill out this list.

And be sure to look back at the lists we posted earlier this week, both of which have been gradually growing and improving thanks to reader input. Keep it coming:

Arkansas House of Representatives races

Arkansas Senate races

Next week we’ll add lists for the U.S. Senate race (Blanche Lincoln vs. Everybody!) and U.S. House of Representatives races.

Filed Under: Arkansas Politics

Here Is What Some of Our Friends Are Up To

July 31, 2009

A few Arkansas Project pals have scored some nice achievements these last few days, so let us now pay tribute to these characters.

David Sanders (top); Blake Rutherford; and Nick Stovall

David Sanders (top); Blake Rutherford; and Nick Stovall

1) Arkansas News Bureau columnist David J. Sanders landed a fine guest column in today’s Wall Street Journal. Sanders reports from a recent conference on philanthropy at the Clinton Presidential Center and questions the growing dependence of government dollars in private foundations. Sanders writes:

Remarkably, most of the recommendations had little to do with philanthropy. Rather, they were wish lists for Congress. These philanthropists turned government activists were eager to rewrite the Title I funding formula and to lobby the administration for more money for rural broadband. One presenter urged the group to advocate for a national energy policy that takes into consideration social, environmental as well as economic impacts. Another group recommended lobbying Congress and the Agriculture Department to create philanthropic rural-development endowments.

Looks like the administration is beginning to nationalize another sector of the American economy.

Read the whole thing.

2) Blake’s Think Tank blogger Blake Rutherford announced yesterday that he’ll be launching a regular Sunday morning radio show on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock, starting August 16, with a focus on politics, local affairs, sports and whatever else he can think of.

He’s slated for 7-9 a.m., which I’m told is a choice time slot because it allows you to hit the “folks getting ready for church” demographic as well as the “meth addicts just coming down after their Saturday night tweak” crowd.

3) The Arkansas blogosphere and the Lonely Misfits Drinking Society bids a fond farewell to young Nick “Zack” Stovall of the Arkansas News Bureau and the Unfamous First Words blog, who’s moving to St. Louis to do something or other. I forgot to ask, but I assume it has something to do with fighting crime and solving mysteries. Good luck to him and stuff.

Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: ,

Arkansas Senate Races, 2010

July 29, 2009

Yesterday we launched our listing of Arkansas House of Representatives races for 2010, which many of you have been kind enough to help update with the names of candidates I had omitted. Today, we add state Senate races for 2010 to the mix.

Second verse, same as the first: All caveats to the earlier list apply to this one as well—it’s incomplete and ugly, etc. Where you see omissions or errors, shoot me a message or drop a note in the comments section and I’ll update or correct. This list is a good deal shorter, obviously, so it should be easier.

Check out the full (or soon to be full) list.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Stuff From Around Arkansas, July 29

July 29, 2009

Subsidized: Democratic Rep. Marion Berry wants you to know that he does not receive farm subsidies. Except when he does. With damning video! (K. Ryan James blog)

The Candidate: GOP Rep. Allen Kerr, the scourge of Arkansas government double-dippers, for Arkansas governor? OK, sure, why not? (Arkansas Times)

Niche Man, Poor Man: Media maven Lance Turner likes this here idea of “nichepapers” as the future of journalism. (Me Lance Turner, You Blog)

Some things never go out of style.

Some things never go out of style.

Sherman’s March: Here’s something else in the (not really interesting any more) Tina Sherman nude photo case, which I’m really only throwing up here so I can use that photo yet again. Yay! I win! (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Kids Stuff: Study says Arkansas ranks 47th in nation in “children’s well-being,” but experts believe that ranking will shoot up to mid-30s following conviction of pervy evangelist Tony Alamo. (Arkansas News Bureau)

Spot o’ Tea: Latest Roby Brock polling: Do Arkansans support Tea Party message of limited government and fiscal restraint? Answer: Uh, somewhat, insofar as they know what the hell you’re talking about. (Political Buzz)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Arkansas House of Representative Races, 2010

July 28, 2009

Here, let’s try to do something marginally useful for once. With the recent flurry of announcements of candidates for legislative seats in Arkansas, it’s been difficult to keep track of who’s announced for what. So let’s start doing so.

On this page, I’ve compiled a list of all 100 state House seats and their current occupants, along with some names of potential candidates. I intend for this to be a running list that we’ll develop over the coming months.

A few caveats:

1) This list is terribly incomplete. There are certainly candidates who have announced they’re planning to run or are rumored as candidates that I haven’t listed here. I largely put this list together from memory and from pulling together info from other blogs, so it’s not a comprehensive listing at this time.  Let me know in the comments or shoot me a message at david(at)davidkinkade(dot)com and I’ll add them to the list. This will be an ongoing project, so we should be able to develop a reasonably authoritative list in the weeks and months to come.

2) The list is terribly ugly. This is pretty utilitarian stuff—just a long list of seats and names. I might find a way to make it more aesthetically appealing in the future, but for now, let’s just get the information down in one place where it can be easily found. We can worry about making it pretty later, if necessary.

3) The list may include an occasional typo or error. If I’ve misspelled a name or misidentified a party label, let me know. It’s not meant to be perfect right out of the gate—we can clean it up as we go.

If you’ve got information to add or a correction to offer, drop it in the comments, or contact me directly.

We’ll also have pages for Arkansas Senate, constitutional officer races, and U.S. Senate and House races in the next few days, but let’s start with this for now.

(Thanks to Blake’s Think Tank, The Tolbert Report, The Arkansas Times and Under the Dome, as I used info from your blogs as references on several of the entries.)

UPDATE: Thanks to all who have sent in candidate names that were not included on the original list; I’ve been adding new names throughout the day. Keep ‘em coming.

Filed Under: Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Politics Tagged With:

Stuff From Around Arkansas, July 27

July 27, 2009

Bay of Hogs: Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe launches planned invasion of Cuba. (Arkansas News Bureau)

Mortal Combat: Blogger Blake Rutherford is a pinko and a pussy. (Blake’s Think Tank)

No Surprise: The poor and minorities are the most likely to play the lottery, based on study of buying patterns in South Carolina. (Arkansas News Bureau)

Trigger Happy: Sen. Mark Pryor’s office explains his recent flippin and a’floppin’ on concealed carry vote in Senate to gun nut blogger John Anderson. (ARCCA Blog)

The Drowning Pool: Independent candidate Trevor Drown of Russellville joins the 2010 field to challenge Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Can he get the signatures to get on the ballot? (The Tolbert Report)

Big Dipper: The Arkansas Times owns the double-dipping story about state employees and elected officials “retiring” and then collecting both official pay and pensions. What did Gov. Beebe know and when did he know it? (The Arkansas Times)

Big Dog: Recalcitrant Blue Dog Democratic Rep. Mike Ross explains how it’s gonna be on health care bill. With video! (Talk Business)

Tony! Toni! Tone!: Ohhhh, so THAT’S how you set up a multimillion dollar apocalyptic ministry that allows you to prey on young girls! I told you that windowless van idea of yours would never work. (AP)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Things You Should Be Reading: Lottery Madness

July 26, 2009

With the Arkansas lottery’s start-up phase now given over entirely to controversy and infighting, I wanted to direct your attention to a couple of observers on the scene who are offering some helpful insights on the whole mess:

Blogger Jason Tolbert, who’s reported tirelessly on lottery news at The Tolbert Report, has written a solid and thoughtful op-ed piece over at the Arkansas News Bureau site assessing the lottery’s problems to date. Tolbert argues that many of the woes stem from legislators, commissioners and lottery officials insisting upon getting the games up and running as soon as possible—a recipe for sloppy and hasty decision-making that has undermined public trust.

And Ginny Blankenship, research and policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, has a new blog that offers sharp and critical analysis on the lottery’s progress to date. Her writing on the lottery’s revenue projections—and director Ernie Passailaigue’s practice of estimating revenues by pulling numbers out of his ass (my description, not hers)—is well worth reading.

Coupla other quick hits, while we’re on the subject: Blogger Mark Moore at Arkansas Watch points up some possible problems with a legislative report on average lottery salaries, while Brett Kincaid at BlogHawgs confesses to conflicted feelings about the whole enterprise.

Check ‘em all out.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

A Night To Remember!

July 25, 2009
Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels joins the Oak Ridge Boys onstage for a rousing chorus of "Elvira."

Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels joins the Oak Ridge Boys onstage for a rousing chorus of "Elvira."

The Democratic Party of Arkansas had a big to-do in North Little Rock Friday night, pulling in an estimated 1,400 people for a big party fundraiser at Verizon Arena.

Why, all the stars were there: Gov. Mike Beebe! Sen. Blanche Lincoln! Sen. Mark Pryor! Attorney Gen. Dustin McDaniel! Bill Halter, champion of the Arkansas lottery! Blake Rutherford! Good for them. It sounds like it was highly successful and a great event.

And we KNOW it was a great event from this extraordinarily flattering Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (ADG) report by Capitol Bureau chief Seth Blomeley, (HEADLINE: “Democrats Slam GOP At Dinner”) prominently published on the front of the paper’s Arkansas section, and featuring two (2) photographs. In addition, the ADG has made available online dozens of photographs from the event. (You’ll need a subscription to read the full article—sorry.)

Now let’s look back: A month ago, Arkansas Republicans held a parallel event in Little Rock. Granted, it was much smaller, with only about 400 people on hand, but let’s face it, there aren’t nearly as many Republicans in Arkansas as Democrats, right? But anyway, there were a bunch of elected officials and candidates on hand, as well as keynote speaker Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who some say just might be a candidate for president one day.

I’ll bet that event got the same red-carpet treatment from the ADG and Blomeley, right?

Hm, not quite. In that case, the ADG just ran this wire story from the AP, which focused not on the event but on Pawlenty’s response to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s affair. (Remember that? It transfixed a nation for, uh, days! And then Michael Jackson died, and we were never the same.) I believe the ADG ran that piece inside the B section, with no photo.

I suppose it would be churlish to point out the egregious disparity in coverage of the two events, and who’d listen anyway, right?

But I’d be interested to hear the editorial decision-making that adjudges one to be “news” and the other to be “not-news.” Seems like either they’re both “news,” or they’re both “not-news,” if you boast of being a balanced, trusted, objective news source serving the community. (Having worked as a reporter and attended my fair share of events like this, I can tell you that they are typically “not-news,” because they are “pseudo-events,” but a newspaper generally has to cover them in case news breaks out.)

I don’t much go in for “liberal media bias” bellyaching from conservatives, because it’s boring and unconstructive, like whining about the weather. But if you are an Arkansas Republican candidate for office in 2010, I’d keep in mind that the state’s largest daily newspaper and its chief political reporter have done you a tremendous favor by laying down their standard, at an early point in the process, for how you and your Democratic opposition will be treated in the coming campaign season. Rest assured, you will not receive the same type of coverage. Plan accordingly.

It was truly a night to remember.

Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: , , ,
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