Rasmussen: Lincoln Still Facing Choppy Poll Numbers

September 29, 2009

Poll positions

Since we’ve now dedicated ourselves to hyping every poll that comes out on the 2010 Senate race, let’s hype another, shall we? The liberal Talking Points Memo blog points to new polling results from Rasmussen Reports, and the numbers continue to look ugly for Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Four Republicans named in the poll actually run ahead of the incumbent Democrat:

State Senator Gilbert Baker runs best against Lincoln so far, beating her by eight points – 47% to 39%. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, with eight percent (8%) undecided.

State Senator Minority Leader Kim Hendren beats Lincoln 44% to 41%, with five percent (5%) favoring another candidate and 10% undecided.

Curtis Coleman, a private businessman with ties to former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, holds a 43% to 41% lead over the incumbent. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and 11% are undecided.

Just as close is Tom Cox, head of the Arkansas T.E.A. Party, who leads Lincoln 43% to 40%, with six percent (6%) favoring another candidate and 11% undecided.

Twenty-six percent (26%) of Arkansas voters have a very favorable opinion of Lincoln, while 28% view her very unfavorably. Just four percent (4%) don’t have an opinion of the incumbent senator.

Rough stuff, much of it apparently driven by antipathy to Democratic health care reform efforts, according to this survey. More at Rasmussen’s site here.

Wait, does that headline say “choppy poll numbers”? Now that I read back over it I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to mean. “Choppy waters,” sure, but can numbers be “choppy”? I don’t know, man. I have no idea how I come up with this crap, either.

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Talkin’ Turkey

September 29, 2009

TurkeysHunters in Arkansas love two things:

1) Hunting, and

2) Complaining about the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC).

Hunters always think they have better solution to improving the game populations in the state than the people the governor appoints to the commission. After all, for all its egalitarian past, hunting is now a rather blue collar activity. Most of the bona fides of the game and fish commissioners boil down to the financial support provided to the governor in the last election.

That’s not to say the commissioners are not sportsmen or don’t know what they are talking about. However, most hunters know that the commission positions are given out as favors to political supporters. The commissioners got their position because they know Ray Thornton, not because they can call like Ray Eye. In a populist sport like hunting, that instantly puts the commissioners in an awkward position vis a vis the hunter.

Which brings us to the commission’s 4-to-3 vote last week to cancel this year’s fall turkey season. According to the AGFC biologist, only 522 turkey were taken during last fall’s turkey season. The commission said the cause of this low harvest was poor hatch numbers. So they shut down the season. No doubt some turkey hunters are complaining, but not many. Most turkey hunters don’t hunt the fall season. It just isn’t as popular as the spring season.

[Read more...]

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Tom Cotton: Well, That Was Anti-Climactic

September 28, 2009
Like the mythical beast, it was if he was never here.

Like his mythical steed, it was as if he was never here.

Oh, so all that business about U.S. Army Capt. Tom Cotton, a Republican, running for U.S. Senate, or maybe the Second District Congressional seat? Uh, yeah, so, not so much. Word from Camp Cotton is he won’t be running for anything after all. OK, moving on…

More reax: The Tolbert Report, Arkansas Times, Arkansas Watch.

Filed Under: Arkansas Republicans Tagged With: ,

Let’s All Go Buy Lottery Tickets At Midnight

September 27, 2009
("If Lottery Tickets Told The Truth"--click image for more)

("If Lottery Tickets Told The Truth"--click image for more)

If you don’t have anything to do at midnight, then you should go to the big kick-off ceremony for the Arkansas lottery at some random gas station in West Little Rock. Hooray! Free money for all! (Unless you listen to John “Buzzkill” Lyon at the Arkansas News Bureau, who’s decided it’s his job to bring everybody down with his “statistical probabilities” and such.)

The midnight observance is lottery director Ernie P.’s way of giving the finger to all those pesky news reporters who have been antagonizing him all these months with questions about exorbitant salaries for lottery employees and sketchy contracting practices. Ha, screw you, newspeople. You should have gone to law school like everyone else.

Gov. Mike Beebe says he won’t be buying any lottery tickets, probably because Mrs. Beebe won’t let him. I know how that goes. I told Arkansas Project Girlfriend (APG) I wanted to go buy a bunch of tickets and she said “no,” because I had already exhausted this year’s budget category for “throwing away money on stupid-ass shit.” Which is alarming, because it’s only September and it turns out there’s still a whole bunch of stupid-ass shit I was planning on throwing away money on this year.

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Chase Dugger Is New GOP Exec Director; Aymond in at YRs

September 26, 2009

The Arkansas Times’ Max Brantley says Republican Party of Arkansas political director Chase Dugger got the nod to be the party’s next executive director.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Young Republicans held their annual convention this morning at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and elected Elizabeth Aymond, former communications director for the RPA, as the organization’s new chair. For those with an interest in such things, the full list of the new YR executive committee is at the jump.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Republicans

2010 Campaigns: The Keeper of the Scrolls

September 24, 2009

Let it scrollLots of new developments these last few days with some of the Arkansas 2010 political races, and we’ve been updating our running lists of candidates to reflect the new activity.

For your convenience, I’ve added a link to all the campaign tipsheets over in the right-hand navigation bar on the page. Right there, on your right. No, over there, that blue bar where it says “2010 Campaigns.” There. Right there. Right. There. See it? Yes? Good. Jesus.

Most of the activity this week appears to have centered around the Second Congressional District, where former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin and Little Rock restaurateur Scott Wallace, both Republicans, announced their intentions to challenge Democratic incumbent Rep. Vic Snyder.

Further, GOP golden boy Tom Cotton, long said to be eyeing a Senate run against Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln upon his pending release from the U.S. Army (next week), is now said to be considering the Second District race instead. So we’re carrying Cotton on both the House and Senate lists for now. Or is there a chance that Cotton will ultimately decide 2010 isn’t the year to run, after all? Y’know, just askin’.

Check out the other lists as well, which I’ve been updating regularly as new information avails itself. I feel like we’re missing a lot of names on the state House of Representatives list, in particular, so scan over that one and let me know where we’re dropping the ball.

Filed Under: Arkansas Politics Tagged With: , ,

Arkansas GOP Seeking New Exec Director (Updated!)

September 22, 2009

You may remember some months ago when Republican Party of Arkansas Executive Director Karen Ray stepped down to move to another state or something. That happened in February, and everyone was very interested in the question of who would replace her, until all of a sudden we weren’t anymore.

Say, let’s follow up on that: The state GOP’s executive committee meets on Saturday here in Little Rock, and a look at the agenda reveals that the committee will be interviewing three two applicants for the job, as follows:

  • Chase Duggar (current political director for the state party)
  • Tracy Horne (public affairs and media relations consultant, formerly with the office of Gov. Mike Huckabee and the short-lived gubernatorial campaign of the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller). UPDATE: Tracy Horne reports he had expressed interest in the position some months ago, but has since taken on additional obligations, and as a result has removed himself from contention.
  • Alice Stewart (media consultant, formerly spokeslady for Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office and his presidential campaign)

Others in the mix? And can the state Republican Party, with its recent record of incredibly poor fundraising, afford the hire? Stay tuned.

Filed Under: Arkansas Republicans

You Should Go To The SPJ Blogging Academy

September 22, 2009

The monkey! He's typing! You, there! What are you doing on Saturday? Nothing worthwhile, I assume.

Therefore I suggest you look into attending the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists Blogging Academy: An Introduction to Community Journalism in Little Rock, where they’ll have a bunch of so-called self-styled “experts” on hand to talk about how you, too, can make a name for yourself through a time consuming, non-paying hobby.

It’s at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School (Room 305) from 10 a.m to 2 p.m, and panel sessions will focus on ethics and legal issues, accessing government and something called “blogging best practices.” I’m on the latter panel, so I assume they’ll be holding The Arkansas Project up as an example of what not to do.

Other participants include Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, Steve Harrelson of Under the Dome and, uh, I forget who else. Hell, I don’t know, let’s say “Jason Tolbert.” OK, so no Tolbert, I’m informed.

And best of all, it’s all free, so get thee to the Facebook page to learn more and get registered.

Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: ,

Tim Griffin Would Like To Be Your Congressman

September 21, 2009

Bill and TimLet us cast our memory back fondly to the earlier part of this year, when I speculated that former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin, who was then weighing a Republican challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, was really interested in running for some OTHER office. Say, let’s quote me, in interrogative mode:

Is Griffin serious about running for the Senate seat? Or is he “exploring” a run to test the feasibility before he “suddenly” decides to drop down to a lower level race and, oh, say, challenge Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder for the Second District House seat?

Thought-provoking questions, Dave! And whaddya know, today Griffin announces today he’ll join the race to challenge Snyder, just as we wondered all those months ago. He even has a (placeholder) website. (Conway’s David Meeks is already in the race, and a couple of others are rumored to be thinking about getting in.)

So let us salute The Arkansas Project’s laudable foresight, while ignoring and forgetting the many, many, many times my wild-ass, harebrained speculations turned out to be laughably and pitifully wrong.

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‘You’re Sort of Like Cheap Trick’

September 18, 2009

So I’ve been more or less MIA these last few days in an effort to make money, meaning that this absurd blog had to take a back seat. But here, let’s watch this amusing video in which Uncle Sam seeks advice from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson:

Arkansas connection? Well, Carlson started off as an editorial writer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette right here in Little Rock years and years ago, so there’s your damn Arkansas connection. (Via Extra Awesome)

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