J.R. Dallas to Seek House District 63 Seat

October 24, 2009

J.R. Dallas of Fort Smith, former head of the Arkansas Air National Guard 188th Fighter Wing, will announce Monday that he’s running for the Arkansas House of Representatives seat representing District 63, according to the City Wire in Fort Smith. Dallas will run as a Republican, so he’ll face Arkansas Sen. Denny Altes, who’s also running for the seat, in a primary.

The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. Frank Glidewell, who is term-limited and is running for the Arkansas Senate seat representing District 13.

Our ever-growing list of 2010 House races is over here.

Filed Under: Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With:

Now Drew Pritt Is Running for U.S. Senate, Too

October 24, 2009

Perennial Democratic candidate Drew Pritt sends along word that he, too, will join the ever-expanding universe of Arkansas people who think that Sen. Blanche Lincoln must be replaced. Full text of Pritt’s news release is at the jump.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Democrats, Arkansas Politics Tagged With: ,

Stanley Reed Now Thinks He Might Like To Be A U.S. Senator, Too, Maybe, and Maybe Bill Halter, Too. Maybe.

October 22, 2009
Reed

Reed

Do you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and think, “Hey, I should run for the U.S. Senate!”? If not, you are evidently among the minority of Arkansans.

So go ahead and add former Arkansas Farm Bureau godfather Stanley Reed to the list of Republicans who might, just might, want to challenge embattled Democratic U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln in 2010. He says he’s weighing the race after earlier saying he would not run, says columnist David Sanders, because Reed now sees Lincoln as being weighed down by the Democratic agenda. Buuuuurn!

Meanwhile, the wearisome “Bill Halter Might Challenge Lincoln in a Primary!” rumor continues to float around.  Look, either get in the damn race or clearly state you won’t run. Sheesh, this guy.

Yeah, I’ve updated The List.

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Senator Gilbert Baker Announces the Hiring of Former Huckabee for President National Press Secretary Alice Stewart

October 21, 2009

Go ask Alice. Arkansas Sen. Gilbert Baker, frontrunner in the 2010 GOP primary race to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, announces today that he’s hired former Mike Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart as his campaign mouthpiece.

It’s all in a news release with a comically long headline, which I liked so much I pasted it in as the title for this post. She’ll be serving as deputy campaign manager and communications director. Full statement at jump.

Alice was last seen here on the Arkansas Project when she was in the running for the executive directorship of the Republican Party of Arkansas. She also has a blog, which updates even less frequently than this one, if you can believe such a thing.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Media, Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With: , ,

2010 Senate Money Race: Who Can We Send To the Deadpool?

October 15, 2009

moneygraphThe Tolbert Report is rounding up some of the financial reports from various Arkansas candidates for U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, so to supplement Jason’s efforts I’ve created this handy graph of the financial performance of several of the Senate candidates.

So who will survive for another quarter, and which of these walking wounded campaigns should we be shuffling off to the deadpool? Here’s what this graph tells us:

  • If you’re over on the left side of the graph, your fundraising efforts are showing some vigor, and you should keep doing what you’re doing!
  • If you’re grouped in the middle of the pack there (and/or heavily dependent upon personal loans to your own campaign), ehhhh, I don’t know, man, you either need to step it up or start planning a graceful exit. Y’know, like maybe a quiet departure from the race around the holidays, when no one’s really paying that much attention. The first person to proclaim that “This campaign is about the message, not the money” will automatically be shifted to the deadpool. Trust me, because I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work.
  • If you’re one of those guys over there on the far right side of the graph, please note that I have so little confidence in your chances that I haven’t even bothered to find your photo to cut your head out. I can’t even muster the energy to make funny pictures of you. Think about that for a little bit.

Here’s the full list of announced/considering/rumored Senate candidates for 2010. I look forward to making it shorter soon, so let’s get moving on some of those aforementioned graceful exits.

Filed Under: Arkansas Democrats, Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With: , ,

Keith Crass to Run for Arkansas House District 24 Seat

October 14, 2009

Keith Crass of Hot Springs, a certified public accountant, announces today that he’ll run for the Arkansas House of Representatives seat in District 24 as a Republican. The seat is currently held by Rep. Rick Saunders, who is term-limited. Full release from Crass at the jump.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With:

Lincoln Pulls in $1.2 Million in Q3

October 12, 2009

lincoln moneybags

Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln reports another strong fundraising quarter, with $1.2 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, and a total of $4.13 million on hand.

From the Lincoln campaign:

* For the 3rd quarter (July 1 – September 30, 2009), the campaign will report total receipts of $1,210,919;

* Individuals accounted for more than 58 percent of the total contributions for the quarter;

* The campaign reported $4,129,747 cash on hand at the close of the period, September 30;

* Since the beginning of this year, Senator Lincoln’s campaign has raised $4,204,068, an average of $1.4 million per quarter.

She also reports campaign expenditures of $266,105.90 for the quarter. Lincoln statement at jump.

On the Republican side, the current money leader is state Sen. Gilbert Baker, who says he raised more than $500,000 in September (Baker’s third quarter fundraising window was abbreviated as he entered the race in early September).

[Read more...]

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Campaign Lists Updated; Keep ‘Em Coming

October 12, 2009

Posting rhythm here has been slow lately, but I’ve been making regular updates and corrections to our list of 2010 candidates as new information is made available, thanks to our readers. Hit the 2010 campaigns button in the right sidebar, or click here, to get to the full list. In recent days we’ve added in several newbies, and a few names have dropped off.

The lists are still incomplete, but we’re treating them as a work in progress. So if you’ve got info on candidates for office (especially for legislative seats) that we don’t have here, send me an email and we’ll check it out.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reynolds a Nimrod, Says Jonesboro Newsman

October 7, 2009
Conrad E. Reynolds

Conrad E. Reynolds

Fun media goof-up story from Roll Call today about one of Arkansas’ many GOP Senate hopefuls and the news director of the NPR outlet at Arkansas State University.

Candidate Conrad E. Reynolds has been making quite a bit of noise lately with a steady stream of news releases and press statements, and news director Greg Chance at ASU’s public radio station has apparently had enough:

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. From Roll Call, via Newsbusters:

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University.

It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia.

“There was another one from this nimrod earlier today which I lost. I just love his logo. That ought to go over really well with the enlisted people. (ha ha),” he writes.

One problem: Chance must have hit the “reply” button instead, because his message went straight to Kenneth Ryan James, the campaign’s spokesman.

Please note the particularly telling detail in the story, which is that Chance evidently thought he was communicating directly with Lincoln’s press secretary. Cozy. (Roll Call is subscription only, so link goes to Newsbusters write-up of the exchange.)

I requested a copy of the e-mail from Reynolds spokesman, K. Ryan James, and a screenshot is posted at the jump. The Reynolds campaign’s full response is available at his site.

While we’re on the Reynolds beat, congrats to the candidate and his wife on the birth of their new son yesterday.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With: ,

David Whitaker Exploring Run for Congress in Third District

October 5, 2009

Fayetteville Democrat David Whitaker, a former assistant city attorney, announced a couple of days ago that he formed an exploratory committee for a possible run against GOP Rep. John Boozman in the Third District in 2010.

This was rumored on the Arkansas Times blog a couple of weeks back, and all over Twitter this weekend when Whitaker announced he had filed the papers to form the exploratory committee (via Doug Thompson), but I’m posting it here now in case you were out of town all weekend and completely out of touch with the news, like I was. I just didn’t want you to be the last to know, man.

Filed Under: Uncategorized
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