The Arkansas Project

Oh, Yeah, John Boozman’s Getting In, Too (Updated!)

By David Kinkade - January 29, 2010 7:05 am

Photo courtesy of Arkansas Project reader Mike, who has a thing for both Boozman and impossibly leggy chicks posing in uncomfortable stances.

After a week-long tease that he was considering getting into the Arkansas GOP Senate primary for a chance to challenge embattled U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Rep. John Boozman’s getting in, someone who would probably know tells me.

Of course, they’re telling everyone they can find, so it’s hardly exclusive. You might think they’d just issue a press release instead of offering a steady stream of breathless “sources say/you didn’t hear this from me” messages to everyone in the world, one by one, which appears to be the strategy.

As the lone Republican in the state’s Congressional delegation, Boozman will emerge as a strong candidate given his regional strength in Northwest Arkansas, proven fundraising ability, and dear God does anyone even bother reading these pat “impact” analyses at this point when the impacts are mostly obvious—I mean, you’re probably not even reading this sentence anymore, and if you are the question is, why, because it’s not like there’s going to be anything in this graf that you haven’t read before or even thought up yourself, right?

Boozman’s always struck me as a nice fellow but he has the charisma of an elbow. The End.

Oh, no, wait, one more thing: Jim Lindsey! Might run! OK, now really The End.

UPDATE: In a news release issued today, Boozman says to stay tuned till February 6, when he’ll have an “important announcement” about his political future. Golly, I wonder what it could be?

Boozman Mulling Senate Run? Sure, Why Not!

By David Kinkade - January 22, 2010 7:03 am

Rep. John Boozman: What's one more?

Rep. John Boozman, the stalwart lone Republican of the Arkansas Congressional delegation, says he might just get in to the U.S. Senate primary to challenge embattled Sen. Blanche Lincoln, too. I haven’t been this excited since Stanley Reed got in the race!

Oh, and another poll out today, now from the Arkansas News Bureau, shows that Lincoln’s approval is finally rebounding after months and months of sagging approval ratings and grim prognoses for her electoral future. Ha ha! No, I’m just kidding, of course. The numbers are still just absolutely terrible for her.

So Sarah Palin Will Come to Arkansas After All on February 16 (Updated!)

By David Kinkade - January 13, 2010 7:26 am

(Photo credit: Michael Williams/ZUMA Press)

An early morning e-mail showed up promoting a February 16 visit to Arkansas by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for a fundraiser on behalf of the Republican Party of Arkansas.

Palin’s visit was suggested a couple of weeks ago on The Tolbert Report, but some confusion arose because word had leaked out via Facebook before details were finalized. Tolbert had it right to begin with, and it appears the earlier confusion has been cleared up.

Looks like the state GOP is playing it smart with lower cost tickets for the speech ($65 and $35, I’m told), which is a good thing as the event’s slated for Verizon Arena in Little Rock. Tickets for seats at dinner tables on the floor are going for $175. More to come when more details emerge.

UPDATE: I received a subsequent message this morning on this matter, and the correspondent asked that we keep this news “under our hats” until the state GOP has had the opportunity to formally announce the event. So please forget everything that you just read above while we await the formal announcement.

David Sanders to Announce for House Race in District 31

By David Kinkade - January 12, 2010 12:26 pm

Former Arkansas News Bureau columnist David Sanders, a veteran of Arkansas politics and media, will announce his campaign for District 23 31 in the state House of Representatives at noon Wednesday at the Arkansas Capitol. (Sanders began flirting with the notion of running a few weeks ago, as noted by The Arkansas Times, when the U.S. Senate candidate he’d signed up to work with withdrew from the race citing health concerns.)

The conservative Sanders will run as a Republican, of course, setting him up for a primary challenge against John Parke, who’s already announced his intention to the seek the seat. Three Democrats have also said they’ll vie for the seat, which is being vacated by GOP Rep. Dan Greenberg.

Here Are Some Things That Are Going On

By David Kinkade - January 8, 2010 12:57 pm

Man, is it ever cold outside….

(How cold is it, Dave?).

It’s so cold, I went to check the reading on the porch thermometer and I thought I was looking at Blanche Lincoln’s approval ratings! (Heyy-OOOOH!)

Anyway, here’s some political stuff that’s been going down this week that I wanted to note. Maybe you saw some of this scattered around the Arkansas blogosphere the last few days, or maybe you missed it, what the hell do I care what you do with your time:

• Former state Sen. Jim Holt announced that he would indeed enter the GOP primary in the U.S. Senate race to challenge the embattled Lincoln. He even filed paperwork and everything. The Washington Post says it’s one of the top 10 primary races in the country, but they also once ranked The Arkansas Project as a “Top Political Blog,” so who cares what those hacks say.
• GOP state Rep. Mark Martin says he will indeed make a run for secretary of state. Several Democrats have announced for the seat already.
• Republican Mark Darr made his candidacy for lieutenant governor official, and GOP Rep. Roy Ragland said he might just maybe enter the race, too, maybe.

And on Sunday, you’ll want to be sure you’re sitting by your wireless radio at 8 a.m., when I’ll be sitting in as the time filler special guest on Arkansas Sunday Edition with Blake Rutherford of Blake’s Think Tank, on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock. I know what you’re thinking: How on earth did Blake land the coveted 7-9 a.m. Sunday morning radio slot? I don’t know, man, he’s just got way more pull than we do.

We’ll probably be blathering on about politics, naturally, and, oh, I don’t know, how much Blake loved “Avatar,” probably. Christ, what a f**kin’ nightmare it will be.

Jim Holt Will Take Your Money Now (Updated!)

By David Kinkade - December 29, 2009 8:57 am

Jim Holt

Not a lot of political news this holiday week, but readers have been opening up some conversation on the potential impact of former state Sen. Jim Holt’s entry into the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, so let’s take note of that development.

Holt’s been flirting with the idea of getting in to the race for months, and he takes an additional step toward the race tonight with a pair of fundraisers in Rogers in Northwest Arkansas.

Any Arkansas Project readers who may happen to be in the neighborhood and want to shoot us a report or a note in the comments section, feel free to do so. Those who want to speculate on The Holt Effect and what it all means, feel free to start duking it out below.

In other Senate primary news, Republican Conrad E. Reynolds announces today that Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher will join him in Arkansas in January for a three-day tour of the state, perhaps the surest sign to date that Reynolds’ underfunded campaign needs to be put out of its misery.

UPDATE: Roby Brock’s Political Buzz blog weighs in with a report on some preliminary numbers, suggesting 75-80 attendees at Holt’s $100 fundraiser and 11 paid attendees at the $1,000 event. Roby also notes that Holt has almost certainly crossed the $5,000 threshold that would require him to file with the Federal Election Commission.

And Mark Moore of the Arkansas Watch blog, who was on the scene for one of the events, offers some additional perspective.

Jimmy Bryant Eyes Secretary of State Bid

By David Kinkade - December 22, 2009 8:54 am

Republican Jimmy Bryant, a justice of the peace on the Faulkner County Quorum Court, tells Joe Lamb of the Log Cabin Democrat newspaper that he may run for secretary of state in 2010. Republican Rep. Mark Martin is also considering the race, and Democrats Mark Wilcox, Doris Tate and Pat O’Brien have all stated their intention to run. More on how the races for state constitutional offices are shaping up over here.

Reed’s Out

By David Kinkade - December 18, 2009 1:42 pm

Remember how last week we all went into a feeding frenzy over the entry of former Arkansas Farm Bureau chief Stanley Reed into the GOP primary for U.S. Senate? Remember? That was a real time, wasn’t it? Yeah, well, about that…never mind.

Gary Campbell Plans Run for District 64 House Seat

By David Kinkade - December 17, 2009 1:11 pm

Republican Gary Campbell of Fort Smith is spreading the word that he’s planning a run for Arkansas House of Representatives in District 64. The seat is currently held by GOP first-termer Stephanie Malone, setting us up for another primary race.

Campbell’s full news release at jump.

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A Challenge for Republican Senate Candidates

By David Kinkade - November 30, 2009 10:07 am

Blogging machine Jason Tolbert has a good post over at The Tolbert Report touching on Republican Senate hopeful Conrad Reynolds’ plans for financing his 2010 campaign. Reynolds, like many of the Republican hopefuls, has been slow off the mark in raising money for the race. As of the last reporting period, Reynolds had some $43,000 on hand (with $30,000 of that total being Reynolds’ own money).

Let’s go to Tolbert’s video:

Note the artful use of the passive voice when Reynolds talks about campaign money. It’s going to “flow into this state,” and “they’ll match anything that she’s got.” It absolves him of responsibility for raising money for his own campaign, right? After all, that money is simply going to flow!

This is not to pick on Reynolds, particularly; it’s a common trope among the under-funded and under-performing candidates to argue they don’t need to raise money because “the money will be there.” Well…perhaps. Or perhaps not. Are you sure you wanna stake your campaign on that?

But I don’t want to be overly negative, so let’s make a deal. Here’s the assignment for all these lower-tier candidates in the Republican Senate primary: Let’s set a threshold target of, oh, let’s say $4 million. You go raise $4 million, and you don’t even have to spend it—just park it in the bank.

Then, if your theories about all of this magical money “flowing” into the state turn out to be true, and you didn’t need the $4 million, you can simply return it to the contributors once you’ve won the race, and I’ll admit that I was terribly, terribly wrong. You can even park the money in a CD and maybe hold on to the interest you generate in the meantime.

You’ll have proven your point that money isn’t that important, but without the risk of entering the campaign season lacking the money you’ll need to run a competitive campaign. It would have the added benefit of proving that you CAN raise the money, and that your failures to do so thus far have not been a function of inability or unwillingness to do the basic things that a campaign requires.

Sound like a good deal? I thought so.

Greenberg Makes Formal Senate Announcement

By David Kinkade - November 5, 2009 3:59 pm

Arkansas GOP Rep. Dan Greenberg (an Arkansas Project contributor) will make his candidacy for the state Senate seat in District 22 official this evening (Thursday) with a formal announcement on the Saline County Courthouse lawn in Benton at 6 p.m. Come one, come all!

Greenberg will face former Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson in a primary race that will be closely and intensely watched by Dan and Jeremy, while the rest of us point and laugh derisively at their general haplessness.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I sent Greenberg a $50 campaign donation, but only because I wanted the state tax credit for a political contribution.)

Candidates! Look At Your Calendars!

By David Kinkade - November 5, 2009 11:15 am

If you’re one of the many, many Republican primary candidates in the U.S. Senate race shaping up here in Arkansas, most of whose campaigns are under-performing financially, here’s a friendly reminder that campaign fundraising often gets pretty tough around the holidays.

Like, see that week for Thanksgiving on your calendar? Yeah, you can probably pretty much mark that one off. You won’t be raising any significant scratch in that week.

OK, now flip ahead to December and cross off the last two weeks of that month, more or less.

That leaves you with about four or maybe five weeks to raise money for your campaign. Which would be a smart thing to do, given the numbers that many of the contenders posted at the end of the 2009 third quarter. (Take a closer look at that chart—based on the numbers some of these guys are reporting, most of those guys couldn’t even afford the $10,000 fee to file for office.)

Just sayin’. A campaign war chest is a handy thing to have, even if it means you have to skip out on participating in some dumbass “straw poll,” which is apparently poised to be the hot pointless political gimmick of campaign season 2010.

J.R. Dallas to Seek House District 63 Seat

By David Kinkade - October 24, 2009 2:52 pm

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.

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

By David Kinkade - October 21, 2009 5:53 pm

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.

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

By David Kinkade - October 15, 2009 2:23 pm

The 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.

Keith Crass to Run for Arkansas House District 24 Seat

By David Kinkade - October 14, 2009 10:54 am

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.

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Reynolds a Nimrod, Says Jonesboro Newsman

By David Kinkade - October 7, 2009 8:35 am

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.

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Tom Cotton: Well, That Was Anti-Climactic

By David Kinkade - September 28, 2009 6:59 am

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.

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

By David Kinkade - September 26, 2009 4:45 pm

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.

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Arkansas GOP Seeking New Exec Director (Updated!)

By David Kinkade - September 22, 2009 5:07 pm

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.