The Arkansas Project

Sides Square Off in Arkansas Lottery Debate

By David Kinkade - October 7, 2008 9:56 am

It’s dueling court briefs in the big Arkansas lottery debate of 2008, the Arkansas News Bureau’s John Lyon reports.

Lottery foes the Arkansas Family Council argue to the state Supreme Court that the lottery proposal needs to be thrown off the ballot. They say that since the measure doesn’t define what is meant by the term “state lotteries,” which the Family Council argues will pave the way for casino gaming in Arkansas. (For more on this, Max Brantley at the Arkansas Times and Ernie Dumas at the Arkansas Leader have both explained how it might all come down in recent columns.)

In response, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who’s pushing the lottery to fund college scholarships, and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel argue in separate briefs that the “wording of the ballot question is accurate and easy for voters to understand,” Lyon reports.

The court will hear oral arguments on Monday, October 13.

Lawsuit Seeks to Stop Lottery Vote

By David Kinkade - September 19, 2008 2:27 pm

Oh, my, we’ve seen more interesting news on the Arkansas lottery in the last four days than in the last four months….

The conservative Arkansas Family Council, which is more or less leading the anti-lottery push in the state, asked the Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday to have the lottery proposal thrown off the ballot, the AP’s Andrew Demillo reports:

In the complaint, the council argues that the proposed constitutional amendment’s title and name are “inaccurate, incomplete and misleading” because they don’t define lotteries and doesn’t warn voters of potential consequences of authorizing a state-run lottery. The proposal leaves it up to the Legislature to work out the details of the lottery and the scholarships it would fund.

Bud Jackson, who is Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s mouthpiece on the lottery push, offers one of his typical hyperventilating responses.

“This is yet the latest example that the Family Council, a special interest organization, will do anything to impose its will upon the entire state of Arkansas and do anything to prevent Arkansans from having the right to vote on this themselves,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the lawsuit has shut the door on any possibility of debates between the lottery campaign and the Family Council.

“We’re not going to have an honest debate with an organization that isn’t interested in dealing with the pros and cons of this issue,” Jackson said.

By the way, the Arkansas Journal blog has some more on the Family Council’s efforts on other ballot initiatives. Check it out.

Sanders Turns Spotlight on Arkansas

By David Kinkade - September 15, 2008 6:49 am

While the entire world breathlessly awaits the next twist and turn in the presidential race (lipstick on a pig! McCain doesn’t Twitter!), columnist David Sanders turns his eye to Arkansas to assess elected officials here. Remember those guys? Among the findings:

Does Gov. Mike Beebe’s managerial style include communicating with state agencies? A frustrated Sanders source in state government says “not so much.” (Earlier this year, we learned that Beebe had eliminated Cabinet meetings from the governor’s agenda.)

Sanders credits Lt. Gov. Bill Halter for standing by his guns on the lottery initiative, and reports that anti-lottery forces are “testing a few ideas as they gear up to take on Halter’s lottery proposal.” “Testing?” “Gearing up”? As early voting starts in a little over a month, they might want to get moving on that.

As Attorney General Dustin McDaniel wades into the minefield of illegal immigration, will he provoke a significant response from immigration restrictionists? (It’s a good test case for my earlier “illegal immigration is waning as a political issue” hypothesis.)

Read the whole thing.

Convenience Store Trade Group Endorses Lottery

By David Kinkade - September 9, 2008 10:44 am

Chalk up another one for Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s state lottery: The Arkansas Oil Marketers’ Association, a trade group that represents some 3,000 convenience stores in the state, has endorsed the lottery proposal that voters will weigh in November, the AP reports.

Update: Apparently, these guys put up a website in 1995 and have never changed it since.

Arkansas Lottery Push Scores $11K

By David Kinkade - September 5, 2008 8:27 pm

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s campaign for a state lottery raised another $11,000 last month, bringing Arkansas that much closer to the wondrous world of scratch-off tickets and gambling addiction.

The campaign has raised over $563,000 total, with almost $70,000 cash on hand, the AP reports. (Wait, what? They’ve already dropped half a mil on this thing? What on earth for? That’s a snappy new website, but if they paid $500,000 for it, they got hosed.)

On the other side, I hear that lottery opponents reported receiving a smooth $67.50 and some coupons for half-off at Jiffy Lube.

Brother Bill’s Arkansas Lottery Traveling Salvation Show

By David Kinkade - August 20, 2008 7:51 am

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter: Yeah, that's the ticket!

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter took his Arkansas Lottery Traveling Salvation Show to Springdale on Tuesday, where he pitched the plan to the Senior Democrats organization.

Reporter Tracie Dungan from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette notes that several attendees flatly stated that they opposed the plan. While some folks have argued for setting a minimum percentage of lottery revenues to be dedicated to scholarships, Halter says that’s not part of his plan:

Lottery directors in other states have cautioned against mandating a scholarship percentage.

“They’ve found that simply doesn’t work,” Halter told the Senior Democrats of Northwest Arkansas during a luncheon speech and question session in Springdale.

The other states have found that such commitments can drive the prize jackpots down, hurting a state’s competitiveness with lotteries in other states, Halter said, surmising that residents of the state’s northwest corner are familiar with lotteries in neighboring Missouri and Oklahoma.

Arkansas Family Council head Jerry Cox chimes in with some relevant questions, but without a well-funded organized opposition, the lottery issue looks like a runaway train.

The Arkansas Project’s Freeman Hunt laid out her brief against the state lottery here, and I covered disputes between state legislators and Halter on the issue here.

About That Lottery….

By David Kinkade - August 4, 2008 3:33 pm

Warren Stephens

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s drive to create a state-run lottery for college scholarships got a big shot in the arm with a $50,000 contribution last month from Little Rock financier Warren Stephens, reports the AP’s Andrew Demillo. The lottery initiative was always believed to enjoy pretty broad popular support, based upon polling data, but more and more it’s looking like a runaway train, isn’t it? If lottery foes are planning to launch any serious opposition, they’re going to need to get moving.

The Lottery Song

By David Kinkade - July 30, 2008 8:27 pm

Bud Jackson: Halter spokesman, charmless vulgarian

Over at the Arkansas Times blog, Max Brantley digs up a nice little nugget from the Chronicle of Higher Education. A Rhodes College professor with some expertise on state-run lotteries, during a recent lecture at the Clinton School for Public Service in Little Rock, ventured some criticism, noting that lotteries are a particularly regressive vehicle for generating state revenue. (You can read the professor’s full recounting here—recommended).

Fair enough. Let’s get all sides out there, right?

Well, no, not if you’re Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

The lottery, as you well know, is Halter’s pet issue, upon which he has staked his short-lived political career—so those who would question the scheme can’t be debated. They must be shouted down, belittled and bullied.

That job fell to Halter’s spokesman Bud Jackson, a Virginia-based political consultant who, based upon his regularly published comments in the newspaper, is as charmless a vulgarian who ever drew breath, and who clearly relishes his role as Halter’s pit bull.

Jackson’s response, as Halter’s mouthpiece, showed up in the paper the following day:

Halter spokesman Bud Jackson said Arkansans ‘are smart enough to trust the facts over some kooky college professor trying to turn a quick buck with a book that is several chapters short of being an honest and complete representation of reality.’

Arkansans ‘would also be thrilled to know that the kooky professor would prefer tax hikes for all people rather than a voluntary game that would benefit tens of thousands of Arkansans with new scholarships.’

Brantley points out, quite rightly, that Jackson’s response was “over-the-top” and characterized Jackson as “bumptious” (great word). That sparked another response from Jackson, which I’ll let you read over at Max’s blog.

But this is all a long way around of noting that if Halter is looking to win friends and influence people on this issue and others, a good place to start might be placing a muzzle on his overly aggressive and embarrassing spokesman. Bud Jackson, as a political consultant, is no doubt making plenty of money off Halter and the state of Arkansas. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s low rent.