News and Views on Politics, Policy and More
Earlier today, Senator Mark Pryor voted against cloture on a gun control bill in the Senate. That's wonderful, except he voted for the assault weapons ban in 2004 and previously supported the Brady Bill in 2002. Perhaps this new ad demonstrates Pryor's wobbly record better than anything I could say: … [Read more...]
Well, I see David Ramsey is at it again. Ramsey, a blogger for the Arkansas Times, faces a problem. What he’d like to do is criticize Republicans for the wicked things they say. However, there’s a difficulty: Republicans are as careful about what they say as anyone else, so it’s often difficult for Ramsey to find things to write about. Ramsey, however, has come up with a creative solution to this problem: namely, he makes things up. This solves a small problem for Ramsey – the social … [Read more...]
HB1187 is now Act 312 after being signed into law by Governor Beebe today. The new law prohibits the use of public funds by a public employee, school board, city, county, or any public entity to influence the outcome of ballot measure elections. (We’ve previously analyzed it here.) Rep. Nate Bell was the lead sponsor of the bill: in his testimony before the Senate State Agencies Committee last week, he said something I found very troubling: According to Bell, although current law required … [Read more...]
The Club for Growth (or “Club for Greed,” as a famous Arkansas governor once called it) has released a new ad targeting Obama BFF Senator Mark Pryor. As I’ve learned from Max Brantley, this type of targeted (conservative) brainwashing represents everything that’s wrong with American politics. I mean, how can unions ever hope to compete with this? So, out of fear that innocent Arkansans might be misled by billionaires with the sinister motive of promoting freedom, we are going to fact … [Read more...]
Yesterday afternoon, State Rep. Greg Leding took to the twittosphere to claim that a Republican state Senator "speaking on the Senate floor, did in fact say that voter ID will help elect Republicans." In fact, Rep. Leding didn't just send a frivolous tweet -- he said the quote was "Confirmed:" Confirmed by who? And who said it? And what exactly did they say? I was in the Senate gallery for the full discussion on voter ID -- I never heard any such comment. In addition, I have video of … [Read more...]
Today, for the first time in state history, the Arkansas Senate passed a voter ID bill. The bill, SB2, carried with a bipartisan vote of 23-12. I was there to catch all of the action on video since, well, the Senate doesn't provide video or audio of their proceedings to the taxpayers. Video 1: Senator Bryan King, lead sponsor of SB2, opens for his bill and takes questions from Senator Linda Chesterfield and Senator Joyce Elliott. Video 2: Senator Chesterfield speaks against … [Read more...]
OK, those thinkers over at the Advance Arkansas Institute have really done it this time: today they’ve released a new policy brief on SB 2, the “voter ID” bill that is before the state Senate today. According to their press release, the proposal would “make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.” All right, we’re listening... The paper busts four of the biggest myths that are spread about voter ID laws, such as: 1. “Voter ID illegally adds new requirements to the state … [Read more...]
John Fund of National Review recently wrote a great piece entitled “The Voter Fraud That ‘Never Happens’ Keeps Coming Back.” He outlines the story of an Ohio poll worker who admitted to a Cincinnati news station that she voted twice in the 2012 election: According to county documents, Richardson’s absentee ballot was accepted on Nov. 1, 2012 along with her signature. On Nov. 11, she told an official she also voted at a precinct because she was afraid her absentee ballot would not be … [Read more...]
