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On the Arkansas Legislative Front….

A few more notes on Arkansas legislative races:

GOP Chair Optimistic About Gains

Arkansas GOP Chair Dennis Milligan: Why is this man smiling?
Arkansas GOP Chair Milligan: Why is this man smiling?

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Seth Blomeley takes a look at how this year’s legislative races may shake out, noting that GOP chair Dennis Milligan is confident that Republicans will pick up as many as six seats in November.

House District 81: Karen Hopper (R) vs. Danny Rowe (D) vs. Bonnie Brown (I)

The three-way race to fill the seat of Republican Johnny Key, who’s unopposed in his bid to move to the Arkansas Senate, gets some attention in the Baxter Bulletin today.

Based on this report, the voters of District 81 are blessed with some competent and accomplished choices, though given the past GOP lean of this district, it looks as if it should be a Karen Hopper victory. Head to the comments and show me the error of my ways if you know something I don’t know.

House District 29: Ann Clemmer (R) vs. Scott Smith (D)

This has been floating around for about a week now, though I’ve not seen any news coverage of it: The right-leaning Arkansas Journal blog reports that Democratic hopeful Scott Smith’s company has allegedly been involved in some questionable business practices. Arkansas Journal points to a prohibition order from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office (opens in PDF file) barring Smith’s mortgage consulting company from doing business in the state.

The blogger also points to complaints from a developer in Georgia who claims Smith’s company owes her company $50,000. Arkansas Journal promises to update as the story develops, which could have an impact on this race in Bryant, so keep an eye on this one. (Disclosure: I made a small financial contribution to Smith’s GOP opponent, Ann Clemmer, earlier in the year.)

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Our next edition of the Arkansas Project Debate Squad, pitting Republican Sen. Gilbert Baker against Democratic challenger Joe White in Senate District 30, is coming up shortly. Ready yourselves.

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6 thoughts on “On the Arkansas Legislative Front….

  • Anonymous Coward

    I like how Dennis Milligan thinks he is entitled to the votes that were cast for a different candidate. He says that actually “I should have been serving my last term” in the House right now. Is his theory that he’s entitled to the votes that people cast for a different candidate the first time he lost or the second time he lost?

    Reply
  • I don’t think it has anything to do with entitlement. Milligan lost by 97 votes to the incumbent and the independent candidate received 1,223 votes. I think it is reasonable to think that Milligan would have gotten at least the 58% of the votes that the independent candidate received to give him the win, especially considering all votes of these votes were against the incumbent.

    Reply
  • LawDog

    Glad to know our friend Tolbert has personally spoken to all 1,223 voters and knows that “all votes of these votes were against the incumbent.”

    ACORN, watch-out! We’re sending in Tolbert!

    Reply
  • Anonymous Coward

    I disagree with Tolbert. I think it is more reasonable to assume that the voters who supported the independent candidate actually meant to support the independent candidate, and that it is a mistake to draw hypothetical conclusions about who those votes would have gone to in an alternative universe. This universe is tough enough to figure out by itself!

    Reply
  • LawDog, obviously those votes were against the incumbent, unless they meant to vote for Rep. Johnson and pushed the wrong line resulting in a hanging chad or something.

    Anonymous Coward, I agree that the world is difficult to figure out. Perhaps those voters would have stayed home and not voted at all if there had not been an independent but that is an even bigger assumption, especially considering this was a Presidential election year. Regardless, you are right; I do not know what these voters would have done or how they would have voted; it was totally an assumption.

    Reply
  • John Anderson

    Scott Smith is a Cheat. Scott Smith stole 25,000 dollors from my wife and I back in 2005. In the last few weeks we have found many others that were taken by him. Now way over a Million dollors that he has stolen, he has also broke our American Dreams. He’s still at large doing what he does best. We have contacted EVERY AGENCY we could think of. Also several media sources. No one is letting this out in the lime light. Why is being protected? WHY???

    Reply

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