The Keet campaign really has been an interesting spectacle to watch. It started off with Republicans desperately in need of a candidate to run against Beebe so they could keep their future ballot access. Keet, a washed up former state legislator who had lived and worked in Florida for years, was chosen to hold the spot on the ballot. At the time the assumption was he’d run a nice, clean, friendly campaign. After all, that was the signal he was sending at the time. It didn’t last long though.
Before long, Keet, without an issue to run against Beebe, was campaigning hard on every national issue he could find, running against President Obama’s health insurance plan, on Arizona’s racial profiling bill, the national deficit, etc. All of those things, of course, have had absolutely nothing to do with being the Governor of Arkansas. For awhile though, it looked like it was actually helping him. There were a few friendly Rasmussen and Republican-internal polls (that may be redundant) that showed him within ten points of Beebe. And for a little while it was looking like his campaign had legs.
The last two weeks though have been disastrous for the Keet campaign. Really, I guess the implosion started before that, at his “Time For Truth” press conference. Keet basically got to the podium to whack Beebe and ended up telling a whopper of a lie, claiming that saw mill workers were being fined 10,000 dollars for filling out the wrong forms. Well, the state agency came out and said that didn’t happen-they just ask workers who do that to fill out the form again. Keet walked away looking like a combination of both a fool and a liar. In short, he got every reporter in the state out to his little press conference and made a complete ass out of himself.
But in the last two weeks things have really snowballed. Keet first had to explain why he lied about when he moved back to Arkansas from Florida and if he committed voter fraud in Florida or, alternatively, lied to Max Brantley about when he moved back. (It seems to be a case of the later.) If Democrats were absolutely ruthless, they could contest his residency (the way they once wrongly tried to do to Bill Halter) and potentially have him chunked off the ballot and in so doing likely deprived the Republican Party of their future ballot access. So far, they haven’t done that. Considering Keet’s implosion though, they may not have to. Keet now finds himself explaining why he didn’t pay property taxes or restaraunt taxes promptly, why he claimed a homestead tax credit he wasn’t entitled to, and why he didn’t pay property taxes at all on his plane that he housed out in Nevada. Keet only made matters worse on himself when he seemed to blame his wife for the whole mixup and then ended up with the poor lady standing next to him as he further embarrassed himself to day attacking the reporter who quoted him and then hemming and hawing over the actual charges, claiming he was trying to be “too honest”, which has to be the dumbest thing he has said in the course of this campaign so far.
So yeah, the Jim Keet campaign is tanking in a not so slow motion car accident. Republicans wanted to manufacture an ethics scandal against Beebe by digging through old campaign reports and campaigning against the ethical lapses of Democrats like Robbie Wills and Dustin McDaniel. They can’t do that now because their guy has been shown to be a liar and a tax cheat. Jim Keet wanted to campaign against the new state police plane. Yeah, watch what happens whenever he lets the word “plane” come out of his mouth now. And the lies he keeps telling on the campaign trail are starting to pass the point of the prevaricating politician. Between his 10,000 dollar whopper and his bizarre claim today that Governor Beebe hired a private investigator to follow him around, I’m personally starting to wonder if Keet doesn’t have a serious problem. I’m not trying to be funny or snipe him for that either. He really did seem paranoid today and it’s hard to believe that anyone connected with reality would be spinning yarns this long-even a desperate politician.
There are also some interesting rumors floating around in the grape vine. Some are suggesting that Keet might drop out or somehow be forced from the race by his own party. I doubt that’s going to happen, but Republicans are quickly finding themselves in a desperate situation here. Their guy is collapsing, big time, and they’re going to be left with a serious problem at the top of the ticket. And really, I don’t think it’s going to get any better. The signs keep suggesting that Keet’s implosion is going to continue.