Shame on John Boozman and Marion Berry both.  The two of them, the first a Republican and the second an increasingly awful conservative Democrat, were the only two members of the Arkansas delegation to vote against aid to victims of 9/11, including our emergency responders who put their lives on the line in the worst attack this country has ever seen.

In Boozman’s case, this was more of the same.  A party line vote, no matter what the issue.  Time and time again, from his vote against chaining children to desks to this attack on the victims of terrorism and the heroes that stood up for America that day, he’s shown a willingness to vote for the most awful of things in the name of Republican unity.  It’s moments like this that give me pause in my anger with Blanche Lincoln and remind me just how horrible it’s going to be with him as our U.S. Senator.  Personally, I hope Blanche Lincoln and the Democrats rake him over the coals for it.  (Would be nice if they held Berry accountable too but I’m not holding my breath.)

Marion Berry is even more disappointing.  He’s been getting worse and worse as a congressman, but this is just plain rotten.  Even Mike Ross had the decency to vote for this.  That’s a really, really, REALLY, low bar.  Seriously, how can anyone call themselves a Democrat and say they voted against this?  Against victims of terrorism?  Against our nation’s heroes?  What’s worse, this brings some trouble to Chad Causey’s doorstep as well, as he’s tide himself so closely to Berry that whenever Berry makes an awful vote like this the shadow of it will be cast over Chad’s campaign.  Personally, I expect Causey to come out quick and say Berry was wrong.  And that’s not “expect” as in I’m making a prediction but rather “expect” as in he damn well ought to do it.

This vote to hide behind procedure to hurt people who have been victimized enough already is the worst thing we’ve seen yet from Republicans and conservative Democrats.  Send Marion Berry a message that he should be ashamed.  Hell, do the same to John Boozman.  This vote can’t be allowed to stand unchallenged by people in Arkansas.

About damn time someone got mad enough at the obstructionist to say what needed to be said:

That’s Congressman Anthony Weiner from New York standing up and fighting for the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, a bill that would have provided:

up to $7.4 billion in aid to the survivors of 9/11, including all the first responders who breathed in all manner of toxins in the aftermath of the attacks.

In the end the effort to pass the bill failed and Weiner’s truth telling failed on deaf ears, all thanks to Republicans and a few Blue Dogs, hiding, as Weiner said, behind the cowardly lies about amendments and process as they always do.  Seriously, how low are conservatives willing to sink?  Blocking assistance to the survivors of 9/11 is low-incredibly low.  What’s more, two members of the Arkansas delegation joined them…

Talk Business has a new profile of David Whitaker, candidate in AR-03. Whitaker got some surprisingly good news awhile back when it turned out he and Womack weren’t too far apart in cash on hand:

Womack raised $256,777 in the second quarter of 2010 and ended the quarter with $21,239. Whitaker raised $9,045 in the same period, and ended the quarter with $9,846. Whitaker viewed the reporting cycle as a positive.

So, why the title? This:

Whitaker is a Democrat, but don’t assume he supports the agenda of Congressional Democrats. Whitaker has problems with the federal health care bill. He’d vote against the cap-and-trade (Waxman-Markey) climate bill. And he’d vote against the Employee Free Choice Act (card check) bill as it is written.

His problem with the health care bill is that he doesn’t believe it will cut costs. He predicts “big gaps with cost containment” in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Whitaker’s concerns mirror that of Gov. Mike Beebe who recently told The City Wire the federal health care bill “doesn’t at all touch” a funding gap states will see in their medicaid program.

Whitaker has “very serious concerns” with the cap-and-trade mechanism of the preferred energy-climate bill proposed by House Democrats. He wouldn’t vote for the bill as is. He says the bill would create “huge” costs for utility customers in rural states like Arkansas. As to nuclear energy being a low-carbon solution, Whitaker says it is a “bridge” to clean energy “but not an endpoint.” The waste from nuclear energy troubles Whitaker.

He also says he would not vote for card check in its present form. Whitaker says workers certainly need more protections from big business, but card check goes too far.

We’ve been through this- the health care bill will save money, cap and trade will not hurt industry to a dramatic extent, and EFCA is a much needed reform. What’s really amusing is that the title of the article describes Whitaker as “a different kind of Democrat”. How are those positions any different from the regular Arkansas Democrat that we’ve been fighting so hard against, pray tell?

More to the point, Whitaker had left an impression among many that he was a progressive Democrat who wasn’t afraid to stand for progressive positions. Needless to say, that impression was apparently false. That’s not to say we’re going to take back or endorsement or anything-by all standards he is still the better alternative for Democrats and progressives in the race-but it is a kick in the gut nonetheless. Whitaker had an uphill climb from the very beginning, but if he was going to pull out an upset, however unlikely, he needed to have his base excited about him as a candidate to exploit any opportunity that became available. He was doing good on that front. This throws cold water on it.

The conservative, pro-corporate Democrat is soon to be a thing of the past. They’ve done it to themselves by failing to grasp the political and socio-economic realities of the time and by gumming up Washington to the extent that almost nothing was getting done for over a year. Good riddance. I and many others had hoped that Whitaker was truly a different kind of Democrat than what we usually see in Arkansas-the Democrat of the future. It looks like we were mistaken.

You know, I happened to skim the Citizens’ Daily Lobby site last night and found a good point made in early July about Secure Arkansas and the response to their initiative:

The facts: Secure Arkansas failed to get enough Arkansas voter signatures to place its hate initiative against undocumented immigrants on the ballot.

The message: Arkansas voters are just not that into punitive measures against undocumented workers in our state.

So, why is it that every politician on the ballot for national office this year, with the exception of John Gray, either opposes or doesn’t support the Federal lawsuit against Arizona’s new immigration law that encourages racial profiling in the state? I expect to hear that John Boozman and Tim Griffin support Arizona and oppose the Obama administration lawsuit. They represent the Party of No.

It is surprising to find that Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, and Mike Ross are so out of touch with Arkansas voters they feel it necessary to speak out against (Mike Ross) or waffle over (Lincoln, Pryor) the Federal lawsuit. Exactly what do Arkansans have to do to get their attention?

It’s a damn good point. Part of this whole thing was the people at Secure Arkansas can’t count. But the other part of the matter is that these guys, theoretically, should have been able to get the signatures, but they didn’t. It wasn’t for lack of effort-Secure Arkansas was really active across the state. In Jonesboro alone, it was like the signature gatherers were everywhere, from outside Wal-Mart to the soft ball fields. And if this is such a conservative state, why did they come up short? I think the writer of the Lobby is on to something. Maybe Arkansans in general just didn’t share enough of the teabaggers’ rabid anti-immigrant sentiment. Ain’t that a predicament for the Secure Arkansas folks to be in? They either have to blame their failure on their own incompetence or concede that maybe Arkansans don’t share their views. Which is it going to be?

More to the point, why should Democrats be afraid of these guys or pander to them? So far, there’s no proof that their views are enormously popular or even mainstream. If they were, they’d have an initiative on the ballot. So let’s stop being afraid of them, let’s stop joining them in their anti-immigrant demagoguery, and let’s start talking sense on immigration and stand on principle.

Tolbert has Rick Crawford’s side of the bankruptcy story, and it looks like Crawford and the Republicans are largely missing the point.  Several actually.  Before I get into that, the first thing that caught my eye was this:

Charlie Frago with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports on a story that has been floating around Republican circles for sometime now. As Frago reports, Republican candidate for the First Congressional District Rick Crawford filed for bankruptcy some 16 years old, for $12,611.67 of debts including $7,500 in credit card debt and $4,200 in medical bills.

If you read the comments, you find one or two that suggest they think this is news from nowhere.  In otherwords, Republicans had heard about this and were trying to sit on it, and now that it’s out they’re trying to dismiss it.  Now we get to one of the points they’re missing.  Crawford’s campaign responds:

“Rick made good on all his obligations but was struggling for a while. It was tough on him,” said Jonah Shumate, Campaign Spokesman for Crawford for Congress. “But, by the grace of God, he went on to start a small business and grow it in to a success that has created jobs for Arkansans in the First District and helped farmers.”

The sympathy card aside, the Crawford campaign seems to be thinking that the issue is that Crawford’s unfit to serve because he racked up what is, by today’s standards, a relatively small debt.  That’s not the point though.  Filing for bankruptcy doesn’t make you a bad person-abusing it does.  And even then, Crawford would probably still be in the clear (though you could debate whether or not bankruptcy is the appropriate answer to less than thirteen thousand dollars in debt).  Tolbert’s piece continues:

Unfortunately, bankruptcy is fairly common nowadays but the point being raised by many is does this put a cloud over Crawford anti-deficit position.  A major part of his campaign is the argument – which I agree with – that the country is engaging in too much deficit spending. The Crawford campaign says that it does not damage this position and actually argues just the opposite.

“Rick’s story is the story of many Arkansans in the First District and shows that we need a common-sense small businessman in Washington to get our country back on track. Rick certainly does not want our country to go through what he personally had to go through over 15 years ago,” said Shumate.

That would have been a great argument to make…if he had done it from the start.  The fact that Crawford sat on this for so long while harping on the deficit with it lurking beneath the surface waiting for a reporter to dig it up shows that he, at best, felt no need to talk about this in the first place and, at worst, felt the need to cover it up.  The fact that there are Republicans, including Jason, essentially saying that they already knew about this suggests that they were of the same line of thinking.  Now if Crawford tries to alter his deficit argument it won’t help him any.  He already looks like he had something to hide, and if he tries running with this it’s going to look like he made it up on the spot to save his campaign.  And it begs the question.  What else is he hiding?

On top of that, there’s the issue of total hypocricy on Crawford’s part.  He escapes into bankruptcy to avoid paying a relatively small amount of medical bills, back when you could do so.  Now, thanks to the last Republican Congress, if you file bankruptcy due to medical bills you still have to pay.  Hell, you can even lose your home.  Imagine that-you’re paying bills for your cancer treatments, can’t keep up with them all because the insurance companies found a way to eliminate coverage and then BAM, you’re out on the streets.  The health care reform passed by Congress this year, while not a perfect solution by any means, goes a long way to deal with the problem of people slipping through the cracks.  Crawford is against the bill and jumped on the repeal bandwagon pretty quick.  In other words, he wants to deny other Americans access to the safety net that he himself enjoyed.

On top of all that, Crawford, for all his huffing and puffing, is yet to prove that he’s really serious about reducing the deficit.  For one thing, Obama’s health care reform is on track to reduce the deficit significantly, and Crawford still wants to repeal it.  Nevermind the fact that if he, or anyone for that matter, was really serious about eliminating the deficit he’d call for letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire on schedule because, as we’ve established, those tax cuts are a huge part of the deficit problem, right up there with Bush’s two wars and the bad economy he and the Republicans created for us.  In other words, Crawford deserves the title of “deficit peacock”.

So, all in all, Crawford has had a really bad day.  Between all this and the oil company ties that the Blue Hog Report dug up and his social security flip flop way back in the primary, Causey has enough to bury him.  Personally, I think Chad should kick up the campaign starting tomorrow and look for any excuse Crawford gives him to come out guns blazing.  That way, we can get Causey into a firm lead and focus time and resources on the much tougher fight in the second district.

Remember Phyllis Schlafly?  Yeah, I know, she’s a washed up has been (who’s name I could never pronounce for some odd reason), but she’s in the news for this comment:

“Unmarried women, 70% of unmarried women, voted for Obama, and this is because when you kick your husband out, you’ve got to have big brother government to be your provider,” said Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum and infamous for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

A liberal organization recorded the Schlafly comments at a Troy, Michigan fundraiser Saturday for a Republican congressional candidate, the Detroit Free Press reported. In an interview with TPM this afternoon Schlafly stood by her comments and said Obama is trying to boost welfare rolls to help with his reelection and to help Democrats.

“Yes I said that. It’s true, too. All welfare goes to unmarried moms,” Schlafly told TPM. “They are trying to line up their constituency for Obama and Democrats against Republican candidates.”

So, ladies, if you’re single, you must be on welfare, because you can’t provide for yourself and your kids without your husband you poor, stupid, inferior things.  Anywho, why do I bring this up exactly?  Because this crazy old lady is the President of the Eagle Forum, the same group, along with the Family Council and Right to Life, that fights the ERA every time it comes up in the legislature.  Last time around, their antics were particularly interesting:

ERA opponents vigorously pursued the arguments about abortion and gay marriage, however. Betsy Hagan, leader of the Arkansas Eagle Forum, called the ERA ‘a fraud’ and said it would put federal restrictions on all our laws. (Of course, reaction to the federal government is a wingnut cause that remains as strong as ever in Arkansas.)  She invoked the horror story of Title IX, which she said caused the elimination of 171 college wrestling programs. (This evoked a hearty laugh from Sen. Steve Bryles.)

So, yeah, the Eagle Forum folks are off their rockers.  But they’re not the only ones.  Last year, Jerry Cox and the Family Council fought to kill a bill introduced by Senator Joyce Elliott that would have provided emergency contraception to rape victims.  Apparently in Jerry Cox’s church Jesus doesn’t want women who are raped to get proper medical treatment.  I guess I missed that lesson in Sunday school.

These are the people we’ll be throwing down with in the state legislature next session.  For far too long they’ve had the turf all to themselves with no one willing to get down in the mud and beat them at their own games in this state.  Next year, that changes.  Will we be able to win any battles against these goons?  No telling.  But we’re going to put up one hell of a fight, one that will be like nothing they’ve ever been in before.

On the heels of the bankruptcy story, the Blue Hog Report has dug into Crawford’s campaign contributors and found a rather telling name in the mix.

Who is Trevor Rees-Jones, you ask? He’s the president of Chief Oil & Gas, LLC, out of Dallas, Texas. He is also, to date, the largest contributor to Karl Rove’s little pet PAC project, American Crossroads.

Now, remember, he’s called Big Oil Rick for a reason. First there was his “drill baby drill” statement:

I support the immediate repeal of all limitations on oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf. Each area should be surveyed for domestic resources, environmental protections should only be reimposed where warranted, and the revenues from lease sales and production should be used to pay down the national debt.

Then there was the video he made with the family council:

Now, if his statements weren’t enough, the Blue Hog boys have found the proof that big oil is looking at Crawford as an investment. What’s that matter to AR-01 though, right? So what if he drills up the coast and ANWR and all those other distant places. What’s that got to do with us?

Hmm … a guy whose oil & gas company has a ton of violations while drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania shale donates to the Republican candidate for Congress in another state from the congressional district that has the majority of that state’s shale gas plays? Interesting.

That’s right. This guy’s company, Chief Oil and Gas, has done a ton of ecological damage in other states. Now they’ve got their eyes on the Fayetteville Shale, which stretches across northern Arkansas into the 1st district. In other words, Rick Crawford is now the go to guy for this company to start drilling up north east Arkansas, and if they get to put him in Congress they’ll have their go to guy to help them ruin our drinking water, our hunting and fishing, the soil we farm, and our health.

At this point, Chad Causey has enough to bury Crawford in November if he acts. This man cannot make it to Congress, otherwise the 1st may well be facing it’s own BP disaster in the future. This is an area where Chad, a well spoken advocate for clean energy, can draw a dramatic difference between himself and Big Oil Rick…for all our sakes.

As our friends at the Blue Hog Report would say…nuttier than squirrel turds.

Can you imagine what would happen if a Democratic Party HQ hung the American flag in a disrespectful way?  Can you imagine the howls from the Republicans?  Democrats would be labeled communists and traitors.  Hell, they’ve called us that over less.  But, as usual, the Republicans have no room to throw stones.  Especially if their Jonesboro HQ is any indicator:

That’s right, the American Flag outside the Republican HQ is touching the ground in that photo.

Now, to be fair, I drove by the headquarters this afternoon before posting and the problem was fixed, with another, much shorter flag hanging where the old one had been. But seriously, can you imagine if the shoe had been on the other foot? Do you think for a second that if Democrats had a flag drooping on the ground and Republicans had taken a picture of it that they wouldn’t be beating their chests in outrage and spreading it to everyone in earshot?

Apparently, Rick Crawford is far from being the Republican salvation in AR-01.  Rather, he’s just another Republican hypocrite.  Exhibit A:

The Democrat-Gazette reported this morning that deficit hawk Rick Crawford, the Republican candidate for 1st District Congress, declared personal bankruptcy in 1994 to dodge credit card and medical debts. (Of course he opposes health coverage help for the country’s lame and impoverished, too.)

Much is being made of what Crawford has said on his website:

If businesses in America spent money the way the federal government does, they would be in bankruptcy.  If people ran their personal finances the way Congress does, they would be in jail.

Never mind the fact that jailing people for debt is unconstitutional…but if we get into Crawford’s knowledge of the Constitution we’ll be here all day.  That said, what’s really striking to me is the fact that this guy’s debt largely centered around medical bills (and the credit card debt, which may or may not be related-I don’t know).  The funny thing is that there would be reason to sympathize with him IF he hadn’t made such a big deal out of opposing health care reform which will help Americans avoid a similar situation to Crawford, medical bills being the number one cause of bankruptcy in America.

So yeah, on Crawford’s two big issues, he just lost any ounce of credibility that he might have had.

The U.S. Senate is broken. With everything requiring 60 votes to begin and end debate, (without actual fillibusters happening mind you, just the threat of them) and with individual members able to place holds (secret or not) on nominees and legislation for any reason, it’s no wonder that nothing is getting done. The Senate, essentially, is where good legislation goes to die. That kind of obstruction was a big part of the reason why we drafted Halter to take on Senator Lincoln, besides her just being a crappy Senator. There is a big push to get some reform of the Senate rules come 2011, but there are still a lot of people standing in the way. Surprise surprise, one of them is our other crappy Senator, Mark Pryor.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said he recognizes his colleagues are frustrated over the failure to pass measures such as the Disclose Act, campaign legislation that fell three votes short of overcoming a Republican filibuster Tuesday.

“I think as torturous as this place can be, the cloture rule and the filibuster is important to protect the rights of the minority,” he said. “My inclination is no.”

As precious as the rights of the minority party are (and yeah, when we were in the minority we fought to protect the fillibuster) Republicans and a few bad Democrats have taken the country hostage when we’re in the worst economy since the thirties. I know the Senate is supposed to operate on tradition and congeniality and all that bullshit like the country club it is, but frankly the country can’t afford that kind of patrician nonsense. It’s time to get rid of holds, and while we might not want to get rid of the fillibuster entirely, they should at least make them stand and read from the phone book rather than just threaten to do so.

As usual, Pryor has showed himself to be absolutely useless, even more so than our senior senator, who has at least committed to getting rid of secret holds. He’s an agent of conservative obstruction, plain and simple.

Today a federal judge issued an injunction against parts of Arizona’s racial profiling bill. The parts of the bill the judge froze:

Portion of Section 2 of S.B. 1070: Requires police to inquire about the immigration status of anyone they stop, detain, or arrest if they reasonably suspect the person is in the country illegally.

Section 3 of S.B. 1070: Criminalizes the the failure to apply for or carry immigration documents.

Portion of Section 5 of S.B. 1070: Criminalizes the solicitation, application for, or performance of work by an undocumented immigrant.

Section 6 of S.B. 1070: Authorizes the warrantless arrest of a person where there is probable cause to believe the person has committed a public offense that makes the person “removable.”

Oh, and funny thing is, this is a judge who has been praised as an expert on the issue by the number two Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyle:

Well, there is one person in our state who’s a real expert on this in the judiciary, and that’s Judge Bolton. And because of her expertise and fairness, all of the contending interests from Arizona have been willing to place their concerns before her to be resolved, and she is right in the middle of this important litigation right now. They will be very sorry to see her leave in Maricopa County Superior Court bench. So, I have some mixed emotions in helping to nominate or to confirm Judge Bolton, but that’s how highly thought of she is.

So much for the “liberal activist” argument.

When the dust settles on this, mark my words, Arizona will have lost. This law is going to be found to be rightly found to be unconstitutional, and Governor Brewer and the Republicans are going to have dragged Arizona through an expensive bad publicity nightmare in order to demagogue an issue they think they can win on. (I think Arizona Latinos are going to have something else to say on the matter though.) That said, those willing to appeal to racial resentment and nativist sentiments in our own state, like the looney tunes at Secure Arkansas and Jim Keet (R-FL) should think twice before pursuing a similar bill in the next session. How many state legislators do you think will want to see Arkansas sued by the federal government and roasted nationally the way Arizona is now for endorsing racial profiling when we still haven’t recovered from all the damage that Orval Faubus did in Little Rock? Again, mark my words, Arizona is going to lose this fight. Arkansas doesn’t need to get involved in charging at racist and nativist windmills.

In my real job, as I have mentioned here before, I work for an organization called Wellstone Action.  Our mission is:

“Wellstone Action ignites leadership in people and power in communities to win change  in the progressive tradition of Paul and Sheila Wellstone.”

That is all nice and everything but what does it mean?  For WA it means that we go around the country and train people to work in three areas – the three areas that Paul as Senator said were the ways to create power and attain power – in creating good progressive public policy, working in building strong grassroots programs and in  the electoral political arena to both elect those people who will help implement that good public policy and hold those people accountable who are already elected.

Yesterday we released our annual report for 2009.  We usually print it and send it out but in an effort to be conscious of costs and washing paper we chose to only produce an online version.  It details all of the amazing work that has been done over the course of the last year.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

We do this work in a list of different programs; we have a program called the Sheila Wellstone Institute that works with survivors of domestic violence and abuse, the Native American Leadership Program which works with people in Indian country, Campus Camp Wellstone which focuses on students and a younger populations, Camp Wellstone which is our trademark program that serves people who want to work on campaigns, who want to run for office and community activists, The Movement Builders Project which partners with organizations long term to help with strategic planning and long term development, the Advanced Campaign Management School which is a week long program that trains people to run campaigns, and the Labor  Program which works with national partners to train union members to access their power in the political process (that’s the program I do the most work with).

I am done trumpetting our work.  I will end with this:  In 2009 we trained more than 9000 people and since we began we have trained more than 35,000 people;  The average age of one of our participants is 39; 56% of our participants make less than $40,000 a year. 

In case you don’t know why we call ourselves Wellstone Action and who Paul Wellstone was (or why you should care) I want to share this short video we have done to explain.  Paul was a teacher long before he was a US Senator, and Sheila was a strong advocate for women who had suffered from domestic violence. 

Paul Wellstone (Via YouTube)

Finally, I’m getting some of the pictures loaded that I took at Netroots Nation:

Me and Bill Halter.

With Alexi Giannoulias, who’s running for Obama’s senate seat in Illinois, and Darcy Burner, a netroots hero who ran for Congress a couple of times in Washington.  Probably the two most easy going, friendly, and down to earth politicians in the country.

Francine Busby, running for Congress in California.  She is a super sweet person.

Me, Laura, and Beth from Progressive PST (she set up the twitter account for the Draft Halter effort) with Kentucky AG Jack Conway, the only man standing in the way of Rand Paul.

Me with Roxanne Conlin, an incredibly smart and funny person who I’m convinced will beat Chuck Grassley in November.

Me with Congresswomen Dina Titus of Nevada and Donna Edwards of Maryland, left and right respectively.  Representative Edwards told me she was pulling hard for Joyce Elliott and might come to campaign for her!

Funny story on this one.  This guy was walking around wearing that cape and everyone was wondering why.  So, me being me, I chased him down and asked him.  He’s apparently involved with this outfit called “Trick or Vote” which is a fun themed GOTV effort that sends costumed “trick or voters” out on Halloween to canvass.  Think about it-it’s right before the election, it’s a time when people are expecting folks to knock on their doors, and it’s fun!

Me and an awesome Alabama activist I met in Vegas with Alan Grayson, the now famous “Congressman With Guts”.  There was a stampede down the hallway when we heard he was there.

The first panel.  Third from left-Bill Halter.  On the far right-Markos from Dailykos.

Our Southern Caucus, which we plan to grow the membership of.  There were three of us from Arkansas, including Bill who listened and shared ideas like he was just one of the group.  We also had members from North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Texas.  We’re committed to growing the caucus, and if you’re interested in going to Netroots Nation in Minneapolis next year, we’d love to have you join our ranks!

I will probably have more pics for you guys soon, though most of them will be attached to themed posts.  Stay tuned!

Monday night, the Craighead County Quorum Court decided that it was better to protect nepotism and encourage corruption than to show residents of the county that their government was open and honest.

The Craighead County Quorum Court voted 8-4 Monday against a proposed anti-nepotism ordinance that would outlaw the hiring of family members by direct supervisors.

Justices of the peace who opposed to the policy said the county hasn’t had problems in the past with nepotism and that the county “shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken.”

Best comment in that article right here-

“This is Craighead County, and we don’t have to follow other counties’ policies,” Justice of the Peace Jim Bryant said.

He’s right, Craighead County doesn’t have to have policies that protect against favoritism and corruption.  That stuff is for counties with good government.  Seriously, have you ever heard anything so asanine?  Thank you Mr. Bryant for that migraine inducing moment.

It truly is embarrassing that only four members of the Craighead County Quorum Court show any concern for protecting the tax payer dollar from corrupt practices.  There names- Kevin Hoke, Barbara Weinstock, Ken Stacks, and Fred Bowers.  As far as I’m concerned, they’re the only four who deserve reelection.

And the ones who voted in favor of protecting nepotism? Jim Bryant, Mike Cox, Mike Hawkins, Kenny Hendrix, Max Render, Terry Couch, Duane Harvey, and Ed Hill.  Oh, and outgoing County Judge Dale Haas didn’t sound too wild about the measure either…surprise, surprise.  (One JP, Mary Suiter, was absent due to illness.)

So, if you’re a Craighead County resident, here’s the contact info of all the JPs that voted no, courtesy of the Craighead County website:

District #3
Jim Bryant
2009 Magnolia
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-932-9506

District #4
Kenneth Hendrix
1400 Twin Oaks
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-972-0837

District #6
Max Render
3200 Moore Road
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-935-7031

District #8
Ed Hill
2207 Fox Meadow Lane
Jonesboro, AR 72404
Home-(870)-897-7900

District #10
Michael Hawkins
499 CR 360
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-932-3135

District #11
Duane Harvey
502 CR 702
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-932-5668
Work-(870)-935-2418

District #12
Terry Couch
4638 HWY 135 South
Caraway, AR 72419
Home-(870)-482-3996

District #13
Mike Cox
328 CR 408
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Cell Phone-(870)-530-0202

Why don’t you give them a call and tell them how you feel…Oh, and for good measure, here’s how you can send a letter to the Jonesboro Sun and let all the paper’s readers know what kind of county government they have.  But while you’re at it, don’t forget those that stood up for good government and responsible policies.  Call them and tell them to keep fighting and tell them that you have their backs.  And you should contact the absent member, Mary Suiter, and make sure she votes against nepotism the next time around.  (Remember, the paper didn’t specify the nature of her illness, so be extra respectful on that one.)  So, here’s the contact info for the good guys and the potential good guy Mrs. Suiter:

District #1
Ken Stacks
527 W. Washington
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Work phone-(870)-932-5530
Home phone-(870)-972-0303

District #2
Fred Bowers
801 French Street
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-972-6105

District #5
Barbara Weinstock
208 Wilkins
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-935-1117

District #7
Kevin Hoke
4008 Chapel Hill Drive
Jonesboro, AR 72404
Home-(870)-935-8647

District #9
Mary Suiter
2019 Pleasant Grove Rd.
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Home-(870)-935-7784

Again, if you’re a Craighead County resident, stand up for good government and tell your representatives on the Quorum Court that you don’t want your taxpayer money going towards nepotism.  And if they don’t listen a second time around, throw the bums out.