Anyone who hoped that Blue Dog Clark Hall would have handled his looming defeat with poise and grace, well, let’s just say they were spitting into the wind. Hall’s desperate, and now he’s throwing out an absolute fabrication in his final moments:
Hall kicked it up another notch in his interview on Fox 16 on Friday. Fox 16 profiled all the Congressional runoff candidates last week with five-minute interviews. Hall used his time to double-down on his criticisms of Ellington, even throwing out a new charge that he has been reprimanded by the bar association for his work as an attorney.
***
This is the first I’ve heard of any reprimand against Ellington, so I emailed Hall’s campaign manager last night for clarification but have not heard back.
The Ellington campaign did get back to me and said they don’t know what Hall is talking about.
“Should Clark Hall have something for us to comment on, I’m happy to look at it. I don’t know what he was referring to in his Fox16 interview,” said campaign spokesperson Mariah Hatta.
As best I can tell, the bar association does not reprimand attorneys so it is highly doubtful they have reprimanded Ellington. Instead, the body that normally issues sanctions against attorneys in Arkansas is the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct. This is the body which has sanctioned Fourth District Congressional Candidate Q. Byrum Hurst eleven times, but does not show any action against Ellington.
I have heard that Ellington has received a couple of cautionary letters while deputy public defender for missed criminal appeals deadlines which could be what Hall was referencing although it is not completely clear. This is just the latest chapter in a heated Democratic runoff that will finally be resolved one way or the other on Tuesday.
This smacks of desperation, but we have to be on guard here. Runoffs are tricky, low turnout affairs and a lot can happen with that dynamic. Get everyone you know to the polls today and tomorrow-if they didn’t vote in the initial primary, they can still vote in the runoff so long as they didn’t vote in the Republican primary. We’re this close to putting an end to the Blue Dog coalition and the way things have been done in the Democratic Party in this state for ages. We can’t afford to blow it because we’re sitting on our hands.
