Tomorrow’s the big day.  What’s going to happen?  No idea.  I suspect, but could be wrong, that we’re headed to runoffs in the U.S. Senate primaries and three of the four house races.  Probably two of the constitutional offices as well…

The big races are the AR-Sen primaries of course.  And, as everyone that reads this site regularly knows, we’ve endorsed Bill Halter.  How’s he going to do?  Again, no idea.  The polls have shown Lincoln with the advantage of late and I have, privately, been getting a little nervous.  However, I think the Halter team has recaptured some last minute momentum, and it still looks like it’s going to runoff.  Especially if Morrison does as well as expected.  On the Republican side, Boozman has been in command of this thing since he announced.  Now though, the question is more who’s going to come in second and, potentially, force the race into a runoff.  Lately it seems as if Jim Holt has been surging, and if that’s the case Boozman could get teabagged in the runoff.  Again, I suck at predictions, so I could well be wrong on any of this.

In AR-01, the Democrat we most loathe out of the entire state, Tim Wooldridge, should probably be expected to come in first.  However, I’m fully expecting our endorsed candidate, David Cook, to come in a strong second.  A runoff in this one is probably inevitable.  On the Republican side, Rich Crawford is going to school my old classmate Princella Smith rather easily.

In AR-02, again expect another runoff, this time between our endorsed candidate Joyce Elliott and Robbie Wills.  The Republicans will probably nominate Tim Griffin, but who knows with them.

In AR-03, I have no idea who’s going to come out of the Republican primary, but it too is likely to head for runoff.  We have, of course, endorsed the Democrat, David Whitaker.

In the two competitive statewide races, Secretary of State looked to be a likely win for Pat O’Brien for the longest time.  However, there’s some question now about whether or not he’s politically tone deaf.  Mike Wilcox is a statewide office holder already, but has been rather invisible.  And while we’ve heard next to nothing from Doris Tate, she does have a regional advantage to some degree.  In the Land Commissioner’s race, our endorsed candidate L.J. Bryant is giving Monty Davenport a headache.  The question is, has his late breaking surge been enough or did Davenport sow up the support early.

Our state legislative races are a little harder to predict, so I’ll just name them off.  For the state senate, we’ve endorsed Jay Barth (district 34) and Rob Thompson (district 11-running unopposed for reelection last time I checked).  For the state house, we’ve endorsed Greg Leding (district 92) and Richard Carroll (district 39).

Again, I suck at predictions.  I’m much better at just supporting who I like and sticking by them.  But I’ve given a lot of thought to what this primary means for Blue Arkansas.  American elections are miraculous things.  None of them are ever a sure thing, and there’s always a chance for a surprise.  All of our candidates (with the exception of Thompson, who got off without a challenger) could fall flat on their faces.  That’s always a real possibility.  Or we could get extremely lucky, you never know.  But one thing is for sure.  No matter what happens tomorrow, even if it’s the worst possible results in the Democratic primary, we keep going.  We keep organizing.  We keep fighting.  The progressive movement and Blue Arkansas have come a long way in Arkansas in a short amount of time and we’ve gotten a lot done while stepping on some toes. (I’m rather proud of that last fact.)  But tomorrow isn’t the be all and end all of what we’ve set out to accomplish.  No matter what the outcome, even if we end up drowning our sorrows, we will keep going.

We’re trying to get some last minute endorsements out before the May 18th primary.  I know time is short and we should have focused on this earlier but all of us here at Blue Arkansas have been buried under an avalanche of work of late.  So, without any further delay, here are our three new endorsements:

AR-03: David Whitaker-This is one that we probably should have gotten around to a long time ago but we got bogged down in the AR-01, 02, and AR-Sen races.  David Whitaker is a strong progressive running in tough territory, the most Republican area of the state to be exact.  None the less, he’s not running the Blue Dog strategy but rather standing up as a progressive.  That’s something to admire and respect.  He’s been an influencial member of the Democratic party in the past, namely on veterans issues.  Can he win this race?  Against the conventional wisdom, I say yes, if he kicks up the pace and runs the right campaign.  AR-03 is changing demographically with all kinds of new voters moving in and a rapidly growing latino population.  What’s more, the Republican side is getting nasty fast.  If Whitaker targets the right voters and starts running a more aggressive campaign, he has an opportunity for a major upset.

Land Commissioner: L.J. Bryant-If you had told me a few months ago that we’d be endorsing a candidate for Land Commissioner I’d have told you that you were full of it.  But things change, and I’m glad they did because we have a real opportunity here.  L.J. Bryant is an excellent candidate for Land Commissioner bringing not only experience that everyone in this state loves to talk up (regardless of its actual merits) but also real ideas and vision.  The Land Commissioner’s office, like so many others in Arkansas, is in a serious state of disarray after so many of the good ol’ boys used it as their place to put their feet on a desk.  Bryant could really turn that around, and do a lot of good work for the people of Arkansas struggling to keep their land and homes and for communities in need of revenue and restoration.  What’s more, he’ll be part of a growing progressive farm team we can tap down the line for higher office…

House District 39: State Representative Richard Carroll-I went back and forth on this one for a long time.  Representative Carroll made it to office under unusual circumstances.  He ran as a Green against a corrupt Democratic incumbent who should not have been on the ballot.  Once elected, he switched parties (though not right away) and became a Democrat.  He has since then been labled, unfairly I’ve come to believe, as an opportunist.  He is now facing a tough primary against state senator Tracy Steele and fighting for his political life.  We went back and forth on this one for a bit (namely over his support for vouchers), but we finally concluded that with regards to labor issues, LGBT issues, and the environment among other progressive issues there would be no better representative than Representative Carroll.  What’s more, he’s shown that he’s a team builder for the progressive movement in the party, backing Joyce Elliott and Bill Halter in tough races.  (His opponent, by the way, has issued glowing statements in support of Blanche Lincoln.)  He may come off as a little quirky, and I hope he does change his position on vouchers, but we decided that in the next legislative session he would be most willing to listen to us and introduce the most progressive legislation possible.

(It may take me a little while to update the endorsements page and ActBlue.  Very busy today.)

We try not to toot our own horn around here too much. However, since we don’t have a way for people to check out our stats on a regular basis, we thought it would be a good idea to have a periodic post every now and then to let people know how things are going on our growing site.

According to Alexa.com:

Blue Arkansas is ranked as the 131,331 most traveled website in the United States. In order to see how great these numbers are, we need to compare them to some of the other blogs in Arkansas:

Blake’s Think Tank – 168,046 in the US (image)

Tolbert Report – 315,083 in the US (image)

Talk Business – 840,131 in the US (image)

Note that the closer to 1 you are, the better. That would mean that you have the most traveled website in the country.

Unfortunately, since the Arkansas Blog and Brummett’s blog are part of larger websites, they aren’t really comparable, but you can see how well the websites they are part of do:

Arkansas Times – 27,464 in the US (image)

Arkansas News – 62,922 in the US (image)

Anyway, these numbers are just a snapshot, but they seem to hold up when looking at monthly numbers as well. Of course, this isn’t really a competition as far as we are concerned, but it is the best way for us to know how we are doing among our peers.

Who knew that a blog for progressive Democrats could be one of the top news blogs in the state?

Some other interesting pieces of info:

• Blue Arkansas has been visited by every US state and every continent (excluding Antarctica).
• Blue Arkansas has been visited the most by Arkansas, Washington D.C., Texas, California, and New York in that order.
• The cities/towns that visit the most are Little Rock, Washington D.C., Jonesboro, and Fayetteville in that order.
• Our biggest day so far was the day that Bill Halter announced his campaign for U.S. Senate, although we have been on that day’s heel’s this week.
• Our most visited page (besides our home, about us, endorsements, or diaries pages) is the article by ARDem about Tim Wooldridge’s association with a hate group, candidate for U.S. House in the first district.

Here is a story from a local news station on the Mitchell Berry group attacking Bill Halter:

WXVT

Arkansans for Common Sense began airing ads in Arkansas this week trying to tie Halter to proposals to privatize Social Security. Marion Berry’s son Mitch is listed on the group’s March 9 filing papers with the secretary of state, and he said Tuesday he is the group’s attorney.

Halter is challenging Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the May 18 primary. Marion Berry has been 1 of Halter’s biggest critics and last week endorsed Lincoln’s re-election bid.

Halter is Arkansas’ lieutenant governor. He is a former deputy and acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Notice anything missing? Ah, the truth…

They managed to write the story, but failed miserably to write it as media should, by reporting from both sides. Only the attack group’s side of the issue was reported, not the Halter campaign’s side. No mention of the fact that the ad is really just one big lie and that Bill Halter actually fought Social Security privatization.

This is just one reason why we need Blue Arkansas, to keep traditional media from doing one sided stories and point it out when they do.

I had planned to have my Q&A session with Scott Pace up this morning.  Unfortunately, I’m having some technical issues and will therefor have to page the Tech Guy when he gets off work tonight. The video is still fine though and will be up soon enough. It was a good interview, and I think you guys will find it (and Scott’s candidacy) interesting.

The video won’t be the last one either. I’m already working on scheduling some time with other candidates for various offices. Hopefully, you guys will get a taste of it over the next few days, as I could have, besides the interview with Scott, a video with another candidate up this week.

Check us out!

This is the first of a line of videos Blue Arkansas will be putting out, and I thought I’d give us a nice little introduction while I was still dressed up from the (unrelated) conference I attended today. I plan on having us some interviews with candidates soon, and some great video of other goings on around the state. So stay tuned! It’s going to be great!

Ever heard that old Arkansas expression? It’s one of my favorites, and it aptly describes this whole mess with Tim Wooldridge.

By now everyone’s noticed that more than a few people, here and elsewhere, don’t like our coverage of this issue much or of our assertion that Families First Foundation is a hate group.  And boy are they letting it be known too.  There’s a reason for that-we hit them hard.

For the longest time this kind of thing has been allowed to go on as business as usual, as part of the natural order of a conservative Southern state.  You could get away with being anti-gay.  You had to at least avoid the subject to get elected.  LGBT people were supposed to stay in hiding, and progressives were expected to just sit down and shut up.  The old order was supposed to have its way and go about its business unquestioned, regardless of how it affected everyone else’s lives.

That’s why I started Blue Arkansas…to fight that establishment and bring together others who would do the same so that the progressive movement could grow and organize.  With the new power of the netroots, we could call this sort of thing to the mat, and we could work together to elect people who would change Arkansas and the state’s political culture for the better of everyone.  For awhile there we weren’t a blip on anyone’s radar screen.  Now people know we’re here and it’s sending shockwaves through the Arkansas establishment.  Those shockwaves are only going to grow in number and intensity, just as Blue Arkansas is only going to grow in the number of members and in its influence.

I’ve heard people say the Wooldridge scandal doesn’t matter, that it won’t hurt him in Arkansas or the 1st.  If that was the case, the Wooldridge team wouldn’t be trying to cover it up.  If that was the case, then no one would be talking about Wooldridge losing his cushy 150,000 dollar a year lobbyist gig.  If it didn’t matter, the right wingers wouldn’t be resorting to lies and mischaracterizations of the issue.  And if it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be howling so loudly.

So let’s keep up the good work guys.  We’re growing the progressive movement and the old order is on notice of its waning time.  It may take years, decades even.  But hey, time’s on our side, and I, for one, am not going anywhere.

Today, a rising star in the Arkansas Democratic party answers questions from Blue Arkansas.  Senator Robert Thompson of Paragould is going places, mark my words.  He decided not to run for Berry’s seat this year to look after his three young (and adorable) children, but there’s still a bright political future ahead for him.  Here’s how he responds to the questions and concerns of Arkansas progressives:

1) Please introduce us and tell us a bit about your background.  Specifically, what lead you into public service?

I am an attorney and have practiced law at Paragould for a little over 10 years.  I previously served as an attorney at Little Rock and a law clerk to Judge Richard S. Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  I am married with three children.  I became interested in public service because I personally find government fascinating, and I think I can contribute something useful to state government public discourse.

2) Why are you a Democrat and what does being a Democrat mean to you?

I am a Democrat because I believe it is the party that best represents the financial and social interests of most Americans and most Arkansans.  I believe government has a role in promoting the well-being of the people.  I do not consider myself much of an ideologue, however, and I tend favor practical solutions to public problems.  Because of that, I feel comfortable in the Democratic Party.

3) You’ve been an advocate for drug courts in the past, correct?  Could you first explain what those are and why you think they’re so important?

Drug courts are a method of sentencing non-violent drug offenders to a form of intensive probation, to encourage them to end their addiction while using the threat of greater penalties as an inducement.  It’s a great carrot-and-stick approach to the drug problem.  I favor drug courts because it is one tool to tackle the problem of our increasing prison population.  The growth rate in our prison population over the past 15 years in Arkansas is alarming, expensive and unsustainable.

4) You’ve also pushed for more use of biofuels if I’m not mistaken.  Could you explain what lead you to push that issue and what the benefits of biofuels are or will be?

I believe we should be looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, and that biofuels are a promising source of alternative energy.  Arkansas, as an agricultural state, could be a leader in this regard.  I also believe Arkansas could be a leader in other forms of alternative fuels, including wind energy.

5) Jumping off of the biofuels question, do you believe that global warming is real and the result of human activity?  What do you think should be done about this problem?

From what I have read, it seems clear that carbon consumption by people is a cause of climate change in the past century and continuing today.  I confess that I do not know the best answer to the problem.   I am not sure that it would be effective or wise for the United States to sharply curtail carbon consumption domestically without some agreement that other leading carbon consumers, like China, take similar steps.  As far the state of Arkansas goes, the best thing we can do is to prepare for and work toward an economy to places less emphasis on traditional fossil fuels and more emphasis on sustainable energy, such as wind and biofuels.

6) Right now the state is looking at some painful budget cuts.  What choices do you feel the state should make when it considers what to cut and what to preserve?

All budget cuts are painful, but I would point out that our budget problems, at least to this point, are manageable and fairly mild compared to almost every other state government.  The budget cuts so far have fallen heaviest on higher education, which unfortunately is the easiest area to cut, as they have other sources of revenue (in the form of student tuition).  Another easy short-term fix is to freeze wage increases state employee wages, which I support.  I believe (and it is the law of the state) that the last cuts should fall on K-12 public education.  The biggest long-term challenge for our state’s budget is the growth in Medicaid costs.

7) Speaking of the budget, Arkansas’ tax code is widely recognized to be regressive.  Do you favor progressive taxation in principle?  How in your view could/should the state work to improve the state tax code?

Arkansas’ tax code is less regressive than it used to be, with recent reductions in the sales tax on groceries and the homestead credit for real estate taxes.  I have, in recent legislative sessions, supported increases some forms of revenue to pay for specific state programs — increases in the severance tax to pay for transportation costs and increases in the cigarette tax to pay for new health programs.  I must say, however, that I don’t know now where we could reasonably increase taxes.  Our state income tax rate, at 7 percent, is the highest in the region – any increase there could cause of flow of capital out-of-state.  Our sales tax is about at the point that any increase might actually cause declining revenues, as people buy goods out-of-state. (Increasing the sales tax also effectively hamstrings the ability of local governments to increase revenues for local projects.)  The streamlined sales tax adopted by about 30 states (designed to capture revenue from internet sales by taxing goods at a point-of-delivery rather than a point-of-sale) may help with revenue, though I am advised by merchants in my district that there are some real problems with implementation.

8 ) After last year, health care has been on everyone’s mind.  Let’s assume that nothing happens on health care at the federal level.  Do you support any kind of guarantee of universal health care and what should the state do to improve health care here in Arkansas?

I believe the government should work toward a system that provides health care to every American.  I have been as befuddled as most Americans in watching the health-care debate, and don’t understand why some seemingly common-sense proposals (like allowing Americans over 55 who don’t have access to group-health coverage, to buy into the Medicare system) were only briefly considered and quickly abandoned.  As a state, our most challenging health-care task is to fund Medicaid over the coming years, which I consider to be a priority.  I also believe as a state should promote wellness programs, particularly an emphasis on arresting the alarming growth in childhood obesity.

9) Here in Arkansas, LGBT Arkansas feel ignored, marginalized, even victimized by the state’s politics.  Could you sum up your stand on the rights of LGBT Arkansans?

I voted against the recent ballot measure that prevented unmarried couples from adopting children.  I don’t much care for people or politicians who single out or beat up on any group of people, including gay people.

10) Do you support the right of worker’s to form a union?

I would not support a repeal of Arkansas’ right-to-work statute.  I do believe that unions have improved the lives of workers in the past century, and have been important in establishing a broad middle class.  I have voted in favor of bills that protect workers’ compensation rights.

11) A lot of Arkansans feel shut out by the process of government in Little Rock, and many would maintain that corporations, entrinched interests, and the wealthiest Arkansans hold a disproportionate amount of sway in state government.  What do you have to say about this concern?

I agree that corporate influence at all levels of government is pervasive. That said, I must say that I believe state government is fairly accessible.  I believe most state legislators, if contacted by a constituent, would take time to visit with them on the phone and meet with them in their offices. (I certainly do that almost every day.) I have sponsored ethics legislation in the past, including a bill in 2007 that would have created a waiting period of one year between service in the state legislature and work as a lobbyist.  (It failed narrowly.)

12) Last question.  Why should any progressive vote for you?

I think a progressive would want to vote for me because I believe government has a positive and important role to play in the lives of Arkansans, and has done much to improve the lot of people in our state.  I think anyone of any political stripe could vote for me because I make it point to listen to all sides of the issue, work on finding consensus if possible, and favor practical solutions to problems.

…

Senator Thompson may not describe himself in ideological terms, but you don’t have to be an ideologue to be a progressive, or to hold progressive values.  Clearly, Senator Thompson’s heart is in the right place-dealing with our bloated and unsustainable prison population, supporting sustainable energy and universal health care, working for ethical government, and condemning the politics of bigotry.  What’s more, he seems to have a sharp mind and a practical approach that serves him, and these issues, well.

Now of course he won’t agree on every issue with us-I can hear a few of my union buddies firing off e-mails right now and I have to say I disagree with some of his statements on higher income taxes-but none of us are single issue voters, and it’s unrealistic to think anyone should be in lockstep. (People who think that’s what progressives want are looking at a characature of us and nothing more.)  The whole picture is what we’re looking at, and while Thompson may not be a progressive champion like Jay Barth, he is still a better Democrat than many we could all name off the tops of our heads, and someone we should have our eye on.  I hope in the future he visits us here at Blue Arkansas-we’d love to have him and would be happy to work with him.

That’s right.  The President should come to Arkansas, and he should hold a town hall meeting here.  Arkansas was the one state that President Obama never campaigned in.  He never made any significant contacts here and he never met any of the people here or heard any of their stories.  He never figured out how to talk to us, nor did he make an effort to understand us.  Those that were willing to work for him ended up in campaigning in Missouri, the logic being that Arkansas was going to McCain anyway and would be a waste of time, while Missouri was up for grabs.  While I can see the logic in it, we all have to admit that Obama has made an egregious error by not working to gain anyone’s trust or support here.   Since that point, Arkansas has been a breeding ground for the Birthers and Teabaggers and all the other nuts that have been allowed to infest the state without anyone challenging them.  The state Democratic party has run as far and as fast from the President as possible.  Two of our elected Democrats, Mike Ross and Blanche Lincoln, have been constant thorns in the President’s side.  Two others, Marion Berry and Vic Snyder, have bailed.  The last Democrat in our delegation is hiding from us until he’s up for reelection in 2014, where you can count on him running to the right just like Lincoln if he feels any heat on his neck.  Meanwhile the Republicans smell blood and are practically wetting themselves over the idea of finally coming out of the cold here in the Natural State.  No matter how you slice it, Obama’s decision to ignore Arkansas has been disastrous for everyone involved.

The “smart move” (smart, in this case, referring to the perpetually wrong conventional wisdom) would be for Obama to disregard Arkansas all together and for the Democrats to cut their losses, something that won’t help us advance our agenda or reach out to people who so desperately need us, like the good folks we saw lined up at the free clinic event.  It’s also a recipe for disaster-the candidate (and in the days of the perpetual campaign everyone is always a candidate) that starts conceding things is the candidate that’s going to lose.  It’s the candidate that puts the enemy on the defensive that stands the best chance of winning, and that’s exactly what we’ve got to do to turn this thing around.

That’s why the President should come down to Arkansas and hold a town hall.  It gives him a chance to rebut the lies and myths surrounding his Presidency and his agenda.  It gives him a chance to meet people and hear our concerns.  And it gives us a chance to show the outside world that there are people here in need and that the President is on their side, regardless of what Blanche Lincoln, Mike Ross, and the Republicans may claim.

And no, it won’t be a pointless exercise either.  I remember reading a campaign trail story about John F. Kennedy in the Wisconsin primary.  Kennedy campaigned his hardest across the state, especially in small Protestant towns sceptical of a Boston Catholic.  Kennedy didn’t get every vote in those areas, but by working for those people’s votes he gained their respect and gained respect for them, and that made him a better candidate and President.  And again, while he didn’t carry many of the toughest areas, he still cut into his rival’s (Hubert Humprhey’s) margin and came out on top.  A similar strategy woud work here in Arkansas, perhaps not carrying Obama across the finish line here in 2012, but definitely diffusing some of the toxicity here and making it easier for homegrown Democrats to win.

And besides, he’s our President and we’re his people.  He should listen and talk to all of us, even those that don’t like him and won’t vote for him.

The President is, so far, taking the right steps to turn the horrible 2010 environment around.  He’s throwing punches, staying engage, pushing a populist progressive agenda while still extending a hand to those that disagree.  Coming to Arkansas is a logical part of this new effort-he’s already faced off with Republicans, now he should come meet the voter’s who are his toughest and most skeptical critics.

So, here’s how we might be able to get this ball rolling.  Contact the White House, and tell President Obama that we deserve to be heard in Arkansas and that we deserve to hear from him.

By now a lot of you have seen the comment on this thread posted by someone claiming to be Jason Tolbert.  Today, Jason e-mailed me to assure me that the person posting under his name on this blog was not him, and that’s a big part of the reason we’re changing over to a members only posting rule.

Now I’ve criticized Jason’s writing in the past, sometimes good naturedly and otherwise seriously, and I will probably continue to do so in the future.  However, he does strike me as a decent guy despite our disagreements and he doesn’t deserve to have his name and reputation drug through the mud by some dipstick with nothing better to do.

So on behalf of the Blue Arkansas community I extend my apologies to Jason for this incident, and we are going to be working to keep this from happening again.

And to the person who wasted time doing this-grow up and get a life.  Seriously, how pathetic can you get?