Ark. Primary 06: Republicans Not Really Admitting It

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Elections 2006
Posted on Sat May 20, 2006 at 06:35:27 AM EST
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by Last Night in Little Rock

Primary day in Arkansas is Tuesday, May 23d. I first notice this about three weeks ago but had to confirm it first: Republicans are not admitting it.

A friend of mine, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is running for Lt. Gov., and there is a primary. Neither candidate has "Republican" on their yard signs.

There is a contested Republican primary for the Second District of Congress between two seemingly nice fellows, one with cheesy ads playing on the "Mayberry" theme because that's his name: Andy Mayberry. The other is irrelevant to you if you're outside this District. (The Democratic incumbent, Vic Snyder, lives two blocks from me. He's one of the few to vote against the "permanent tax cuts" that have gutted the economy.)

Asa Hutchinson, formerly of the DEA and DHS and one of the House Managers in the Clinton Impeachment, is running against Democratic Attorney General Mike Beebe for Governor. No contested primary there; just a November election. Early odds: Beebe wins 56-44. Beebe's already raised more than double the money.

Anyway, back to my point: For three weeks now, I've been consciously looking for campaign signs and television ads from Republicans, and none of them admit their party affiliation. This is not a scientific survey by any means, but it is the first time that I've seen Republican actively in denial of their political affiliation in the this state.

The interesting thing will be to see whether anybody from the White House or other big Washington guns will show up for Asa. Just as important, does he want them here? Somebody will show. Perhaps Sen. McCain. Asa's a nice guy, and he was an effective Congressman from NW Arkansas' Third District, except for that stupid impeachment process. You could call him and actually talk to him. Well, I did, even when he was head of the DEA. Then he got sucked into the Bush Administration, and wisely got out before he could get tainted by anything other than being affiliated with Bush. As a candidate, he's toeing the Republican line on all the hot button issues. No word on immigration yet, however, since Hispanics are an exploding population segment in Arkansas.