The Tolbert Report

Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe and State Sen. Shane Broadway – candidate lieutenant governor – share so much in common that Broadway’s opponent has said that Broadway will simply be a yes man to Beebe if elected. But they already differ however slightly on one key policy – tax increases. While Beebe is holding firm that he will not support any tax increase, Broadway is at least leaving the door open.

Gov. Beebe sat down with Michael Tilley of The City Wire last week in what could have been the first interview with him in candidate mode this year. In it, he was firm that tax increases were off the table while the grocery tax cut was still a major priority. From Tilley’s interview…

As for any tax increases, Beebe interrupted the question to say, “No.” He added that this “is the last time in the world” to talk about raising taxes or fees in any significant way.

Gov. Beebe’s campaign spokesman Anne Hughes confirmed directly that this is a commitment from the Governor who instead places “a high priority” on cutting the grocery tax. “He remains committed to the complete phase-out of the sales tax on groceries in the fiscally responsible manner in which he started the process, already having reduced it by two-thirds, the largest tax cut in Arkansas history,” says Hughes.

On the other hand, Broadway says, “It would be irresponsible for me to say I would never support a tax increase.” Broadway was responding in a telephone interview to question on his opponent Mark Darr signing a no new tax pledge. He says he considers tax increases a “last option” but admits that circumstances could arrive that would require him to support them.

Part of Broadway’s reasoning is the lessons he says he learned as a state legislator during the Lakeview case, where the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that public schools must be adequately funded. Broadway says that this gave the legislature no choice but to raise taxes. “If we had all signed pledges not to raise taxes, we would have been in serious trouble,” said Broadway.

The difference between the two may be subtle but with so much in common it is an interesting distinction.

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.

Crawford campaign confirmed the accuracy of the story and said they felt it was fair.

“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.”

No official comment yet from the campaign of Crawford’s oppenent Chad Causey but his adviser Gabe Holmstrom is having a field day with on twitter. “How many current Members of Congress have filed bankruptcy?” Holmstrom asks.

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.

Yesterday, a federal court issued an injunction against a significant portion of Arizona’s new immigration law.  Republican Jim Keet, who is running for governor of Arkansas, issued a statement saying he supported the Arizona law, opposed the court’s ruling, and criticized Gov. Mike Beebe with the familiar line that he did not speak out enough.

“The Obama Administration claims that the Arizona law is in conflict with federal law, but is silent with respect to sanctuary cities, which are an obvious violation of federal law. This double-standard is troubling to anyone serious about securing our borders. Governor Beebe’s silence on this is another instance where he has quietly supported the Obama administration and its agenda,” said Keet.

So I asked Gov. Beebe’s campaign for a response.

“Governor Beebe supports the right of Arizona and every other state to protect their citizens and believes the federal government should enforce the immigration laws fully and fairly,” said Anne Hughes, Press Secretary for Beebe for Governor. “For Governor Beebe, this is not just political rhetoric. It’s precisely what Mike Beebe did as the chief law enforcement office of the state and it is precisely what he is doing as governor.”

Arkansas Times’ annual “Best of Arkansas” came out today as voted on by their readers and low and behold, you voted me runner-up on the best local blog category.

Of course, first place went to Arkansas Times’ own Arkansas Blog who you have to admit sort of had home field advantage, although honestly who can keep up with Max.  The other runners up were Kat Robinson’s Tie Dye Travels and Blake Rutherford’s Blake’s Think Tank.

When I started blogging, I was amazed anyone would even read it much less would vote for one of their favorites.  Thank you.

KFSM in Fayetteville is reporting that abortist William Harrison is closing the doors to his abortion clinic in nothwest Arkansas for health reasons. In an ABC News story a few year ago, Harrison said he had performed over 10,000 abortions and was comfortable with the taking of life.

I now write a column for Stephen Media in a spot once held by conservative David J. Sanders who is currently running for the Arkansas House of Representatives.  Sanders shadowed Harrison in his abortion clinic and wrote of series of columns on the experience.  I think these are prehaps Sanders’ best work…

Harrison is sure that what he does is right, but he confessed to the enormous costs that come in his line of work. There were threats against his wife and children and staff. He commented that if he “had known” everything – the threats, the risks – that would take place over the years, he might not have decided to provide abortions.

Some years ago, a 16-year-old daughter of a close friend of the family had gotten pregnant. “Their Baptist minister had advised her parents that she shouldn’t have an abortion and that (if she did) she would regret it the rest of her life. But had I had the choice, at the time, I would have advised (the mother of the teenager) to have that child aborted,” he said as he stared at his desktop.

“Well, she had her baby. She’s as smart as a whip,” he said. Now, years later, that baby is grown and about to finish her doctorate at the University of California at San Francisco.

I asked him if that sent chills up his spine. His response: “Absolutely.”

The Republican Party of Arkansas posted its final adopted 2010 Platform this morning on it website. As noted earlier, a few changes were made from the floor.  The most noticable is some changes to the immigration section. 

In the orginal platform committee draft, one paragraph read…

“We support English being recognized as the official language of the United States of America. This does not preclude governmental use of other languages in documentation and forms.”

The final version changed this paragraph to read…

“We support English being recognized as the official language of the United States of America. This does not preclude governmental use of other languages in documentation and forms. We oppose the printing of voter registration forms in any language other than English. As for the situation of millions of illegal aliens in our country, we believe that the combination of raids, deportation, cutting benefits, and enforcement immigration law by local police will remove the majority of illegal aliens from the State of Arkansas. We therefore support a concentrated effort to use attrition and enforcement to remove as many illegal aliens as possible without giving any path to citizenship or any other reward to those residing in the state illegally.”

The reality is that for as long as Arkansas has had two parties, Arkansans have voted Democrat by default unless a Republican has given them a good reason to vote otherwise.  However, a poll released by Gallup shows this trend could be changing.

The Gallup poll shows that 41% of Arkansans currently identify themselves as Republicans while 39% say they are Democrats.  In 2009, these numbers were very different with 37% identifying with Republicans and 47% with Democrats.

“This poll further illustrates that Arkansans are rejecting the liberal Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda, and are tired of the good ole boy network in Arkansas,” said Arkansas GOP Executive Director Chase Dugger. “The people of Arkansas have turned to our party for leadership, ethics reform and transparency in government, and we will continue working tirelessly to ensure conservative victory in November.”

These type of polls are often referred to as generic polls and demonstrate positive signs for Arkansas Republicans. However, we all know that people do not vote generically.  This will give Republicans candidates an advantage over previous years, they will still have to convince voters that they will do the best job for the office they are seeking and that they have the best ideas.

Also, I would anticipate this generic advantage helping the most in the down the ballot races where neither candidate is well known.

Speaking of Americans for Job Security, according to Politico, it seems they are targeting Billy Long in the Missouri 7th Congressional Republican Primary. MO7 is one of the more interesting Congressional primaries for a variety of reasons.

Long is running of a reform message against earmarks. The AJS ad accuses him of supporting earmarks. Long says that his opponents are funding the ad and using the AJS for cover.  Of course, I can think of maybe another reason the AJS would be attacking someone against earmarks but I am sure like most special interest groups their motives completely pure.

It would be nice to know who funds these but until Congress gets serious about real campaign finance reform, we will not. However, I have a feeling after another three months of these ads from these paper tiger special interest groups, we will all be screaming for some relief.

A controversial piece of election finance reform legislation being pushed by President Obama may come up for a vote in the Senate as soon as this afternoon.  The DISCLOSE Act would require certain corporations, labor unions, and special interest groups to disclose their donor list that fund their political spending.

The Arkansas Democratic Senate primary between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter was a good example of how special interest groups – such as Americans for Job Security or Arkansans for Common Sense – can spend money on candidates without disclosure who is funding their group.

“A vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections,” said President Obama yesterday. “It is damaging to our democracy. It is precisely what led a Republican President named Theodore Roosevelt to tackle this issue a century ago.”

But many criticize the DISCLOSE Act for have numerous exemptions for certain groups in order to gain their support for the bill.  Perhaps the most prominent is the National Rifle Association which obtained exemption in return for not opposing the bills passage.

“The mere suggestion that a bill designed to save politicians’ jobs should take precedent over helping millions of Americans find work is an embarrassing indictment of Democrats’ priorities,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who is leading Republicans to oppose the bill. “The DISCLOSE Act seeks to protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics and exempting their campaign supporters from an all out attack on the First Amendment. In the process, the authors of the bill have decided to trade our Constitutional rights away in a backroom deal that makes the Cornhusker Kickback look like a model of legislative transparency.”

The bill passed the House with the 3 Arkansas Democratic Congressman voting for it while Republican Congressman John Boozman opposed it saying that it would limit free speech and that he had problems with the backroom deals for its passage. To my knowledge, Arkansas Senators Lincoln and Pryor have not yet stated a position.  I have contacted both offices and will update when they respond.  The first cloture vote is expected this afternoon.

UPDATE – Sen. Lincoln and Pryor both voted for the measure however the cloture motion failed 57 to 41.

Now that Sen. Lincoln is on record supporting the bill, I suppose she will call for the disclosure of the names funding Americans for Job Security and Arkansans for Common Sense.

It is no secret to regular Tolbert Report readers that I have become a fan of DC Morrison.  He gave a pretty good speech at the Republican Party of Arkansas state convention this weekend where he said he is proud to be a Conservative Democrat and has no plans to switch parties.

That is why I am going to have to agree with the Blue Hog Report and say that his endorsement this morning of Republican Beth Anne Rankin in the Fourth Congressional District a bit odd.  Nothing against Rankin at all but if you truly are a “Conservative Democrat,” then Rep. Mike Ross ought to be the leader of your band.  He has veered back to the right as hard as any other Arkansas Democrat except perhaps Tim Wooldridge.

Morrison lists Ross’ vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House and his vote on the health care bill in committee as his two main reasons.  I will give him his point of the health care vote but the Pelosi agreement is a fair but partisan argument.  If you caucus with the Democrats, then you are a vote for Pelosi.

Anyway, the press release is on the jump.

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