The Tolbert Report

Jim Harris of Bryant covered Arkansas politics for almost 20 years. He has been the press secretary of former U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton, U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey and Gov. Mike Huckabee. He was the Director of External Communications for the Huckabee for President Campaign.  This editorial originally run in the Benton Courier on Tuesday, September 1 and is post with the permission of Mr. Harris.

Long before the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Arkansas ever started, author Tom Clancy, said the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.

It is more than a year before Arkansas voters go to the polls to determine who will represent them in the U.S. Senate. The incumbent in that race has already made the first statement that does not make sense. It is a statement that will haunt her for at least the next 14 months.

In early August, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln was having a conference call with Arkansas reporters when the subject of angry people attending town hall meetings on health care reform came up. With good reason, many people believe the changes being considered in Washington will destroy the best health care system in the world and make the limited care available cost more than this country can afford.

Some of those angry folks are very vocal and sometimes very loud in expressing their anger.

“It’s so sad, because it’s diminishing to the process, it’s diminishing to our outcome,” Lincoln said in that conference call. “I think it’s sad that they choose to do that. I think it’s un-American and disrespectful.”

Un-American to try to tell your congressmen and senators that they are not getting it right and they need to change what they are doing?

Un-American to speak your mind at a town hall meeting where elected representatives are trying to gather their constituents’ opinions?

Un-American to exercise the free speech rights every citizen has under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?

She later came back and tried to undo that un-American remark, but it was too late. Her true feelings had escaped her lips.

In the Star Wars movie “The Phantom Menace,” Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn asks Jar Jar Binks, “Are you brainless?” Jar Jar’s response is that he can speak.

With true Jedi wisdom, Qui-Gon says, “The ability to speak doesn’t make you intelligent.”

This is not to suggest that Lincoln be saddled with a nickname like “Senator Jar Jar.” She already has nicknames. People in her own party refer to her as “Senator Blank” and “Senator Dirt.” That last one is a reference to the saying “dumb as dirt.” However, if she keeps making statements like her un-American one, calling her Senator Dirt will be insulting dirt.

But Lincoln isn’t safe from a challenge from within her own party. State Senate President Pro Tem Bob Johnson is considering running against her in the Democratic primary.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must at this point say that I once worked for U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton. Many years later, Johnson worked for Thornton. We both learned a great deal about politics from Thornton.

Johnson was a state representative and senator when I worked in the governor’s office and we had a good working relationship.

My opinion, based on 35 years of working in and covering Arkansas politics, is that if Democrats were smart, they would elect Johnson as their candidate in the primary. Arkansans are angry and want to send a message to the Obama administration. He won’t be on the ballot again until 2012. So the next best thing is to send Obama’s buddy Blanche home from the Senate.

Johnson’s beating Lincoln would do that. Democrats like to stick to incumbents. So while I wish Johnson luck, I don’t see him winning.

That leaves the lightning of voters’ anger looking for a lightning rod.

There are a number of Republican candidates running or thinking about running. The list includes State Senator Gilbert Baker of Conway, Safe Foods CEO Curtis Coleman of Little Rock, state Sen. Kim Hendren of Gravette, retired Army Col. Conrad Reynolds of Conway, businessmen Fred Ramey of Searcy, businessman Tom Cox of Little Rock, and Harvard-educated lawyer Tom Cotton.

Once again, in the interest of full disclosure, I must point out that Coleman and I worked together in Mike Huckabee’s race against U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers in 1992. Also, my nephew’s wife is a paid staffer in Coleman’s campaign.

Arkansas is a small state. If you have been in politics for any time, you have connections to a lot of people in that world. That being said, I don’t think it will matter because Coleman won’t be the Republican nominee.

The Republican’s best candidate is Baker. A state senator since 2000, Baker has served as chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas.

In 2008, Gov. Mike Beebe was in the middle of his term and did not face re-election. He made it his top priority that year to see that Baker lost his seat in the Arkansas Senate. Baker not only ran against his Democrat challenger, but he ran against the Beebe political machine in that race.

It turned out to be the most expensive state Senate race in Arkansas history. On Election Day, Baker won.

This was an uphill battle for Baker in 2008, but in 2010 it will be to his advantage.

Baker is now a proven candidate with a record as an able campaigner. If there was any career-wrecking dirt to be found, it would have surfaced in 2008.

Being well-spoken is important in any political race. I’ve seen Baker give the short sound bites needed for radio and television as well as the longer, more detailed statements that newspapers and bloggers want.

Baker has shown he can raise money for a campaign. True, he hasn’t raised it on the level needed for a U.S. Senate race. That is somewhere between $4 million and $6 million. People who give the large campaign contributions want their money to go to a winner.

His record of raising money in 2008 makes him the most promising candidate on their radar. None of the other Republican candidates running have such a record.

The wisdom of the Founding Fathers of this country has fallen out of favor with the Democrats in control of Washington who want change. Those who gave birth to this country had some pretty smart things to say.

“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object,” Thomas Jefferson once said.

Jefferson had it right. It is not un-American to voice your opinion even if you get a little rowdy and loud to do it. It is un-American to sit on your hands and do nothing rather than raise your voice to let those in public office know when they are wrong.

Tags: 2010 Candidates