"Jim & Jim" Event Grows to Entire State Wide Ticket!
What started as a fundraiser for Senator Jim Holt (GOP Lite Gov. candidate) and Jim LaGrone (Secretary of State Cadidate) has grown into an event that will include the entire Republican state-wide ticket. The event will be held this Saturday near Jonesboro. The details can be found here.
Attorney General candidate Gunner DeLay first made the decision to join the "Jim and Jim" event. Northeast Arkansas has a lot of potential swing votes. Asa's team must have decided they could not pass up such a good opportunity and asked to be included. Yesterday we heard that Treasurer Candidate Chris Morris and 1st District Congressional Candidate Stubby Stumbaugh asked in the dance. Stumbaugh is the Mayor of Cabot, just today named one of the 10 fastest growing cities in the state. His opponent in November, Marion Berry, has increasingly become bogged down in scandal and impropriety. Stumbaugh's once-remote chances are starting to look better.
This occurance was spontaneous. This was not something Gilbert Baker dreamed up, it happened because the candidates were comfortable with some degree of association. Does it mean they are campaigning as a unit now? No. They each have their own campaigns. They don't march in lockstep, but they are working together to make a whole greater than the sum of the parts. There is a multiplier effect for these events. The whole ticket can draw attention greater than each of these people appearing seperately can.
These men can do this because, though they vary in the details of their approach, they all agree that rural schools should be protected, abortion should be restricted, illegal immigration should be reduced at both state and federal levels, that gambling should not be a state enterprise, and our tax structure should be changed. They are also all free of personal scandal so that they are not embarrassed to be in one another's company.
Can you imagine if the Democrats tried to do something like this? The press could ask Halter what he thinks of Bebee's ties to Nick Wilson and Entergy, they could ask Berry what he thinks of Halter's Enron-style approach to making money. Or maybe have him comment on the fact that Halter's only profitable (for investors that is, he got his in all of them) company decided to "phase out" stashing teenage porn on colleger servers only AFTER the Boston Globe blew the story wide open. They could ask Bebee what he thinks of Daniels' handling of the primary election and selection of ES and S to provide us with voting machines. Daniels could be quized on his views of Berry sucking $800,000 of taxpayer money in farm subsidies due to loopholes of his own making.
Or maybe the press could ask about the issues. That would be real problematic for the Democratic team, because they do not want their positions known. They do not want their positions known on abortion, rural schools, or illegal immigration, or corruption in government (it is a necessary cost of doing business in some minds). Hollywood Bill Halter, fresh in from the West Coast, is the only one who thinks any of that stuff is going to sell in Arkansas. He wants to talk issues. The ones who have acutally lived here know better, and that is why they would be stupid to be caught anywhere near him.
The Republican ticket, to some degree, does not mind taking up for one another- at least to the point of appearing together on their own initiative. The Democrats attempt to "tie Asa to Jim Holt" is backfiring. Asa, if not tying himself to Holt, is at least willing to go stand next to him and Jim LaGrone. Will Bebee do that with Halter and Daniels? Of course not. He wishes they would go away- and stop talking about the same issues that he is trying to avoid!
Democratic Chair Jason Willett is going to have to eat his words, because it is HIS OWN ticket that is so mired in personal scandal and unpopular policy positions that they are reluctant to associate together on their own initiative. It is his OWN Gubinatorial candidate that has everything to lose by being tied to his down-ticket team. The multiplier effect goes both ways. When viewed side by side the Republican ticket looks honest and clean. The Democratic ticket looks haggard and scandal-worn. As I have said before, it is "Christian and Conservative" (and clean) vs. "Secular and Liberal"- with personal scandal baggage.
Attorney General candidate Gunner DeLay first made the decision to join the "Jim and Jim" event. Northeast Arkansas has a lot of potential swing votes. Asa's team must have decided they could not pass up such a good opportunity and asked to be included. Yesterday we heard that Treasurer Candidate Chris Morris and 1st District Congressional Candidate Stubby Stumbaugh asked in the dance. Stumbaugh is the Mayor of Cabot, just today named one of the 10 fastest growing cities in the state. His opponent in November, Marion Berry, has increasingly become bogged down in scandal and impropriety. Stumbaugh's once-remote chances are starting to look better.
This occurance was spontaneous. This was not something Gilbert Baker dreamed up, it happened because the candidates were comfortable with some degree of association. Does it mean they are campaigning as a unit now? No. They each have their own campaigns. They don't march in lockstep, but they are working together to make a whole greater than the sum of the parts. There is a multiplier effect for these events. The whole ticket can draw attention greater than each of these people appearing seperately can.
These men can do this because, though they vary in the details of their approach, they all agree that rural schools should be protected, abortion should be restricted, illegal immigration should be reduced at both state and federal levels, that gambling should not be a state enterprise, and our tax structure should be changed. They are also all free of personal scandal so that they are not embarrassed to be in one another's company.
Can you imagine if the Democrats tried to do something like this? The press could ask Halter what he thinks of Bebee's ties to Nick Wilson and Entergy, they could ask Berry what he thinks of Halter's Enron-style approach to making money. Or maybe have him comment on the fact that Halter's only profitable (for investors that is, he got his in all of them) company decided to "phase out" stashing teenage porn on colleger servers only AFTER the Boston Globe blew the story wide open. They could ask Bebee what he thinks of Daniels' handling of the primary election and selection of ES and S to provide us with voting machines. Daniels could be quized on his views of Berry sucking $800,000 of taxpayer money in farm subsidies due to loopholes of his own making.
Or maybe the press could ask about the issues. That would be real problematic for the Democratic team, because they do not want their positions known. They do not want their positions known on abortion, rural schools, or illegal immigration, or corruption in government (it is a necessary cost of doing business in some minds). Hollywood Bill Halter, fresh in from the West Coast, is the only one who thinks any of that stuff is going to sell in Arkansas. He wants to talk issues. The ones who have acutally lived here know better, and that is why they would be stupid to be caught anywhere near him.
The Republican ticket, to some degree, does not mind taking up for one another- at least to the point of appearing together on their own initiative. The Democrats attempt to "tie Asa to Jim Holt" is backfiring. Asa, if not tying himself to Holt, is at least willing to go stand next to him and Jim LaGrone. Will Bebee do that with Halter and Daniels? Of course not. He wishes they would go away- and stop talking about the same issues that he is trying to avoid!
Democratic Chair Jason Willett is going to have to eat his words, because it is HIS OWN ticket that is so mired in personal scandal and unpopular policy positions that they are reluctant to associate together on their own initiative. It is his OWN Gubinatorial candidate that has everything to lose by being tied to his down-ticket team. The multiplier effect goes both ways. When viewed side by side the Republican ticket looks honest and clean. The Democratic ticket looks haggard and scandal-worn. As I have said before, it is "Christian and Conservative" (and clean) vs. "Secular and Liberal"- with personal scandal baggage.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Friday, June 23, 2006
4 Comments:
Your right.
"Hollywood Halter" Now that's funny!
Very Good Post!
It is enjoyable to watch the liberal democratic establishment crumble right before our eyes.
It's been a slow but sure process over many years. Huckabee has set back the Republican party back in many respects, but not far enough to derail the continuing desintegration of the libs.
Wait a minute. Did yall not read in the paper about the Unity Rally that the Dems had last week after the runoff?
What are we going to do to raise the money that these guys will need? I look at all our candidates and I see that all of them are behind in the money race....somthing that is not usual for Republicans. Whats up with that?? How are we going to get the big bucks to them?
That "unity rally" was about as spontaneous and unregimented as a Swiss Clock. It came from a need to APPEAR unified. This one happened because on an informal level to some extent the GOP ticket IS unified.
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