Congratulations Asa, Beebe Stuck With Newspaper Endorsements
John Brummett wrote today, "Newspaper endorsements of political candidates normally matter maybe to a half-dozen people. Five of them only pay attention to make sure they vote the opposite way. I'm the sixth. ".
Congratulations to Asa Hutchinson. The two largest partisan rags in the state have endorsed your opponent. The larger of the two, the Democrat-Gazette, also opposed the marriage amendment, wants more school consolidation, and was fervently in favor of taxpayer funded college scholarships for illegal aliens.
The Demozette did have one issue they were populist on: For years they have admonished politicians in Arkansas for failing to remove the sales tax on groceries. But their hypocrisy knows no bounds. Today they passed over Asa, who wants the sales tax on groceries ended completely and without excuse, for a man who wants to wait and see on eliminating the grocery tax- Mike Beebe.
That is the Democrat-Gazette. The other paper is the even more liberal "Morning News". They will occasionally endorse the more conservative candidate for President. That is a race they cannot change the outcome on. They may sometimes endorse the conservative in such a race in order to better fool people into thinking they are "moderate" in the closer races where they CAN effect the outcome. Like the Governor, Lt. Governor, and even now the Attorney General's races here in Arkansas.
But in truth I think this goes beyond liberal-conservative. It is more about who the mega-businesses in this state can count on to help them even at the expense of the average citizen or smaller business. It is about who will be most lax on polluters, who will authorize the biggest utility increases, who will let the big guys play by one set of rules while the little guys are made to play by another. Mega-corporate Arkansas knows it has a man they can count on in Mike Beebe. They are not so sure about Asa Hutchinson. My guess is they are afraid he will treat everybody equally under the law- and they don't donate big bucks to be treated equally.
As far as the Brummett column goes, he spent the rest of it doing an about-face; talking about what a blow it was for Asa Hutchinson to lose the endorsements of those two papers. The papers are owned by guys connected to the mega-corp side of things. The fact that they trust Asa less than Beebe means that we can trust him more.
Congratulations to Asa Hutchinson. The two largest partisan rags in the state have endorsed your opponent. The larger of the two, the Democrat-Gazette, also opposed the marriage amendment, wants more school consolidation, and was fervently in favor of taxpayer funded college scholarships for illegal aliens.
The Demozette did have one issue they were populist on: For years they have admonished politicians in Arkansas for failing to remove the sales tax on groceries. But their hypocrisy knows no bounds. Today they passed over Asa, who wants the sales tax on groceries ended completely and without excuse, for a man who wants to wait and see on eliminating the grocery tax- Mike Beebe.
That is the Democrat-Gazette. The other paper is the even more liberal "Morning News". They will occasionally endorse the more conservative candidate for President. That is a race they cannot change the outcome on. They may sometimes endorse the conservative in such a race in order to better fool people into thinking they are "moderate" in the closer races where they CAN effect the outcome. Like the Governor, Lt. Governor, and even now the Attorney General's races here in Arkansas.
But in truth I think this goes beyond liberal-conservative. It is more about who the mega-businesses in this state can count on to help them even at the expense of the average citizen or smaller business. It is about who will be most lax on polluters, who will authorize the biggest utility increases, who will let the big guys play by one set of rules while the little guys are made to play by another. Mega-corporate Arkansas knows it has a man they can count on in Mike Beebe. They are not so sure about Asa Hutchinson. My guess is they are afraid he will treat everybody equally under the law- and they don't donate big bucks to be treated equally.
As far as the Brummett column goes, he spent the rest of it doing an about-face; talking about what a blow it was for Asa Hutchinson to lose the endorsements of those two papers. The papers are owned by guys connected to the mega-corp side of things. The fact that they trust Asa less than Beebe means that we can trust him more.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Sunday, November 05, 2006
1 Comments:
I see Brummett didn't mention that the Demagag endorsed Jim Lagrone over Charlie "Jack" Daniels. Now that is real progress for one of the most liberal papers in the state!
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