Roger's Mayors Race Bomb Shells

Charming downtown Rogers, with a part of one of its brick streets.
**************************************

After Roger's Mayor Steve Womack won the Republican nomination for Congress, there was a sudden opening to fill his job in the Fall. For a time, it seemed that the only one who wanted to run for the job was Greg Hines. Hines worked for the Sheriff (editors note: I incorrectly reported earlier that Hines ran for Sheriff and lost), and ran for County Judge and lost. He managed to make lemonade out of that last loss though- his endorsement of eventual winner Dave Bisbee enabled Bisbee to later hire Hines to work for the county.

Several of us cried dirty pool over that move, as well as many other questionable practices of the Bisbee administration. Primary voters decided the issue by replacing Bisbee with Bob Clinard as the Republican nominee for County Judge. Come January, Bisbee will be out, Clinard will be in. The odds are good that means Hines will be out as well. Still, if Hines wins the Mayor's race, he can still stay on the public payroll.

A lot of the leading citizens of Rogers were not looking forward to Hines moving into the Mayor's office, believing that trading Womack for Hines was too big a step down in today's troubled economy. They tapped Rogers' businessman Kurt Maddox to enter the race. Maddox was one of the crowd who ran for Congress (with my support). Unlike the rest of the crowd, when it came to the run-off, Maddox endorsed Womack. Many would say that Maddox's endorsement was key to Womack securing the nomination in a tight race with State Senator Cecile Bledsoe. After being drafted by Rogers residents, Maddox agreed to jump in.

I was shocked to learn from a reliable source (Stefani Buhajla)that Greg Hines has hired the "Markham Group" to run his campaign. What an awful choice to run a Mayoral campaign for the solidly conservative and staunchly Republican Benton County city! Visit their web site. Their top three flash ads are for ONE.org, Mayor Bloomberg, and the American Federation of Teachers.

ONE.org is to the left even of Barack Obama. Their stated purpose is to pressure Obama to send 6 billion more of our tax dollars than he is otherwise inclined to send to help fight HIV infection in Africa. I use a high degree of understatement when I say that this is not going to resonate in the Rogers community. Mayor Micheal Bloomberg is notorious for his support of gun control. Again, this is a poor choice for someone who wants to run the city government of Rogers. The American Federation of Teachers is liberal like the National Education Association, but without the virtue of at least having a few members in the Rogers area. If a teacher is in a union around here, its the NEA, not the AFT.

But that is not all. I've been told that the incoming County Judge, Bob Clinard, is complaining that Hines has rarely come into the office at his county job since Hines decided to run for Mayor of Rogers. Clinard is reported to be unhappy that Hines continues to draw a salary from county coffers while spending his days running for Mayor rather than doing his job.

Looks like we will have a lively November up here in "the great Northwest", even on a local level.