Category Archives: Politics

Cotton’s absence gave Harrington center stage

Elections, Politics, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Ricky Harrington had a good week.

The Libertarian challenger to Republican Sen. Tom Cotton released a poll Oct. 10 showing he trailed Cotton only 49% to 38%, with 13% undecided. Again, that’s Harrington’s poll, and we’ll need to see other polls from independent sources, but it did get him some attention.

Cotton is a polarizing figure. His approval-disapproval rating was 44%-47% in a June poll by Talk Business & Politics and Hendrix College. Independents disapproved, 39-51.

Also, Harrington is the only challenger after the Democrat dropped out hours after the filing period ended. Libertarians haven’t really cracked the 3% threshold of statewide support in Arkansas, but Democrats generally run close to 40%. It’s likely Harrington is winning their anti-Cotton vote by default.

The poll numbers gained Harrington some attention, and he’s been raising a little money lately – around $40,000 total, his campaign said. It’s certainly nowhere near Cotton’s millions, but he could afford to run a poll.

Then on Wednesday, Harrington had the stage to himself during the debates organized by Arkansas PBS. Cotton declined to participate. It wasn’t worth his time, and he saw more harm than good in sharing the stage with his opponent.

All the state’s other Republican congressmen participated in their debates. That includes the two who are safely headed toward re-election in races contested by both Democrats and Libertarians. Continue reading Cotton’s absence gave Harrington center stage →

Are there other choices? Actually 11

Independents and third parties, Politics
Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian presidential candidate.

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Surely some who endured the presidential debate  must be asking themselves this question: Is there another choice?

For Arkansas voters, the answer is yes. Actually, there are 11.

The most credible third party candidate is Dr. Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian. Jorgensen is a Clemson University psychology professor and was the party’s candidate for vice president in 1996. She made an August campaign stop in Little Rock where she gave a good speech and was impressive in an interview.

Libertarians favor extremely limited government, which some Americans might like in theory until they saw it would mean ending popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare. On the other hand, their taxes certainly would be lower. Continue reading Are there other choices? Actually 11 →

Poll: Libertarian Harrington trails Cotton, 49-38

Independents and third parties, Politics, U.S. Congress
Ricky Harrington speaks at a campaign event in Little Rock Aug. 28.

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Libertarian candidate Ricky Harrington trails U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, 49-38%, according to a poll commissioned by the Harrington campaign.

Thirteen percent were undecided. The poll of 600 likely voters by American Research Group conducted late last week had a margin of error of plus-minus 4%, the Harrington campaign said.

Harrington is Cotton’s sole challenger because the only Democratic to file, Josh Mahony, dropped out of the race hours after the filing period closed. An independent candidate, Dan Whitfield, tried without success to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

He’s picking up the protest vote that would have gone to Mahony or another Democrat.

Harrington reported raising $5,120.49 as of June 30 in his most recent filing report with the Federal Election Commission. Howington said there has been a significant increase in donations in the last few weeks.

Cotton, meanwhile, had raised almost $10 million, including transfers from other committees, and had $6 million on hand as of June 30.

Harrington’s press secretary, Andy Howington, said, “We are hopeful for an ‘October Surprise’ as more people are introduced to Mr. Harrington’s campaign in these last few weeks. The uncertainty in this race, coupled with the results of this poll, provide us a vision for a path to victory. We will work hard to court these undecided voters, and maybe even take some from Senator Cotton in the process. No one expected us to be here.”

Howington pointed to the FiveThirtyEight website, which predicted Cotton would win with 82.1% of the vote. It gives Cotton a greater than 99% chance of winning based on a model that simulates the election 40,000 times.

A debate between the candidates by Arkansas PBS is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday, but only Harrington is scheduled to appear. Arkansas PBS will livestream Harrington’s appearance here and here.  It will air it at 7 p.m.

Related:

A third option for president visits Arkansas

Are there other choices? Actually 11

Supreme Court: Dot this ‘i’ that can’t be dotted

Politics, State government

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDBy Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The Arkansas Constitution says that “the people reserve to themselves the power to propose legislative measures, laws and amendments.” That may be so, but the people had better dot every “i” to satisfy the Arkansas Supreme Court, even if those “i’s” can’t be dotted.

The Court on Aug. 27 blocked two proposed constitutional amendments, both of whose sponsors collected roughly 150,000 signatures from Arkansas citizens to get on the November ballot.

One, sponsored by Arkansas Voters First, would create an independent legislative redistricting commission to redraw state congressional and legislative districts after each U.S. census. Currently, those lines are drawn by elected officials every 10 years.

The other, sponsored by Open Primaries Arkansas, would place all candidates in the same March or May primary, rather than dividing them into taxpayer-funded Republican and Democratic Party affairs. The top four candidates regardless of party would advance to the November general election, where voters would rank their choices. If no candidate wins a majority, then there’s a process for counting second choices.

These would be major reforms. The first would make it harder for politicians to gerrymander districts by drawing squiggly lines on maps to cherry-pick voters. The second would give voters more options so they aren’t locked into choosing between one Republican and one Democrat in November. We might have more competitive elections instead of most incumbents being unopposed, or practically unopposed, as occurs now. Continue reading Supreme Court: Dot this ‘i’ that can’t be dotted →