Category Archives: Elections

About those $5,000 ‘Trump dividend’ checks

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tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billion, Social Security cutArkansas’ members of Congress reacted cooly to President Trump’s proposal to send a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to every adult American if Republicans retain their congressional majorities this November.

None of the five who answered questions explicitly endorsed the proposal, though they avoided directly criticizing it. 

In the Senate, Sen. Tom Cotton’s spokesperson said he “wants to put money back in the pockets of working Arkansans by continuing to lower taxes.” Sen. John Boozman’s office said he is “certainly interested in helping keep as much money in the American people’s pockets as possible” and looked forward to hearing more details. 

In the House, Rep. French Hill said the focus instead should be on implementing lasting policies such as his recently passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act along with Republican-passed tax reforms. Similarly, Rep. Bruce Westerman supports longterm policies encouraging business growth, good wages, reducing bureaucracy and regulations, lowering taxes, and reforming health care. Rep. Steve Womack said he had not seen the full proposal but had “concerns.” Rep. Rick Crawford did not respond to a request for comment. 

All of those but Boozman are up for re-election this year. Of the five, Cotton and Hill have the most competitive races.  Continue reading →

On your ballot: $500 million to fix leaky water pipes

$500 million bond issueAs Chris Colclasure puts it, “Water falls free from the sky.” But it’s not free if you want it to come out of a pipe clean enough to drink.

Colclasure is director of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Division. He would help administer a $500 million bond issue for water and wastewater projects if voters approve it this November.

Issue 4 represents the fifth time legislators have asked voters to give the state such authority. Voters have said yes the previous four times. The first was in 1982, and the most recent was in 2008. The latter was for $300 million, with the last of the bonds issued in August. 

The state has identified $20.1 billion in needed upgrades over the next 20 years through its soon-to-be-released State Water Plan update. Issue 4 would help provide that funding for the next 16 years. It would help the state pay for its 20% share for federal matching funds and allow it to fund projects directly with general obligation bonds. The state would loan proceeds to communities, often at a better interest rate than they could obtain on their own. Continue reading →

Poll finds Arkansas races tighter than expected

Sen. Tom Cotton, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Rep. French Hill  are definitely still the favorites to win in November. But the election just got more interesting.

A Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll released over the course of this week found that Cotton, a Republican, was trailing Democrat Hallie Shoffner, 47.4% to 44%. Libertarian Jeff Wadlin was running at 3%, while 5.65% of respondents were undecided. 

The poll also found that in the governor’s race, Sanders was leading Democrat state Sen. Fred Love, 45% to 40%, while Libertarian Colt Shelby trailed with 7%. Another 8% were undecided. 

The poll of 1,217 likely voters was conducted Aug. 11-12 via text message and had a plus-minus margin of error of 4.7%. That’s a 9.4% swing, which means Cotton could be leading his race while Love could be ahead of Sanders. 

In a separate survey of 1,112 likely voters in the 2nd District, Rep. Hill was trailing Democrat Chris Jones, 44% to 48%.

The impossible-to-ignore finding was that more respondents disapproved of President Trump than approved, 53%-46%. Perhaps even more significant was the fact that almost half the respondents (48.3%) strongly disapproved. Less than 5% only somewhat disapproved. In contrast, one-third (32.2%) strongly approved.  Continue reading →

Any ideas on how to fix the ballot initiative?

There almost certainly won’t be any citizen-led initiatives on the November ballot after Secretary of State Cole Jester announced he was disqualifying the one effort that submitted signatures. 

Ironically, the proposed amendment by Protect AR Rights was an attempt to reform the ballot initiative process itself. 

Jester informed Protect AR Rights July 30 that he had disqualified all of the 108,837 signatures it collected. He said he did so because the popular name on each page read “The Ballot Measure Rights Amendment of 2026” instead of the attorney general-approved “The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment.”

Let’s pause and provide some background.  Continue reading →

Guns, non-citizen voting on your ballot this year

Arkansas voters this November will consider three legislatively proposed constitutional amendments, including one explicitly stating that only citizens can vote, and one stating that Arkansans have an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Similar provisions already exist in the state’s Constitution, but these would provide needed clarity, the legislative sponsors have argued.

The Citizens Only Voting Amendment would specify that only qualified citizens can vote in state and local elections. Those qualifications are being a citizen of the United States; being an Arkansas resident; being at least 18 years old; and being lawfully registered to vote in the election. 

It further bars from voting individuals who don’t meet those qualifications. 

The Arkansas Constitution already states “any person” who meets those qualifications may vote in an election. Continue reading →