Category Archives: Politics

Do some offices belong on the ballot?

Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Voters in Arkansas are casting primary election ballots that are probably several offices longer than they should be. 

Certain offices should definitely be elected: governor, members of Congress, mayors, city council members, county judges, quorum court members, and school boards. 

These offices either make the laws voters live under, or they have ultimate authority in administering government as the chief executive, or, in school boards’ case, they set policies for taxpayer-funded public schools. They should answer directly to the governed.

On the other hand, voters shouldn’t elect offices that perform a specific, bureaucratic function. It’s not our role, and we often don’t have enough information about the office or the candidates. Continue reading →

King’s challenger another Ballinger

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDThe March 3 primaries feature two state Senate primaries where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders supports a challenger opposing a sitting Republican senator. 

Both senators voted against her administration’s proposed Franklin County prison in the last legislative session.

The two are Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, of District 28, and Sen. Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne, of District 10. King faces Bobby Ballinger, while Caldwell faces Trey Bohannan.

The support of Ballinger over King is not surprising. King is a bluntly speaking and cussedly independent senator who often clashes with Republican Party leadership – particularly Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, the Senate president pro tempore. 

Caldwell is not an obvious thorn in the leadership’s side. But he did vote against funding the prison, which failed to make it out of the Senate last year after five votes but remains on the table.

We’ll focus on the District 28 race. It’s the third time King has faced a Ballinger. King defeated Ballinger’s dad, former state Sen. Bob Ballinger, to claim the seat in 2022. The elder Ballinger had ousted King from his state Senate seat in 2018. Continue reading →

Arkansas projects get funded as debt elephant gets ignored

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billion, debt elephantCongress has funded most but not all of the government. Four members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation secured hundreds of millions of dollars for highways and other state projects. Meanwhile, a nonpartisan group is warning of the consequences of ever-increasing government debt.

That paragraph pretty much sums up the federal budget news from the past couple of weeks, with more to come. 

As you may not have noticed, there was another government shutdown last week, though only a partial, brief one. It ended when President Trump on Feb. 3 passed the second of two bills that funded government operations through September – all except for the Department of Homeland Security, which got funding for only two weeks until Feb. 13.

Democrats balked at funding that agency because they want major reforms to its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. As of Sunday evening, the question had not been resolved. 

So we’re in another partial government shutdown. Continue reading →

Registered Democrats can’t vote in GOP primaries, but they can change at the polls

By Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

This year’s open primary elections in Arkansas will be a little more closed, but only to Democrats seeking to vote in the Republican primary.

Traditionally, every Arkansas voter freely could vote in the Republican, Democratic, or a nonpartisan primary. The latter voters cast a shorter ballot featuring only judicial and other nonpartisan races.

Some Republicans in recent years have argued that their primary should be reserved for Republicans. They’ve argued that crossover Democrats could be affecting the results.

That’s a reasonable position. 

The counter argument is that less than 8.2% of the state’s voters are registered Republicans, so others would have to either declare their allegiance to a party or otherwise not vote. Not voting in the Republican primary in much of Arkansas means skipping the election that often matters the most. Continue reading →

Womack speaks in House while heart is at home

Steve WomackBy Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack spoke in the House of Representatives on Jan. 22 in support of a $1.2 trillion spending package he had helped create. His voice cracked twice, but only briefly and for a very good reason. Four days earlier, he had lost his wife.

Terri Womack, his wife of 41 years, had died on Jan. 18 at age 68.

The spending package passed the House with bipartisan support, 341-88. It would provide funding for the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

Continue reading →