Category Archives: Politics

Arkansas GOP on Trump: Supportive, opposing, and silent

By Steve Brawner

© 2023 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What have Arkansas’ leading Republicans been saying about former President Trump’s indictment? It varies from quite a bit to not much at all.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and also is an attorney, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday that he was disappointed with the indictments. 

Trump is accused of taking classified documents, including highly sensitive ones related to national security, showing them off a little, refusing to turn them over and then taking steps to hide them. 

Cotton said that’s not as serious as what Hillary Clinton did while secretary of state, which was conduct a lot of official business using her private, unsecured email server that included sending classified information, though not documents marked as classified. He said what Clinton did was worse and that it compromised national security, and he criticized the Justice Department for its inconsistency in indicting Trump but not her.

“Indicting the opposition party’s leading candidate is a step that’s more reminiscent of Third World banana republics than the greatest republic known in the history of mankind, and it’s not something that should be done on edge cases or stretching legal theories,” he said. “Only on ironclad serious matters in which the law has been applied equally in a fair-handed manner.” Continue reading →

Arkansans of the Year: The two governors

By Steve Brawner

© 2022 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When you write a syndicated column that annually declares someone the “Arkansan of the Year,” one of the finalists must be the person who becomes the state’s first female elected governor with 63% of the vote, gives voice to the concerns of her supporters, and shatters the glass ceiling for women of all political persuasions – and does it all at the age of 40.

The only problem with naming Sarah Huckabee Sanders was that 2022 really wasn’t her year.  Continue reading →

Should the law make hospitals allow visitors during COVID?

By Steve Brawner, © 2021 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Should hospitals allow patient visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic? Should the government require them to do so?

For some Arkansas state legislators, the answer to both is “yes.”

House Bill 1061 by Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, would create the No Patient Left Alone Act requiring medical providers to let at least one person be present with patients each day at reasonable times.

Mayberry introduced the bill because many hospitals are severely limiting patient visitors during the pandemic. It has 11 co-sponsors in the House and six in the Senate.

Here’s the thing about being a journalist sometimes: You talk to a smart, persuasive person offering one side of the argument and decide they make sense. Then you talk to a smart, persuasive person on the other side. And then you rub your forehead and mutter, “I’m so confused.” Often, both sides have good arguments. Continue reading →

Arkansan of the Year – almost

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

Time magazine annually names its “Person of the Year,” or “Persons,” and in that spirit I write a little column about my Arkansan of the Year. This year, Time chose President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, wrongly. This was not the year to name an elected official.

But I will name one as the runner-up in Arkansas: Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The Arkansans who rank ahead of him are in my next post.

Time’s Person of the Year is based not so much on greatness or even goodness but on impact and significance, which is why it’s chosen Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin in the past.

Under that standard – impact and significance – Hutchinson would surely qualify. Who knew the governor could be so important? His actions have more directly affected all Arkansans’ lives this year than any elected official’s have since … maybe Franklin Roosevelt? Continue reading →

Does Issue 3 fix the broken process?

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

Arkansas state legislators are proposing a constitutional amendment that would make it harder for citizens to pass constitutional amendments in the future. And yes, the process is broken. The question is, will this fix it?

Issue 3, which is on this year’s ballot, also would make it harder for citizens to pass initiated acts, which are voter-created state laws, and also referenda, where voters can overturn a law already passed by legislators.

Let’s start with what clearly needs fixing.

First, the Arkansas Constitution is amended too often – 100 times since it was adopted in 1874 versus 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution since it was adopted in 1789 – and too easily. Sometimes it’s amended to create policy changes that should be made in less permanent ways, such as a law. Well-funded special interests and private businesses can write for themselves a permanent place in our state’s most important document.

Also, the current process is dominated by lawsuits that result in the Arkansas Supreme Court blocking proposals close to the election. This often occurs because of some technical issue regarding the voter signatures that citizen groups must collect to qualify for the ballot. For a constitutional amendment this year, for example, the groups had to collect 89,151 signatures.

The ruling often occurs too late for the proposal to be removed from the ballot. This year, voters will see a referendum to prevent optometrists from performing eye surgeries, but their votes won’t be counted.

Those are good reasons to reform the process. Here’s one that’s not as good: Some, including legislators, just don’t like how the people have voted lately. Examples include an amendment authorizing casinos, an amendment legalizing medical marijuana, and an initiated act increasing the state’s minimum wage. Continue reading →