Asa pulling for No Labels, but won’t be candidate

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson hopes No Labels fields a competitive independent presidential candidate this November. It just won’t be him. 

“The short answer is that I want No Labels to have a strong candidate and I am not the right one,” Hutchinson wrote in a text March 11. “They need someone with a bigger profile and money. And I have a number of options in [the] private sector that are appealing.”

He said it is “premature” to elaborate on those options, so I asked him if he wanted to expand on why he, a lifelong Republican, has hopes for No Labels.

“Just like many Americans, I am not excited about a Trump candidacy and I will not endorse him,” he texted. “And I don’t support Biden. I ran for President because we needed an alternative beyond Trump and Biden and I still believe that is true.” Continue reading →

Arkansas prepares for eclipse visitors, traffic

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If you venture past your driveway April 8 in Arkansas, you may be sharing the road with a lot of out-of-staters. On the other hand, there won’t be any highway construction, and there’s a good chance there won’t be any school buses where you are.

Those were some of the takeaways from a press conference March 4 hosted by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and cabinet officials about the upcoming solar eclipse. 

I’m sure you’ve heard about this. If not, boy, you will. 

On the afternoon of April 8, the moon will completely obscure the sun for about four minutes. The eclipse will occur along a path of totality stretching across nearly two-thirds of Arkansas from its southwestern to its northeastern corners. Ninety-four percent of the state will experience at least a partial eclipse. Continue reading →

What stands out about the primary election’s numbers?

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Let’s see what stands out about the numbers in last Tuesday’s primary elections, starting with the state’s only contested congressional race. 

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack defeated a not-very-well-funded challenger, state Sen. Clint Penzo, 54%-46%, in northwest Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District.

It was the kind of race Republican congressmen fear – a challenge from within their own party from the right. Democrats in Democratic states fear a challenge from the left. 

Womack has been in office for a while, and he’s in a leadership position. He’s more of a traditional Republican rather than a MAGA (Make America Great Again) one allied with former President Trump. Where he really stepped out was when he publicly opposed the speakership candidacy of Rep. Jim Jordan, a Trump ally. Continue reading →

Dennis Milligan has $400 million. Some might be yours.

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It’s not every day that a man tells you he has $400 million to get rid of, and he needs your help to do it. That happened to me at the State Capitol Feb. 21.

The man was Dennis Milligan, the Arkansas state auditor. The $400 million is the total value of all the unclaimed properties the state is trying to return to its rightful owners through “The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt.” 

One in four Arkansans have property in the state’s possession. The auditor’s office has more than a million properties to dispense. The properties come from a variety of sources – an inheritance, a deserted bank account, a safety deposit box that somebody forgot about, etc. If a final paycheck never made it to somebody, banks are obligated to turn the money over to the auditor’s office. 

One woman got $1.4 million

“I gave a lady $1.4 million in Hot Springs the other day that her dad had left her through stocks that she didn’t even know about,” he said. “And that’s not the norm, but there’s plenty of $80, $150, $200. And again, it comes from old utility deposits. I’ve got Rolex watches. I’ve got war medals in our vault that again were taken out of safety deposit boxes and ultimately ended up in my hands.” Continue reading →

A better way to elect Supreme Court justices?

By Steve Brawner. © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansans this year are voting to fill two positions on the Arkansas Supreme Court, including the chief justice. And let’s be honest: Most voters are deciding based on limited information or by outright guessing. 

Is there a better way? Maybe. Perhaps voters should be more like jurors.

Judicial elections don’t make it easy for voters to make informed choices. Candidates don’t run with party labels. They are compelled by judicial ethics to avoid saying how they might rule in cases so as not to prejudice themselves. Instead, they are limited to using descriptive words like “conservative,” touting their backgrounds, and offering ideas about improving the justice system. It’s basically a billboard campaign. 

Moreover, this year’s candidates, as is usually the case, have not raised enough money to wage major campaigns. What money they do raise may come from lawyers and others who could have cases come before the court. Sometimes outside groups run their own independent campaigns to smear one of the candidates. Continue reading →