Now people wonder why Arkansas Democrats do so well? Well it’s quite frankly because all the state’s Republicans are utter radicals, I mean true radicals. Many Arkansas state Democrats are actually fairly standard Republicans, like State Sen. Bob Johnson, but they are not in the Republican party because it has such a radicalized base.
In Arkansas being a Republican pretty much, with occasional exceptions, means being a radical. We’ve already seen Kim Hendren, a State Senator, dismiss Schumer as that “Jew” and State Republicans defend him on the blogosphere. We’ve seen the craziness of Jim Holt and Asa Hutchinson, (Hutchinson by the way, spent most of his time as a drug Czar trying to prosecute 80 year old women in California for medicinal uses of Marijuana). They are too conservative and they have a passion for hypocrisy and bigotry like no others, I remember recently Paul Greenburg of the Democrat-Gazette criticized, yes, criticized Gay Rights opponents for listing how to contact lawmakers who supported it on a website and in the same sentence he managed to include bigotry in the form of “the traditional definition of marriage” as a legitimate reason to deny tax paying citizens equal legal rights. Such blatant reason-twisting logic is what Greenburg is famous for, famous for finding ways to criticize any liberal group while being a huge proponent and apologist for the Conservatives, he makes his God-Given goal to promote conservatism in the Gazette.
Now I would like to you all to meet the new highly touted GOP candidate, State Sen. Gilbert Baker. Sounds like they have a good candidate right? They finally found a sensible one, I mean good relations with some conservative Democrats, a good statewide profile as former Chairman of the State GOP, (and he did a wonderful job, losing all statewide offices including the two they already held, failing to pick up Senate Seats they should have picked up, and losing 7 house seats to be relegated to 26 seat minority in the 100 member AR-State House, though they have since gained one or two of those back).
But so he has more experience, he’s been in the limelight, can speak without sounding like an idiot or devolving into racial epithets, can raise money, has the connections, sounds good right? And he’s two points ahead in early polling despite being known to only 25% of the population.
Well not so good when the campaigning starts. First off he did piss off a lot of people in Republican bastion Benton County when back in 2006 he back-stabbed moderate Republican State Senator Dave Bisbee, (a frequent ally of Huckabee who was instrumental in getting compromises passed in the Senate), over what was ostensibly purity reasons. It was an interesting case where many Democrats were supporting Bisbee and a select group of Republicans came in to help get a possibly more conservative Democrat the position, with Baker leading this. In the process he cost Benton County a Co-Chair of the Budget Committee, (Bisbee had to resign), and he all around screwed them over influence wise. So yes, whatever some people may say, I know for a fact many people in Benton got pissed off permanently at Baker and Bisbee certainly will not be helping him.
Second, (things get better as I go along), the University of Central Arkansas, in his hometown of Conway, is in the midst of what has been described as the biggest scandal in state government in a decade, and while he is not in charge or involved even being connected to UCA is enough to cost a person 2-4 points in the polling right now, so toxic an issue it has become with voters.
But that’s all tame little stuff, normal political stuff, that’s pretty much what you expect to come up as a minimum when someone goes after a higher office.
This isn’t, the next issue is revolting and disturbing and it will be the key issue Lincoln should make:
Recently, Baker sent out a press release claiming the issue of women’s rights is one he takes “seriously”. However, in 2005 Gilbert Baker asked the 1st Division Faulkner County Circuit Court for “leniency and mercy” for a campaign worker of Baker’s who repeatedly beat his female victim, held a knife to her throat, smothered her until she threw up, and using a cigarette lighter burned her multiple times.
Baker testified repeatedly as a character witness to help the defendant, also an elected Republican constable. The defendant was accused of rape, and convicted of kidnapping and assault against a Faulkner County woman. According to Circuit Court documents, Baker testified twice for the man, after knowing the horrible facts of the case and even admitted the defendant had “done wrong.”
Meet Gilbert Baker, Republican Candidate for Arkansas Senate, also a Character Witness for people who violently rape women.
Please have the sense not to vote for Lincoln and let a deranged conservative in, if you live in AR.
P.S. Please vote in the poll, even if you don’t care, I use it as a counter to determine readership. Just as a courtesy even vote, so I have some proof I’m not talking to a brick wall.
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Defending someone for raping women. I don’t understand how that would be a conservative value.
In a state where Mike Huckabee is the most sensible politician, no wonder this party hasn’t gotten anywhere in this state for like the last 30 years. How about John Boozeman? Isn’t he the Congressman from Northwestern Arkansas? Is he as crazy as the rest of them?
I’m sorry but I’m not as finely tuned on Arkansas Politics as a I once was.
That part about the rapist strikes me as the kind of thing that could torpedo a statewide candidacy.
Glad to have you back, ArkDem! Your absence has been felt.
Too many have voiced concerns about AR becoming like the rest of the South in terms of R strength. What they forget, and what you showed here, is that the ARGOP is, aside from Huckabee, not viable statewide. It’s like WV. They may vote R for president but D for everything else.
Hey ArkDem,
Great post!
I think there’s an error in the sentence: “Please have the sense not to vote for Lincoln and let a deranged conservative in, if you live in AR.” I think you meant to say “Please have the sense to vote for Lincoln and NOT let a deranged conservative in, if you live in AR.”
Can you also post a link to the article in which you took the excerpt from please? I’m interested to read the rest of the story and it will come in handy while exposing this guy on other sites…
Thanks!
Having lived in NC all of my life, we love a good fight. Whether its Hunt vs. Helms, Gantt vs. Helms (act I and act II), Faircloth vs. Edwards, or Dole vs. Hagen, just about every senate race has a major bloodbath. In a lot of ways, I think Arkansas loves a good fight, too. Hell, they had Bill Clinton running for governor in 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1990, and from reading Clintons autobiography, just about every race had some major mudslinging among the candidates.
I truly hope Lincoln wins this race. We need as many Southern Democrats in congress as opposed to the radical politics of Shelby, Chambliss, Vitter, McConnell, Bunning, Burr, and DeMint. I have a strong feeling that Baker is more aligned with these men as opposed to the more reasonable Southern Republicans like Alexander and Graham. I’ve seen the results of these men, and they far outweigh the negatives of a candidate like Lincoln. Lincoln is not in any stretch of my imagination a diehard progressive, but she beats the hell out of the alternative.
My question: what is the best strategy for the Lincoln campaign?
I think the poll was pretty generic. It was almost like asking the voters whether they prefer the generic Democrat or the generic Republican.
Blanche Lincoln is trying to hang on to her seat and is in such an awkward spot. Her only saving grace is to vote for corporate America interests because they give her the money. With that she hopes she can stem the tide of dissatisfied Arkansans across the state. So far she may be facing a primary challenger and the survivor of the 12 candidates running as the Republican Candidate. They have shown their true colors, by racist comments, elitism and infighting. Not to mention a lack of funding. The winner of that race will join Lincoln, a to be named Green Party Candidate and the Independent Candidate Trevor Drown. With so many independents unhappy in Arkansas, and favoring Drown, a former Green Beret, known as a common man for the people, it will be difficult for Lincoln to spend her way back to Washington. Her only saving grace at this point is to continue to pork up on the contributions and try and spin some kind of story that she really cares for Arkansas. However, there is a point where even too much money becomes obscene and people realize she is bought and paid for. That point is rapidly approaching.
They have elected the only state legislator in recent history. In the last election, they were the only ones that provided candidates to run against all the congressional races. The GOP didn’t even put up one candidate for 5 seats. One senate and four house.
In the US Senate Race the Green Party, Rebecca Kennedy, I believe is her name got 20% of the vote against Pryor. It is not so much that there are a large number of greens. There are a large number of I will vote for anyone that is not part of the two party system. So in a four way race, Green, Democrat (Lincoln), Independent (Drown) and a Republican, it will be an interesting race. Having been to a few events and listening to Drown speak as well as knowing about his background(Green beret, Small Business Owner, Works for UPS, and an Officer in the Arkansas Air Guard), he is about identifying problems, solutions, building bridges, listening to people and trying to make their life better. He is not taking corporate donations, he has no loyalty to either party. He is a common man, who believes in making government efficient and working to make a better life for our children. I think over the next few months you will see him as someone that can make a difference.
The whole “character witness for a violent rapist” thing sounds really bad, but I would guess that most people here would serve as a character witness for a close friend or family member who was accused of a crime, no matter how heinous. After all, most of us think our friends and family are good people who would not do something like that. It sounds more like Baker is just doing what a rational person would do if a friend were accused of something like that.
That said, it will probably hurt Baker politically, since even though most Americans think that all criminal defendants deserve a fair trial, in practice a lot of them seem to think things like jury trials, constitutional protections, and that whole idea of “innocent until proven guilty” are pains in the ass that we should do away with.