Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Blank Slate in Arkansas

Mike Huckabee wasn't playing coy when he said he would not run for U.S. Senate against one term incumbent, Mark Pryor. The filing deadline has come and gone and Huckabee will not be on the ballot. In fact, no Republican will be on the ballot.

Neither the Arkansas Republican Party nor the National Republican Senatorial Committee could find a single warm body to oppose Pryor. Even if said warm body had done no campaigning whatsoever, he or she would have won votes, lots of votes, in a state that is socially conservative and that George W. Bush carried twice.

At the one extreme, if the Kentucky Demo-blogs are to believed, we see Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Chuck Schumer throwing around his weight and micro-managing the choice of which Democrat will oppose Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. Schumer, according to the Demo-blogs, showed little respect for the opinion of local Kentucky Democrats.

But in Arkansas we see the other extreme: a complete abdication of the most basic duty of the state and national party: to recruit candidates.

2 comments:

Jake said...

In all fairness, we're talking about Arkansas here. The one place scarier than our beloved Bluegrass. Ha.

Johnathan Gay said...

Sooner or later this thing will bottom out for the GOP and the can rebuild. I just hope bottom's now rather than a fillibuster proof Senate and a huge loss in Nov. to Hillary, God help us.

Look at Nixon in 74 then Reagan in 80.