Ellington Promises To Fight Hard To Catch Up To Crawford
by June 7, 2012 10:19 pm 66 views
The runoff is in the closing days and while they have been relatively quiet, the candidates have begun making their closing pitches.
Scott Ellington – who has become the frontrunner in the First District Congressional runoff – has repeated a odd closing argument in the last few appearances.
On Tuesday, in his 25 minute mini-debate on KARK with his Democratic runoff opponent, State Rep. Clark Hall, Ellington opened by saying – “I am going to Washington D.C. to fight for and elbow my way to the front of the line so that we can get on the Ag Committee to try to get a Farm Bill passed for the people here in this district.”
He repeated this again in an interview on Thursday with Fox 16 saying – “One of the things that I would seek to do is go to Washington D.C. and fight my way to the front of the line to get on the Ag Committee and get a Farm Bill passed and also stand up for the working men and women of this country.”
Certainly agriculture is an important
issue to the east Arkansas First Congressional District. So why is this odd?
It's because the Republican incumbent and general election opponent Congressman Rick Crawford is already a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, where he serves on the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit, Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, and Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture.
If Crawford is re-elected, it is guaranteed he will remain on the Ag Committee. No elbowing his way to the front of the line. No cutting deals with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as Ellington would most certainly have to do. Crawford is already a member. In fact, he has a pretty good shot at chairing one of the subcommittees he sits on.
So Ellington's closing argument to seal the deal is basically he will fight hard to try his best to catch up to where Congressman Crawford already is. That is pretty weak. Ellington is likely to be the nominee. If that is the best he has, he is in trouble.