Greg Hale: Not Running for Congress

Today, I visited with Greg Hale, business owner/political consultant and potential candidate for the Fourth Congressional District. Hale’s name had surfaced recently as a potential candidate for Congress in the past few weeks.

Greg Hale told me today he decided against running in 2012. Hale says “it was not the right time for my family.”

Hale looked very closely at the Fourth Congressional District and visited with various leaders in Arkansas about a potential run. Hale’s connections to Bill and Hillary Clinton and his own extensive contacts means he would have been able to raise the funds needed to compete.

In the end, family concerns of actually serving as a Congressman kept Hale from making the race.  Hale and his wife, Mica Strother, are raising a 9-year old son and the prospects of getting on a plane to travel back and forth from D.C. to Arkansas every week did not sound appealing to someone with a young family.

“I had hoped to continue the leadership of Congressman Mike Ross, who always put the needs and interests of South Arkansas first and was willing to work with people on both sides of the aisles to make the Fourth Congressional District a better place.  Unfortunately, it is not the right time for my family for me to make a run for Congress,” said Hale.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve worked with Hale on various projects over the years, and I believe he would have made a great candidate and an even better Congressman. I am sad to see he couldn’t make the run.   Unfortunately, the timing for Hale was just not right this year, but who knows what the future has in store.