Keith Ingram for Governor? Hmm…

The race for the Democratic nomination for Governor is wide open, which means politicians are starting to float trial balloons for their potential candidacies.

The latest to publicly float the proverbial trial balloon is State Senator Keith Ingram (D-West Memphis). Ingram told the Associated Press yesterday he’s considering running, but won’t make the final decision until after the legislative session.

Since Arkansas is a small state, it should not surprise one to learn that there is a bit of history between Ingram and former Lt. Governor Bill Halter, currently the only announced Democratic candidate for Governor.

Here’s the fun story.

Back in early 2010, Ingram was a State Representative and a supporter of then-U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln. Ingram was apparently looking for a way to embarrass/harass then-Lt. Governor Halter who was at the time considering a run against Lincoln, but had not yet announced.

Ingram’s scheme to harass Halter was to attempt to cut the Lt. Governor’s official budget by roughly 66%, meaning almost all of the staff would have lost their jobs. Ingram’s laughable cover story was that he wanted to divert the money to help fund redistricting costs. No one believed that story and his motivations were well-known around the State Capitol at the time.

Ingram’s budget-cutting amendment was defeated by the Joint Budget Committee’s personnel subcommittee and the Lt. Governor kept his budget and staff. For the record, I was Halter’s chief of staff at the time and had to handle the hassles Ingram created.

In this affair, Ingram’s actions were petty, mean-spirited and it was unbecoming of an elected official to waste taxpayer’s time and money to score political points. Let’s not forget that some hard-working people would have lost their jobs if Ingram had been successful.

And in hindsight, I’ve got to admit it’s kinda funny.

Oddly enough, Ingram’s scheme ultimately backfired since it added to Halter’s big picture narrative of being a political outsider which was helpful as he challenged a political insider for the U.S. Senate nomination. Of course, in the end, not helpful enough.

None of this has any affect on the dynamics of a potential governor’s race, but it’s still to fun to recount tales of Arkansas politics.