Miss Ada said it could be like this

The discussion of how Arkansas Republicans swept the 2014 election cycle will be woefully incomplete if not wholly inaccurate if it does not include in the opening paragraph this name: Miss Ada Mills.

To be sure, there has been and will be much analysis, conjecture, knee-jerking, Lord-thanking, derision, petulance, panic and posturing related to this historically remarkable Republican sweep of Arkansas’ political leadership. It’s possible that “historically remarkable” does not do justice to what happened Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. With a minimal but acceptable risk of hyperbole, I submit that the 2014 election is one of the top five events in Arkansas’ political history.

In analogous terms, connecting her to the GOP sweep of 2014, Miss Ada is the person who paid for Lindbergh’s first flying lesson; bought the first guitar for that little Presley boy; pushed Sam to pursue his unique ideas about retail. Her money and moxie kept the party afloat when the number of Arkansas Republicans in government couldn’t have fielded a softball team.

Ada Mills, and her husband Joe, ran several successful businesses – oil, lumber, packaging – from their Johnson County headquarters. She was Texas Gov. John Connally’s million-dollar delegate when he ran for President. She was the small business person of the year in 1973 for the U.S. Small Business Administration. The stunning and long bridge spanning the Arkansas River and connecting Johnson and Logan counties would not have happened without her incessant lobbying. It’s now called the Ada Mills Bridge.

Miss Ada, as we affectionally called her, died in 2001 at the age of 89. In a news obit I wrote at the time, it was noted that her life was “89 years of fight, fury, genius, generosity and a never-give-up and never-let-go determination.” Rex Nelson, who in 2001 was a spokesman for Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, said she was an “icon” in Arkansas political history and “was Republican when Republican wasn’t cool.”

In addition to my brilliant selection of parents, I had the fortune to observe and work with Miss Ada during my formative years. It was the early 1980s and Republican Frank White was challenging a popular young Democratic Gov. Bill Clinton. I had the chance to observe her work – work that included campaign meetings with Mr. White, her swinging hammers to place yard signs, bussing tables after a political event. She was crafting high-level strategy one second and washing dishes the next. It was a great lesson in the combination of passion and work ethic.

In that 2001 news obit I also noted that Miss Ada could be “stubborn and sweet in the same moment; a harsh critic and harmonious compromiser in the same meeting.” She seemed to never understand the concept of adversity, with obstacles merely providing her new options and new opportunities.

She is largely responsible for the growth and success of Arkansas’ Republican Party, but such dominance may not have been her single goal. I remain convinced today that Miss Ada’s passion was focused on providing choice in Arkansas politics.

Miss Ada knew that, as in business, competition was good for politics. It might be the case that Miss Ada agreed with George Bernard Shaw’s assertion that, “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” Rich or poor, right or left, black or white, it didn’t matter. Miss Ada wanted more people involved in the system.

I’m not one of those who admit to great joy in Tuesday’s election results. The libertarian in me certainly hopes the night is a move toward a smaller government that doesn’t abandon critical social safety-net programs, but I fear a potential state and national hijacking by those who would replace big government liberal policies with big government conservative policies.

Miss Ada would have been nonplussed by my concern with the GOP sweep. Several years after college graduation I admitted to Miss Ada of voting for a few Democrats during a recent election. Expected from her was a stern rebuke. Instead, she quickly retorted, “Well, you had a choice, didn’t you?”

Brilliant. Indeed, I did have a choice, thanks in no small part to her decades of encouraging as many people as possible around the state to get involved.

She often said we get the election results we deserve, and that if we want something different, we have to make it happen and not wait for anyone else to do it for us. She had little patience for political cynicism. To her, anything in politics was possible. To her, politics was simply a function of time and pressure. That’s how that bridge got built.

President Obama’s policies may have had a large part in driving Arkansas voters toward Republican candidates, but the Republican Party had to be positioned to take advantage of that advantage.

Depending on your political perspective, a big part of the credit or blame for Arkansas Republicans being advantageously positioned rests at the feet of a little lady with big black rimmed glasses who worked hard so there might be political choice on your Tuesday ballot.