Building Reputation That Lasts (Jeff Hankins Commentary)

A few weeks ago I wrote that this would be a fairly predictable election, and that generally held true except for the fact that I couldn’t imagine how decisive the outcomes would be.
And how about charitable bingo and raffles getting 70 percent approval in a Bible Belt state? So much for concerns about the “slippery slope” to more gambling. Even that bastion of social conservatism, Benton County, gave it 70 percent approval, for crying out loud.
Gov.-elect Mike Beebe wasted no time in announcing his transition team and spending quality time with legislators in Little Rock for budget hearings. I can’t imagine we have ever had a new governor with more immediate knowledge about the inner workings of state government, but transitioning to management from the governor’s chair still has to present a learning curve.
Former state Sen. Morril Harriman, a longtime Beebe friend and most recently head of the Arkansas Poultry Federation, was the logical and obvious choice for the governor-elect’s chief of staff. They will be a powerful, politically savvy combination.
Business leaders seem really comfortable with Beebe because he’s a known quantity from his 20 years as a state senator. An amazing number of executives in conservative Northwest Arkansas didn’t hesitate to jump on the Beebe bandwagon early.
The Democrats in Arkansas will have complete control of both the executive branch and the Legislature again for the first time in 10 years. There won’t be any excuses of a Republican governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature not being able to work together. The pressure is on to move the state forward.
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Here are some final thoughts and observations after looking at the election numbers:
The weekend before the election, tracking polls showed the race between Beebe and Republican Asa Hutchinson tightening. Either it wasn’t really happening or President Bush’s appearance with Hutchinson in Northwest Arkansas actually hurt him. Beebe captured the undecideds, independents and African-American voters.
Hutchinson received just 51 percent of the vote in his home Fort Smith and Sebastian County, which is GOP territory. Attorney general candidate Gunner DeLay, also from Fort Smith, didn’t win his home turf by much either. Beebe got 55 percent back home in White County, which is strong Republican territory.
Hutchinson commanded just a 9,000-vote margin in Benton County. Beebe made up for that with a 10,000-vote win in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County.
Saline County narrowly went for Hutchinson for governor, but chose Democrats Bill Halter for lieutenant governor and Dustin McDaniel for attorney general.
It was a big night for Jason Willett, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. His stock and clout with the party just went through the roof. Meanwhile, the GOP will have to clean house and start over. Who will take the lead?
The nearly 70 percent victory for the higher education capital improvement bond issue showed that its pairing with a highway bond program last year was a big mistake. Washington and Craighead counties, which were criticized for not supporting the measure in the last go-around, said yes with votes of 69 percent and 66 percent respectively. Pulaski County gave it 73 percent.
So much for the lieutenant governor’s race being the closest. Halter blew away Republican Jim Holt as if he were an incumbent. Holt didn’t even get the 44 percent that he took against U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln two years ago.
I’m told prominent Republicans are already making plans to regroup and overhaul the direction of the party, with more emphasis on fiscal issues instead of social issues. The GOP needs candidates in the mold of Mike Huckabee and the late Win Paul Rockefeller — not the Holts and DeLays. The Republicans can’t win in Arkansas on the basis of federal issues like abortion and illegal immigration.
Mark Stodola’s win in the Little Rock mayor’s race without a runoff is an amazing feat in a four-person field. He was really able to capitalize on his longtime ties to the Democratic Party, and his background as a prosecutor made him an attractive candidate to take on the city’s dismal crime record.
(Jeff Hankins can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], and his blog commentary is at www.arkansasbusiness.com/jeff.)