The state Republican Party is at the goal line of state government dominance.
They control the state Senate. They have a bare majority in the House where they scare enough conservative Democratic members to get by. All they need to cross the goal is a governor.
Democrats will spend millions of dollars to stop this. That’s no surprise.
The big surprise - the shock, in fact - is Republicans aren’t willing to spend millions to get into the end zone. Even savvy contributors aren’t hedging their bets by contributing more to the new majority party’s governor’s candidates.
That’s the real issue raised by Democrat Mike Ross’ fundraising. Ross amassed a staggering $2 million in three months for his governor’s campaign. His opponents, Democratic and Republican, came nowhere close. Anybody who thinks Ross did this just to scare his primary opponent, Bill Halter, is kidding himself.
Asa Hutchinson, the likely GOP nominee, raised what should have been an ample amount of money.
Ross sailed past that and then practically doubled Gov. Mike Beebe’s prior fundraising record - a record that was considered huge at the time.
This is a high-stakes race. Only one side seems to realize it. If the business community truly backed the Republican Party here, Hutchinson would have done better by just answering the phone in his off ce.
If the GOP is expecting out-of-state billionaire money to make up the gap later, they’re making a huge mistake. Nobody should care more about getting Arkansas Republicans across the goal line than Arkansas Republicans.
Ross made the usual comments about wide-based support. Those remarks, though, are glaringly true.
Ross’ report can be found by searching the link at the Arkansas Secretary of State’s off ce, www.sos.arkansas.
gov/fi ling_search/index.
php/fi ling/search/new. The donations in the report are listed by date. The fi rst pages list donors from the places you’d expect a former 4th District congressman to find money: Little Rock, then Nashville, Mount Ida, Hope, Magnolia and so forth.
By mid-May, there’s a whole page of donors from Little Rock. There’s also some names from Fayetteville, Rogers and other places closer to home, but they’re the usual loyal local Democrats. By the end of May, though, a whole page of Fayetteville and other Northwest Arkansas donors show up.
I’m sure both the Little Rock and Fayetteville pages come from fundraisers held in those places. They both succeeded in raking in thecash. The real measure of their success, though, shows in the rest of the pages through June. Ross’s contributors come from everywhere. Look at the last day of that month, June 30. You’ll fi nd contributors from Pleasant Plains, Hope, Springdale, Pine Bluft , Siloam Springs, Dumas, Bentonville, El Dorado, Fort Smith, Sherwood, Morrilton and other places.
What you won’t fi nd is just a few big money donors. Pundit Michael Cook contends big business is still waiting to see a likely winner emerge. I think it’s closer to the truth business is waiting to make sure Ross doesn’t stumble.
The state’s business community heavily supported Beebe, a Democrat, in the last two governor’s races. Now - at best - it’s adopted a “wait-and-see” attitude.
You don’t have to wait and see, however, to know one major party made huge gains and is on the verge of consolidating its control.
The other is not.
When the director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, with its close business ties, publicly supports striking down laws that prohibit same-sex marriage, business interests are clearly not in the Republican Party’s camp.
The Arkansas business establishment, apparently,would rather have a Blue Dog Democrat with budget sense and a deep aversion to controversy for governor than a Republican who is strong on social issues and promises some tax cuts.
Business would rather have a governor like Beebe who runs a good shop and holds down taxes than a Republican who, like former Gov. MikeHuckabee, was right on the social issues, talked a great game on taxes - and then had to pass a huge sales tax increase to fi x school problems.
Beebe’s so popular he’s bipartisan. Ross isn’t. Ross can only win by rebuilding the state Democratic Party.
If Ross wins, he’ll do more to revitalize and restore the state Democratic Party thanBeebe ever did.
Arkansas Republicans have gone as far as guns, abortion and Obama frustration will take them. They clearly have to fi ght the rest of the way. They appear to have lost their momentum.
DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.
Opinion, Pages 12 on 07/21/2013