IT’S WHOLLY a pleasure to note that Bill Halter has backed out of still another political race. It always is. It improves the field.
How many campaigns for statewide office has our former lieutenant governor and perpetual candidate abandoned by now? He ran and didn’t run for governor against Mike Beebe back in 2006. And in January of this year, he entered the current race for governor with indecent haste on the day a shamed Dustin McDaniel, who’s still attorney general, quit after an embarrassing personal scandal. And now he’s bowed to Mike Ross’ blue-dog Democrat appeal and fundraising prowess, taking his leftward (for Arkansas) slant and gubernatorial campaign with him.
Maybe he’ll wind up running against Tim Griffin, the congressman from the Second District, in next year’s political contests, maybe he won’t, or maybe, as with the governor’s race, he’ll do both. The man just can’t seem to help himself when it comes to (a) jumping into political races, and (b) jumping out of them. Which is much the happier occasion.
Bill Halter is on his way to becoming Arkansas’ own version of Strange Harold Stassen, the habitual presidential candidate who couldn’t seem to let a quadrennium pass without declaring his availability-even if nobody else was much interested in taking advantage of it.
The running total of Mr. Stassen’s presidential campaigns stood at 10 by our last estimate, including 1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992. He was dependable as the calendar. There is just something about preening ambition that never lets up. Unfortunately, once in a campaign, Mr. Stassen stayed in. At least Bill Halter leaves. Thank goodness for that.
Do you think there’s such a classification as addictive campaigning in the DSM? (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association, which seems to have its own problems making up its mind, specifically about what’s a mental disorder and what ain’t.) If there is such an addiction, Bill Halter could provide an interesting case study.
As he leaves still another political race, it’s a pity Bill Halter can’t take his favorite get-rich-quick scheme with him-the Arkansas Lottery, which is rapidly replacing the diminishing sales tax on groceries as The Shame of Arkansas.
The state’s scandal-pocked lottery remains a constant reminder of how a politician who claims he wants to help the underdog can father a voluntary, regressive tax on the poor and ignorant, not to say desperate. When not done under cover of law, it’s called a numbers racket. And this, Bill Halter claims, is how to lift up society. Even as the lottery degrades it every day all across the state.
But let us thank Mr. Halter for providing a bit of good news on Tuesday’s front page. The only drawback is that, in order for Bill Halter to leave a race, he’s got to enter one first.
But his departure from a campaign is always welcome. Let us wish him and the state many happy returns. No political race is the worse for his leaving it.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 07/31/2013