Before I tell you that the state Democratic establishment is coalescing around Mike Ross’ gubernatorial bid, I probably should explain what the Democratic establishment is.
These are people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have been active in the state party for decades.
They’ve sought office, managed campaigns, made political donations, been appointed by Democratic governors to boards and commissions, and believed largely in the correctness of left-of-center Democrats but perhaps more passionately in the wrongness of right-wing Republicans.
They admired Dale Bumpers, adored David Pryor and embraced Bill Clinton like a brother who sometimes disappointed them.
They curse Mark Pryor, but will vote for him.
They extol the governing skills of Mike Beebe, deeming those skills perhaps the keenest among all modern-day Democrats. But they wish Beebe had done a better job saving or reconstructing the party.
This Democratic establishment’s strength is in its collective experience, energy, expertise and economic impetus.
Its weakness is that sometimes it can get out of sync with voters.
Bill Halter will remind you that Clark Hall did not win the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 1st District last year, though the establishment backed him. He will say the same thing about Monty Davenport’s bid for land commissioner.
The most notable example came in the mid-1990s. This Democratic establishment was pretty much locked down for Mark Stodola for Congress from the 2nd District. It was a tad late on the uptake that people were crazy for Vic Snyder.
Bill Halter hopes he’s Vic Snyder.
The establishment people don’t think he is at all. They scoff, in fact.
Five things are at work:
1. These establishment people simply don’t like Halter.
I could go into that, but why? Either you like someone or you don’t. The voters will have the final say on that.
2. Even if they liked Halter, these establishment people don’t think he would stand a prayer in a general election after running to the left in the primary.
3. What they want more than any victory for any Democrat is yet another rejection of Asa Hutchinson. They’re desperate to escape the full reddening of Arkansas that Hutchinson’s gubernatorial election would embed.
4. They think Mike Ross is the best vehicle for that — perhaps the last best chance.
It’s because he is an old Clinton apprentice and consummate politician. He can raise money, appeal to independents, work the summer festivals and adjust himself fluidly along the philosophical spectrum, from right to center-right, to center to, most lately, center-left.
5. Perhaps most important of all is that Ross, while not as eloquent or charming or policy-brilliant as the leading Democrats who have come before him, might actually be a better party-builder than any of them, certainly better than Beebe.
When he met with a gaggle of these establishmentarians recently, Ross impressed the group most deeply when he said: Look, I’m going to go into targeted legislative districts to try to bring a few Democratic House victories along with me so that we can regain the majority and maybe actually sustain a veto.
That’s music to the Democratic establishment’s ear.
It matters not a whit that Ross has been all over most of the map on abortion.
Republican assaults on him as a flip-flopper actually help him with this Democratic establishment, so long as he has flipped and flopped in the right direction lately.
What counts is where he is now, which, he is anxious to explain, is the same place Mike Beebe is.
What really matters, as someone put it the other night, is that Ross could be heard recently in the background of a phone conversation as he was trying to talk somebody out of a campaign contribution.
Right now the game is to raise money and Ross is perfectly willing to spend a few months with a phone to his ear.
They tell me that anybody who was anybody in the state Democratic stratosphere was at a fundraiser for Ross recently at the North Little Rock home of Vince Insalaco.
Yeah, sure, everyone was there except the voters, Halter would say.
P.S. — From time to time this Democratic establishment gets to thinking, or hoping, that Halter will withdraw from the governor’s race after Ross produces a big fundraising number. I don’t think so.
But I know this: This Democratic establishment would start disliking Halter a lot less if he bothered Tim Griffin’s congressional re-election instead.
John Brummett’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. E-mail him at [email protected]. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.