Let's take this opportunity to get a little behind the headlines of the two big Arkansas political races.
Smoke signals
Campaigns are not permitted to coordinate money-spending with rich and stealthy outside groups.
I refer to advocacy organizations unleashed by the Citizens United ruling. They support candidates with unregulated orgies of obscene spending, often with money from undisclosed sources. Emboldened by secrecy and relieved of accountability, they spread irresponsible messages via your television sets.
So a term has arisen in this context. It's a familiar term with a modern re-application. The term is "smoke signal." A "smoke signal" is a message that a campaign sends as if into the ether. Anyone who happens along can see it. But it's really intended as a specific call for help from able and willing rescuers, meaning outside groups.
It's not coordinating. It's just blown smoke. You see.
For example: Months ago, the Mark Pryor campaign put up a little ancillary website that one could find only by the happenstance of a Google search or if one knew to look for it. The site mentioned that Tom Cotton had worked in the insurance industry. It accused him of wanting to privatize Medicare to help this insurance industry.
It was a false charge. Cotton once worked as a management consultant on a mortgage-insurance matter. That was all. He wants to privatize Medicare because the Club for Growth and the Koch brothers want him to do that--and because he is an extreme right-winger in his own right.
So along came Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's super-PAC. It made a big buy for a commercial charging Cotton falsely with having worked for insurance "companies." It alleged that Cotton wanted to ruin old folks' Medicare to put them into the private insurance market, thereby returning the favor of past employment to insurance "companies."
A smoke signal was sent. The intended rescuer saw it. The rescuer delivered with all due hyperbole and ignobility.
Another example: Cotton now reels from having voted against the Arkansas Children's Hospital. So his campaign has produced an ad trying to counter-punch. The ad faults Pryor for voting for sequestration cuts that extended to children's hospitals. That's unfair, of course. Sequestration was the only way to avoid the fiscal cliff, you'll recall.
But the commercial has not appeared much if at all on television. It has mostly been shown online.
It might be intended as a smoke signal to the Club for Growth or the Kochs or Republican groups. The message could be that Cotton needs help on this Children's Hospital thing. The message could be a cue for those outsiders to spend money for local TV accusing Pryor, most unfairly, of having harmed Children's Hospital.
More money than time
A leading Democrat was saying a couple of weeks ago that optimum and lowest-cost television air time could run short in October owing to the massive spending in the U.S. Senate race.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross must have shared that concern. His latest campaign-finance report shows that he has now taken $1.1 million of the $1.5 million he had in cash on-hand--previously an advantage he enjoyed over Asa Hutchinson--and locked down choice commercial time for the late stages of the race.
Ross' money-raising advantage--he's raised $5 million to Hutchinson's $3 million--is now all-in for the televised stretch run.
Hutchinson has more cash now--about $820,000 to about $350,000 for Ross.
By the way, Hutchinson tweeted a photo of himself Sunday attending an African American church service in East Arkansas. He's making a rare Republican play for black votes, which Ross can't win without.
Debates are settled
The Pryor campaign considers the issue of debates settled. It intends to show up for debates sponsored by AETN and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, but no others.
Cotton wanted more debates and he wanted them freewheeling. He agreed to everything offered except, of course, the two to which Pryor agreed.
Some negotiating apparently continues on the format of the Fayetteville debate. Pryor apparently didn't like a commercial station's proposal to tout an online spin-room session after the debate in which campaign spokesmen and pundits would argue about who won.
Softer Cotton
One of Cotton's problems in the Senate race has been ... well, how shall I put it?
People thought he was ... well, how shall I put it?
Not engaging, I guess.
People thought his sudden announcement of having married noted young conservative Anna Peckham was ... well, how shall I put it? Timed in a way as to be susceptible to suspicions of political purposes. Is that a fair way to phrase some of the reaction?
Probably not to Tom and Anna.
Anyway, it has become obvious that the Cotton campaign is determined to soften the candidate's image and highlight the relationship of the bright young conservative newlyweds.
Cotton embarked on a bus tour and Anna joined him. A video crew has come along for part of the journey. I predict we'll see happy images in optimally placed television advertising.
For that matter: I used my smartphone to take a picture of the couple in a nice personal moment after they finished the Hope Watermelon Festival 5K. I posted the photo to social media.
The newlywed Cottons are welcome to use the shot at no charge so long as they credit their favorite newspaper columnist.
So now they'll probably use the photo in an ad and credit Thomas Sowell or Charles Krauthammer.
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John Brummett's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at brummett.arkansasonline.com, or his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.
Editorial on 08/19/2014