The political sands in Arkansas shifted again this week.
Tim Griffin, now the state's lieutenant governor and a longtime wannabe governor, suddenly decided he'd run for attorney general instead of trying to replace Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is term-limited.
Griffin said he had been persuaded by friends and supporters that he could "do more for Arkansas in a different capacity."
Translation: He could do more in office than out of office.
Griffin is facing reality. He is term-limited as lieutenant governor and will be out of that job when the term ends in January 2023.
When Griffin announced his bid for governor early last year, he was the first candidate to get in the race. He'd even raised $1.8 million for the campaign already.
Why switch now?
Simply put, the attorney general's race is a whole lot less crowded than the one for governor has become. Plus, he has the legal credentials for attorney general and could run a formidable race for that office.
A two-term U.S. representative from the state's 2nd Congressional District, Griffin, of Little Rock, has served in the U.S. Army Reserve's Judge Advocate Corps for more than 24 years. He has also been an interim U.S. attorney and an aide to former President George W. Bush.
As of now, he's the only announced candidate for attorney general, although at least one other Republican is said to be pondering the race.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, the race for the Republican nomination for governor was also a two-person race, between Griffin and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge of Maumelle.
Then Sarah Sanders announced her long-expected bid for the office once held by her dad, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Sanders is a former White House press secretary who has been endorsed by her old boss, former President Donald Trump, who twice carried Arkansas in presidential elections.
Notably, Sanders, of Little Rock, raised more than $1 million for her gubernatorial campaign in just four days, reinforcing the notion that she starts as the front-runner in her first bid for office.
The only Democrat to announce is James "Rus" Russell of Little Rock. He runs an outpatient mental health clinic there.
State Sen. Jim Hendren of Gravette, another Republican, is also considering a run for governor. He has been encouraged to run as an independent, if he gets in. For now, he's only saying that he has some decisions to make soon.
For the record, Rutledge has said she will stay in the governor's race, despite speculation she might run instead for lieutenant governor.
After working a full-time job with a staff of 180 people, she said she'd "be bored with a part-time job and a staff of two."
It's a distinction she made between her job and Griffin's when the lieutenant governor was still in the governor's race.
In the race to come, expect Rutledge to pit that experience from her two terms as Arkansas attorney general against Sanders' service as the chief spokesperson for the Trump administration and years as a political operative, first for her father and later for other candidates.
Rutledge has also raised something north of $1.7 million for her campaign, although she did it much more slowly than Sanders got her first $1 million.
There's no telling how much money this race for governor will attract, given the state and national connections for both of these women.
For the time being at least, it looks to be a pricey two-woman contest for the Republican nomination. The winner -- Sanders or Rutledge -- could well be Arkansas' first woman governor.
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Not since 2002 has a woman candidate even made a serious bid for governor of Arkansas.
Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher challenged then-Gov. Huckabee, as he sought re-election.
Republican Huckabee won with 53 percent of the vote to Fisher's 47.9 percent.
Coincidentally, it was the first year that Arkansas' term limits law went into effect.
Fisher, who had been Arkansas' longest serving state treasurer (24 years), couldn't run for re-election and was persuaded to make the bid for governor.
Since then, numerous state officeholders have sought different state offices when their terms were limited to a maximum of eight years in any given statewide office.
Griffin and Rutledge are just the most recent to try to win a second executive office in Arkansas.
Brenda Blagg is a freelance columnist and longtime journalist in Northwest Arkansas. Email her at [email protected].