OPINION

OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: The loyal opposition

This will be the second column in this space in barely a month on the subject of the Arkansas Democratic Party.

That's two more columns than the subject deserves, considering its near-extinction in all areas of the state except Little Rock, Fayetteville, Pine Bluff and a little of the Delta.

But that was a rather compelling story in that first column about the chairman, Grant Tennille, a bright social liberal and business moderate who headed economic development for Mike Beebe.

He had answered the call from the golfing former governor to do the arduous and temporarily unpaid job of chairing a near-extinct party that was basically bankrupt.

Toiling alone in party headquarters for months, fixing the commodes himself, Tennille had kept phone to ear begging for money.

I recall phoning the headquarters and asking the person answering if I could speak with Tennille and hearing Tennille say I was already talking with him. I told him I wanted to ask for the record about the idea that Democrats might do themselves and the state more good voting for moderate alternatives in Republican primaries.

He sighed and asked if he could have a couple of minutes to formulate his thoughts.

Imagine that work life. You're alone in a suite of offices where once there was bustle. You, not long ago a key figure in luring new steel industry to northeast Arkansas, had just repaired a toilet. You answer the phone only because you aren't at that moment on the other line begging for money. And the call is from a newspaper guy wanting you to give him a quote on the utter futility of all that you're doing.

In time Tennille raised enough money to make the party solvent and able to hire a couple of people, though not to pay him.

He was tired and it was an appropriate time to hand off the job and decompress.

Then, last week, Tennille issued a statement that departed Democratic state Sens. Joyce Elliott and Keith Ingram had talked him into reversing himself and entering his name Saturday for re-election as party chairman.

So now I probably ought to do a follow-up column about the reconsideration, especially with the strong likelihood if not outright certainty that Tennille will win re-election this weekend.

Tennille told me Monday that Elliott had popped into party headquarters at 5:15 p.m. a few days before, peeked into his office and proclaimed herself very disappointed. He asked: About what?

She said, "That you're still here. This is what we talked about. You need to go home right now."

Elliott and Ingram had said to Tennille that the party still needed his unique skills, but that they understood his exhaustion--and his exhausting work ethic--and could assure him things would be different now that a staff was in place.

They also assured him they'd have his back.

Tennille talks rather openly about his behavioral disorder. He's hyper-intense and can't let things go. He said it was not unusual for him to lie awake until 4:30 a.m. as his mind raced through the tasks he needed to attend to.

And that was particularly true of being a one-man staff singularly seeking to salvage a comatose political party.

It's not healthy to live a cycle of hyper-intensity and exhaustion. It's a recipe for a crash. Elliott and Ingram implored Tennille to delegate and let the staff members he'd hired do their jobs. And to be gone himself by 5:15 p.m.

So Tennille talked to his wife, Rebecca. She said she was surprised he hadn't come to her about reconsidering already. She stipulated only that, at some point, Tennille should insist on being paid something. He told me he needs to hire a couple more people--an organizer in south Arkansas for one--before he could justify putting himself on the payroll.

For the moment, Tennille, if re-elected, will serve essentially as both the chairman and the executive secretary. That would be two normally well-paying gigs for free, for a while. The modest goal would be to do better next time than a mere third of the vote.

It's called the loyal opposition. Such a thing is important, particularly against the mean-spirited morphing of Trumpism and DeSantism that has taken over the state to erode public education and diminish sensitivities to teachers, gays, lesbians and transgender persons--not to mention the more generally beleaguered for the sin of seeing issues moderately and compromisingly in near-extinction as Arkansas Democrats.

One person can't provide all the loyal opposition. Surely that will be the theme of Saturday's meeting when Tennille stands for near-certain re-election.


John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at [email protected]. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.



Upcoming Events