On Election Day I caught a woman taking up Asa! signs from in front of the polling place (a church) at the corner of Club Manor and Odom-South, in Maumelle. She kept saying that it wasn’t fair to have only Asa! signs there. When I told her to stop, she started saying that it was illegal to have them there. The pastor of the church eventually was brought forth, and he said that the church owned the property to the curb and did not allow signs on its property. The police were called but did little. The woman was not arrested. I called RPA, but to date have not had a response.
I spoke today with Clint Reed (RPA Director, or some such); he didn’t seem to know if it was illegal for unauthorized persons to remove signs or not. The woman did not own the property; she did not work for the city (her admission); she was not employed by the AHTD. So my question is… is it OK to remove campaign signs if they offend you? Or is it just OK to remove Republican signs? The party seems to have a position on defending elections, but does it have a position on defending its campaigners?
- Nov.06
Thanks to the encouragement of my thousands of readers I hereby put down my thoughts on the recent election: The Democrats won. They won nationally because of several factors. 1) The constant repetition of “Bush lied; there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; 2) The Republicans were immoral and corrupt; 3) The Republicans refused to do anything about sealing off our southern border; 4) The Republicans refused to live up to their promises of ‘fixing’ things. In other words, if the Republicans are going to behave like Democrats, we might as well have Democrats.
State wide, the Republicans lost because 1) the Republicans lost nationally [the Democrats really got out the vote]’ 2) the Ark. Democrat-Gazette would endorse the Devil over a candidate that spoke out against their beloved immigration; and 3) the State tends to vote Democratic.
The District 2 race for Congress pitted a 90 pound weakling against an 800 pound gorilla.
‘Nough said.
Locally, see above. However, where for the most part the State-wide candidates were pretty strong, the local candidates [what there were of them] were weak. I, of course, was/am a really strong, good candidate [not that anyone noticed or cared]. But the two county-wide candidates were really not qualified for the jobs they were running for, and were apparently woefully under-funded. Ed Garner and Allen Kerr both ran good races,willing to spend time and money on gaining office. [Voters like to believe you really want the office and that you will do a great job representing them.] Ed won; Allen is in a run-off. Chad Green also ran a good race with strong support from family. In his case, it was a win / win situation: he’s also an attorney, so he gets some public notice and ‘free’ publicity.
Most of the county offices had no opponent. Most of the JP offices had no opponent. The Green Party had a candidate [of some sort] for every state-wide office.
Both Buddy York and Dewayne Graham got about 30% of the vote; so they got about 10% more than if they were dead. Dewayne ran for an open position; Buddy against an incumbent. I suspect there is a residual hostility toward the current party-in-power here locally, but without good, strong candidates we’ll never know.
My race was interesting because, to the best of my knowledge my opponent did no campaigning. He had the advantage of being the incumbent, and of running as a Democrat. So if you shake hands, put out signs, etc. and are not dead, you can get 40% against an opponent that is essentially dead.
My solution is to dissolve the Republican Party here in Pulaski County; everyone run as a Democrat; get the election business over with in the Spring, then sit back and watch everyone else scramble in the Fall while we enjoy the weather outdoors.
So, condolences to Dan and Ed for being elected to the Ledge. Annex Mexico! JYD
