Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Arkansas Politics Elliott campaigns in shadows
Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 1:05 PM
- MY PICK: Clinton with Lincoln Wednesday evening.
Former President Bill Clinton is in town today, as you know, for a string of money-raising events for Democratic candidates — Joyce Elliott (2nd District Congress), Carolyn Y. Staley (state rep.), Chad Causey (1st Dist. Congress) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
Elliott's campaign, which has been virtually invisible, is closing every bit of the Clinton event to the media. The wisdom of this secrecy escapes me. We can argue about Bill Clinton's continuing voter pull in Arkansas, but I don't think it's arguable that it's better to be photographed with the Big Dog than to let your opponent define you by hanging Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi around your neck at every opportunity.
(Lincoln's event is open, by contrast.)
UPDATE: Clinton stopped to chat with a few reporters gathered outside Elliott's event at the Copper Grill. Jason Tolbert grabbed a good film clip. Clinton's remarks would do well to be passed around to other Democrats — emphasizing positive impacts of stimulus; better financial oversight; better student loan procedures; more control of health insurance companies. He emphasized Sen. Lincoln's importance as Ag chairman and gave her and Elliott ringing endorsements. Elliott has a record of doing things; Tim Griffin has a record of "ethical problems" and wants to go back and "do things that got us in trouble in the first place." Voter "anger, apathy and amnesia" require Dems to "get out and tell our side of the story."
Democratic Party ads a throw-down on Griffin and others in the following news release:
Don’t Let the Republicans Hide the Truth About Their Candidates
This election cycle is turning out to be like many others here in Arkansas. The Republicans are running out their tired old diversionary tactics in a desperate attempt to hide the radical agenda and poor qualifications of their candidates.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas has released a short video illustrating a few of the shortcomings of the candidates that the Republican Party of Arkansas is so proud of.
Two prime examples of the radical right wing agenda of the Republican candidates this fall can be found in the proposals of Republican Congressman John Boozman.
John Boozman supports raising taxes on the vast majority of Arkansans. Radical Republican John Boozman wishes to implement a 23% national sales tax on everything you buy. His claim is that by eliminating income taxes and implementing a 23% national sales tax that people would pay less taxes. The non-partisan and reputable organization FactCheck.org has debunked this claim as false. In fact, the law Boozman co-sponsored would raise taxes on the vast majority of Arkansans while drastically cutting taxes for the wealthy.
John Boozman supports privatizing Social Security. Republican John Boozman wants to run from his record of supporting violent changes to our Social Security system. Boozman supports seriously jeopardizing the security and stability of our Seniors Social Security by throwing money intended for the Social Security retirement fund upon the mercy of a dangerously volatile stock market. Boozman said, “The future of Social Security is dependent on creating a vehicle for private investment…. I believe we must implement President Bush’s proposal to provide younger workers with the opportunity to invest part of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts.” [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 9/2/01]
Republican nominee Rick Crawford in the First Congressional District would like to have government run like a business. Despite basing his entire campaign around the tenets of fiscal responsibility, Rick Crawford has led a life of financial recklessness and walked away from thousands of dollars of debt. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has compared Rick Crawford’s relationship to the truth to that of Richard Nixon and encouraged him to, “level with his constituents about his finances-in full and from the start.” It is clear from Rick Crawford’s failure to be forthcoming about his financial history that Arkansans just cannot trust Rick Crawford.
The Arkansas Republican Party has the dubious distinction to have nominated the notorious Karl Rove flunky, Tim Griffin, in the Second Congressional district. Tim Griffin, a noted dirty trickster, has recently been named as one of the Most Crooked Politicians in the nation, by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That’s right, according to CREW, Republican nominee Tim Griffin, is one of our nations Most Crooked Politicians.
Arkansas voters deserve to know the truth about the bad ideas and bad records of the Republican candidates this fall. The Democratic Party of Arkansas will continue to demand the truth from these candidates and hold them accountable to their records and to their statements.
Joyce Elliott, Bill Clinton
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Comments (35)
Showing 1-35 of 35
I Al Gore had used the Big Dog we wouldn't have had the dope/alcohol addict as president.
like
dislike
I doubt the President will come to Arkansas to campaign for Ms. Elliott and now that the former President shows up she prevents the press from covering it. What is she trying to hide from? The only thing I can think of is she thinks being a Democratic candidate this election cycle is a big disadvantage. I don't think Vic would hide from the press if he was in the race.
Mine too, Durango. She allows a Griffin troll to post racist crap on her FB page and takes my comments exposing him as a troll and a Griffin sycophant off. My posts are not mean, as they are here. She sends me boilerplate messages about how she's for the workingman. She needs some better advisers, and writers. If she wants this job, she'd better start fighting for it. This ain't beanbag, whatever that means, but I know Paul Greenberg uses that term, and uses it and uses it, so it must be legit. Closing her event with Clinton is not the brightest idea a politician ever had. However, she still has my vote and my yard sign.
At last an honest Democrat... hiding in shame. This could be a good sign.... their shame is long overdue.
One has to wonder whether it is truly the Elliott campaign or the Clinton camp preferring secrecy today? And certainly wonder if they would continue to govern this way?
Tim Griffin should be wearing an orange jumpsuit!
Who on earth is running the Elliott campaign? They should quickly join the ranks of the unemployed. Elliott has to begin going negative.
@Eureka Springs is right...Griffin is a skeezy little criminal who runs with a horrible crowd, and this needs to be exposed. He's the LAST person who should represent this district.
What a pathetic race she's running. It is so painful to think that
this GOP-goon will represent our state in Congress..shudder!
Despite Elliott's lame attempt, I must, of course, vote for her! Knowing that the big guns should soon emerge on Griffin's behalf, as the Rove-induced, tsunami washes ashore.
Help us and protect us O' God of politics................
Carolyn Staley for State Rep? Really? I haven't even noticed. After all the trouble she has had in the past, it amazes me that people will even take her seriously. Clinton is wasting his time.
Yes, an avalanche of lies will soon wash over Ms. Elliott. With Rove, she won't know what hit her. And the ADG edit boys will fall into line. It's about time, hurry up please, it's time. All poppycock, but still....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpYIKF1wuyE…
Irishgirl
Carolyn Y. Staley is not the former and disgraced county clerk. She's a fine person.
Closing the event to the press sounds nuts.
Elliot's people are doing a piss poor job of getting the word out and using the new media. They do use Facebook to announce events (and Joyce does seem to be all over the district meeting folks) and say thanks for coming, but nothing about positions or "I would support this XXXX if in Washington" or THIS is what my opponent did while he was working as a Washington insider in the Bush administration".
BUT she is virtually non-existent on Twitter and griffin and his minions (I'm looking at you burn) are all over the place.
Elliot is going to lose because she has failed to fight a good fight. Such a shame that she was the torch bearer to carry on Vic's seat/legacy. Sadly, Arkansas is going to fall to the Republicans like every other southern state did 50 years ago. And even sadder is that it is the DPAs fault for such a shoddy roster and minimal effort. Like politicians, the party felt entitled to the offices.
My guess is Clinton distanced himself. Why be lumped in with a losing campaign? Heat be a great asset to close campaigns, but even Clinton can't be this big of a miracle worker.
The state of the Democratic Party in this state is dismal.
To re-emphasize what Max said, the Carolyn Staley runnning for state rep in western LR is as fine a person as ever drew a breath. She and her family have made making the world a better place a priority in their lives. Arkansas would, indeed, be a better place with Carolyn Staley in the Legislature.
whatthehell, I was making reference to W. I know, I know, Gore received 540,000 more votes than W. and still lost as the "protection" system went into operation to put a man in office the people didn't want. But still, IMO, if Gore had used the President to campaign he would have gotten a big enough cushion (in the electoral system) victory could not have been snatched away by 5 Republicans wearing black robes.......and if he had only carried his own state......
You could easily say Gores VP choice Liberman-wormetongue hurt both Gore and later McCain. Candidate Gore stood for nothing with gusto at the time.. it's a crying all to familiar Dem shame.
But the point is and always should be - Tim Griffin was a hired man with one purpose... to cage/throw/steal/usurp free and fair elections in our country... and clearly he tried to do just that.
The fact Dems never insisted upon prosecutions and to this day don't shout it out from every rooftop and campaign stop simply says as much bad about both parties and the criminal state of our country. There should be multiple life sized cardboard cutouts of Tim Griffin in an orange jumpsuit at every place Joyce Elliott appears... and she should be proud to continuously explain why.
For goodness sake, it was a FUNDRAISER and the press or anybody else is never in a fundraiser unless they buy a ticket. She wasn't hiding from anything or anyone. Both she and the President and Vic had great remarks so I wish the press had been there. But to say she was hiding is just not correct.
My apologies to Ms. Staley - I spoke then aimed.
"Posted by Max Brantley on September 8, 2010 at 12:04 PM
Irishgirl
Carolyn Y. Staley is not the former and disgraced county clerk. She's a fine person."
>>I Al Gore had used the Big Dog we wouldn't have had the dope/alcohol addict as president.<<
IF one of the biggest dumbasses in the U.S. Senate had not been the nominee in 2004 then the second run of Disaster Monkey would not have happened. If he had the sense to listen to Libertarians and Greens who filed a lawsuit in Ohio over election rigging and had Sec Blackwell's machine fixing exposed we would have all been better off.
Ohio '04 was a fraud just as large as Florida in '00.
Yeah, but Kerry didn't get the vote Gore got 4 years earlier. But by then W. was the incumbent and even Tricky proved the advantage of incumbent presidents.
I suspect Carolyn Y. Staley will suffer a few points over the lack of voter awareness that she is different from the disgraced and totally incompetent former "Clerk".
I don't think Joyce is hiding and like I said if you follow her facebook page you can see that she has been all over the district meeting folks BUT I don't think her people are doing a very good job getting the word out. Maybe the fault is with the state Democratic organization.
Of course Timmy is going to have some huge money behind him for misleading ads.
"Elliot is going to lose because she has failed to fight a good fight. "
There are still 2 months till the election, nothing is over.
BUT I hope to see some ads coming soon letting the people of Arkansas know exactly what type of Washington "insider" Timmah is.
Joyce needs to continue to tell people about her union support, support of card check, union organizing and leading teachers on a strike.
She needs to speak positively about her record instead of resorting to ugly personal attacks.
Any pinhead could do that.
The Tim-Griffin-in-an-orange-jumpsuit idea is one of the stupider ones I've heard all year. Or maybe it's just plain stupid.
So is the idea of not running any sort of attack ad. She needs an attack ad that goes at Griffin's political record, and it's real simple.
Fly someone to Florida and find a veteran that lost his vote in one election thanks to Tim Griffin's vote-caging tricks. Put that man or woman on screen with a script like this:
While I was in Iraq, fighting for my country, Tim Griffin's dirty tricks cost me the right to vote. When he deliberately kept soldiers on active duty from voting, he was spitting on the flag. He knew he was wrong. He knew he was breaking the law. He'll never go to prison. But you can keep him from going to Congress. Vote for Joyce Elliott.
"I'm Joyce Elliott, and I approve this ad."
It's that simple, kiddies.
Well, BurnNotice, you have a point there in some way. I remember a poll taken in 2005 of American political scientist as to which president(s) since 1950 would/could have been elected to a third term if not for the 22 Amendment.
Ready? The poll showed two Republicans: D.D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. One Democrat: William J. Clinton. That's it. No others. And they qualified Reagan with health "probabilities." All the others didn't have a chance, according to that poll.
So much for ethics, eh?
"She needs to speak positively about her record instead of resorting to ugly personal attacks."
Is it a personal attack to talk about what Tim was doing while working for Karl Rove?
John A hit the nail on the head. Run an ad like that and she will win in a landslide.
Just like a lawyer.. take your good idea, call it dumb, propose it to someone else and rake in all the dough...)
Sorry I was so harsh about the orange suits, Eureka Springs, but it was exactly wrong. It's not about putting Tim Griffin in jail*. It's about putting Joyce Elliott in Congress.
And do I have to start signing my name John Is Notalawyer? Just for honesty's sake, that is. If I were a lawyer, I'd be proud of it.
*Believe me, losing will be punishment enough.
That proposed ad is just plain great, and it would be easy to do. Instead, the Elliott campaign sends out boilerplate labor day messages that put you to sleep. Maybe she will get the message from Clinton in a private meeting.
"Joyce needs to continue to tell people about her union support, support of card check, union organizing and leading teachers on a strike."
Agreed, Joyce needs to talk about the value of unions, card check, union organizing and leading teachers on strike. She needs to read about the great coal miner organizer John Lewis and the International Workers of the World, Wade Rathke's Service Employees International Union. Why do the rich and their lackeys hate unions? Because they take away from their stack of money and make the worker strong.
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