The citizens (reporting) brigade
Two Arkansas blog readers report some gubernatorial campaign action.
First, an anonymous contributor files these observations from a Mike Beebe campaign fundraiser last night:
Of interest to me tonight was how many crossover Repubs were there for Beebe, including Charlotte (Chuckie) Bradbury (Curt wasn't there), Brad Walker, Conway's Luke Gordy (who I'm assuming is Repub because I think he was a Huckabee appoiontee when he was on the state board of ed), Susan & Jay Brainard, et al.
And after the jump, Arkansas Governor's School instructor Jason Wiles (the McGill University researcher who wrote our recent cover story about evolution instruction in Arkansas), dissects comments on that subject made yesterday when Asa Hutchinson and Rudolph Giuliani spoke to Governor's School students.
FROM JASON WILES:
After their address to the students of the Arkansas Governor’s School, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson answered questions from the AGS students and faculty on topics ranging from homeland security to economics. Among the various questions posed in this forum was one regarding the teaching of biological evolution in public schools.
This topic is of particular interest in Arkansas, in part due to formal attempts to undermine evolution in the state's public schools. These efforts go back as far as the Scopes era, and Arkansas has played an inglorious part in the national debate, as state laws undermining evolution education have repeatedly been struck down in the federal courts. (Epperson v. Arkansas, McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education) Even given the fates of these laws, such anti-evolution bills have recently been introduced in Arkansas (House Bill 2548, House Bill 2607). Local school districts have also played a role; for example, a warning label was for years affixed to biology textbooks in Beebe, where they were recently removed after the ACLU of Arkansas warned of the legal perils. Moreover, even in the absence of such formal pressure, there is a generalized climate of hostility to teaching evolution.
The question posed to Giuliani and Hutchinson referred to a commencement speech made at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine earlier this year by Michael Bloomberg. In this address, the current NYC mayor spoke strongly in favor of teaching evolution in public school science classes saying, “It boggles the mind that nearly two centuries after Darwin, and 80 years after John Scopes was put on trial, the country is still debating the validity of evolution,” and adding, “This not only devalues science, it cheapens theology. As well as condemning these students to an inferior education, it ultimately hurts their professional opportunities.”
Given that Bloomberg ran on the Republican ticket with the former mayor’s endorsement, Giuliani was asked if he also supported Bloomberg’s strong stance in favor of evolution education. In a rather long response incorporating ideas such as “academic freedom” and “freedom of religion”, Giuliani eventually articulated that “Darwin’s theories are a very accepted part of science,” and added “I am a Christian, and I can accommodate that to my beliefs…”
When given a chance to voice his own opinion on the issue, Mr. Hutchinson offered that “different viewpoints of science should be taught” and that this should be based on “both the majority views and minority views.”
As for the “different viewpoints of science” that Mr. Hutchinson suggests should be taught, it would appear that there are none held within the scientific community with regard to “the validity of evolution” of which Mayor Bloomberg spoke. According to the American Institute of Biological Sciences, an umbrella organization comprising nearly 200 professional societies with a total individual membership of over 250,000 scientists and science educators, “evolution is the only scientifically defensible explanation for the origin of life and development of species.”
While there may be questions about what Mr. Hutchinson may have meant by majority and minority views, he did say that “we ought to be hesitant about mandating from a legislative standpoint what should or should not be taught in terms of trying to describe from a legislative standpoint what science is.”
I would agree with this statement. Let us leave the content of natural science curricula to those who are trained in the sciences and science education and not to politicians.
Comments
Just because he was on a board appointed by Huckabee doesn't mean that he is a Republican. Huckabee has appointed almost as many Dems as he has Republicans.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 12:55 PM
Those people aren't Republicans. The Bradbury's certainly aren't. Luke Gordy is for everybody. He has given alot to Asa already as well.
Posted by: huh | July 12, 2006 12:58 PM
Wow! Glad I stayed away from the Beebe Fundraiser...won't be going to anybody's now...somebody's making a list and checking it twice! Maybe someone needs to host an "unknown contributor" fundraiser...we can all attend with sacks on our heads...not everybody sticks to strick party lines when voting or when contributing funds...we're the THINKING voters.
ARKBLOG: Except when you give money to a political campaign, your contribution is publicly reported, (at least when you go to expensive fundraisers like last night's), so it's not exactly a secret.
Posted by: ItsWorseThanYouThink | July 12, 2006 01:00 PM
The Repugs are going to be suprised at how many of their own are going to crossover and vote for Beebe. Most Arkansans do not want A$a.
Posted by: br549 | July 12, 2006 01:01 PM
br549...you are the little feller who said Arkansas didn't want President Bush in 2004 aren't you? Hey now.. you are so smart ! This is a red state and yout hot dog Beebe is falling fast in his own internal polls...better get on the Asa bandwagon Lazy Boy.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 01:19 PM
here we go again with the 'secret internal polls.' give me a break. if this were true, hutchinson would run a poll and release it to the media so that everyone could see that he has caught up. but i won't hold my breath on that.
Posted by: here we go again | July 12, 2006 01:22 PM
Anonypussy,
Nope, you got the wrong guy. Anyway, A$a is causing a lot of your fellow Repugs to support Beebe. Between all of the Democrats and some of your mad Repugs, A$a is going to be sent back to DC and resume his lobby efforts.
Posted by: br549 | July 12, 2006 01:24 PM
Hey! Yet another reason to vote against Asa. He doesn't understand science!
Posted by: Archaeopteryx | July 12, 2006 01:28 PM
There are alot of Republicans supporting Beebe and there are a whole lot of democrats supporting Asa- such is the nature of Arkansas politics.
Beebe is so desperate -every republican that gives him money, he has somebody post it on the blog.
Thank goodness Asa doesn't feel the urge to do that or that is all we would talk about.
Posted by: huh | July 12, 2006 01:37 PM
Plus Asa doesn't support gay marriage like Beebe does.
Posted by: GetReal | July 12, 2006 01:50 PM
"Yet another reason to vote against Asa. He doesn't understand science!"
What would you expect from a graduate of Bob Jones University (wacko religious right wing school in S.C) ??
A$a and the other syncophants of the neo-religion party are intellectually vapid, and have no intention of demonstrating anything but more appeals to ignorance and hillbilly hypotheses.
Posted by: GTS | July 12, 2006 01:52 PM
If Beebe is so desperate, please explain his 2-1 advantage in contributions.
Posted by: br549 | July 12, 2006 02:11 PM
Brantley hit the nail on the head. The republicans who were there were just trying to spread the wealth in private so when Beebe wins (as he is sure to do), then he will remember but they won't piss off there neo-con buddies in the process
Posted by: arkpol | July 12, 2006 02:19 PM
Science? Psh.... What good has science done us?
I REALLY hate stupid people.
Posted by: JD | July 12, 2006 02:21 PM
When I worked for the Clinton campaign and he won, there were so many so called Republicans calling and begging for tickets to his inaugural. You would have thought they loved him! That's politics all over the world. As Perot, once stated it was the big "sucking sound from the south".
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 02:26 PM
Did the Governor's School budget pay the carpetbagger or pick up his travel expenses?
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 03:12 PM
Beebe is a great fundraiser- I will grant you that - he should be - he has an army of lobbyist strong arming everybody they encounter. You would think their lilvelihood depends on it - Oh yeah it does.
Beebe is desperate because Asa has plenty of money to compete and Asa has the better bio, vision, issues, ground game, etc... I would rather have that than money any day.
Posted by: duh... | July 12, 2006 03:20 PM
The governor's school would never pay for a Republican to come - they only pay for democrats.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 03:21 PM
Did the Governor's School budget pay the carpetbagger or pick up his travel expenses?
Which carpetbagger is it that you refer to? Asa or Rudy?
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 03:37 PM
Might not those who run this fine blog consider linking to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/) for references to such material as the Epperson v. Arkansas and McLean v. Arkansas cases, as there are some perfectly good articles summing up the issues there, rather than linking to sites that carry only the final judicial opinion?
ARKBLOG: Thanks for the suggestion, and we'll do that in the future.
But these links were part of Jason's report. We did not choose them.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 03:44 PM
Being an appointee of the Huckster doesn't make you a Republican in my book.
P.S. I am a 2 time delegate to the RNC national convention from Arkansas.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 04:00 PM
RE: the comment reading:
"The governor's school would never pay for a Republican to come - they only pay for democrats."
If one would follow the link to the AGS website, one would find that there are indeed Republicans on the schedule who were paid very well for their presentations to the Governor's School students. These include Phyllis Schlafly and Paul Greenberg. How much more Republican could you possibly be? Also, one might notice that Dan Greenberg, a newly elected Republican state representative, is a faculty member offering several presentations throughout the program.
AGS is not, and never has been, about "liberalization". It is merely a place where students are encouraged to think. It is true, however, that thinking often leads to progressive ideas.
Posted by: EvenSteven | July 12, 2006 04:20 PM
What is the AGS website? I was an AGS student in late 80 and would enjoy seeing it. And I remember that Phyllis Schlafly and Sarah Weddington debated during our AGS term.
Posted by: AGS site? | July 12, 2006 04:41 PM
FYI, if you want to make a campaign contribution and not have it publicly reported, make it less than $50 cumulative in a year (in other words, one contribution of $49.99 or contributions adding up to $49.99) in state races, or less than $200 cumulative in a calendar year in a federal race.
Posted by: under wraps | July 12, 2006 05:17 PM
ARKBLOG: Except when you give money to a political campaign, your contribution is publicly reported, (at least when you go to expensive fundraisers like last night's), so it's not exactly a secret.
Contributions from an individual of less than $50 cumulative in a year (in other words, one contribution of $49.99 or contributions adding up to $49.99) in state races, or less than $200 cumulative in a calendar year in a federal race are not required to be reported. So Republicans who want to stay on Hutchinson's Christmas card list can donate $49.99 to Beebe and no one will ever know. Ditto for Democrats who want to give to Rod Bryan or Jim Lendall but still want to hobnob with Beebe.
Posted by: under wraps | July 12, 2006 05:21 PM
AGS Website is www.hendrix.edu/ags
Posted by: Anonymous | July 12, 2006 11:45 PM