For election meat, the Conway Log Cabin Democrat letters page serves up prime cuts day after day, particularly on the race for Senate between Democrat Tyler Pearson and incumbent Republican Jason Rapert, the state’s leading demagogue.
Thoughtful and fact-filled the letters are, generally trending in Pearson’s favor from the college and business community. Rapert has his admirers, too, principally for his I’ll-say-anything style and also because Pearson has tried to finesse hot-button social issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.
The paper has a modified pay wall. I’ve been able to access the links below as a non-subscriber. They provide good reading, a worthy addition to the strong letter written by Acxiom co-founder Jerry Adams in Pearson’s favor (this link also explains some of the intensive dialogue in other quarters, such as the mailer from which the illustration at top was taken). Does the college and business support give Pearson the lift he needs? Odds always favor the incumbent. But some thinking is going on in Conway and Pearson’s campaign has been strongly in the mix.
Here’s some pro and con on Rapert one recent day in the Log Cabin.
But I particularly recommend this link, three letters including a fact-filled letter testimonial to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and a letter from a local hospital director who supports Pearson. A sample from a Conway nurse:
My husband and I are self-employed and based on our yearly income are consider upper middle class. For approximately 10 years our self-employed health insurance premiums have been increased yearly by the insurance company, resulting in a 5 figured insurance bill every single year. Under the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace my husband and I were able to reduce the cost of these health insurance premiums by several hundred dollars per month. And this insurance covers more due to the law requiring coverage for preexisting conditions. Plus we now have dental insurance. Due to our income level, this premium reduction didn’t include tax money re-imbursement to us or the insurance company. The reduced insurance premiums for more coverage resulted from insurance companies being forced by law, and the free market system, to cover pre-existing conditions at a competitive price.
Up until last year, we had also been paying for an adult son’s health insurance coverage. Due to a costly chronic health disorder, that insurance companies would not cover, his insurance paid for NONE of his medical expenses. Our son is now covered through Arkansas’ Private Option, without any contribution on our part, with insurance that now provides coverage for his chronic disorder.
Therefore, this past year, as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act’s Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace and Arkansas’ Private Option, my husband and I have saved several thousand dollars. This savings didn’t require a change in either the Health Insurance Company or the health care providers that our family has been utilizing for years.
I have been hesitant to share this rather personal information up to this point. But with all of the false information out there regarding the ACA (which certain groups label “Obamacare”), I felt it was my duty as a concerned citizen to make this truthful information public.
She’s voting for Pearson.