Citizens' Daily Lobby

If you think politics should be for people (the old fashioned, biologically embodied kind, that is) add a few more corporations to your boycott list.   Other corporate donors to Minnesota Forward, the conservative PAC making headlines for its support of Tom Emmer,  are the Regis Corporation (mall salons), Best Buy, and Securian Insurance.

I think those of us boycotting these corporate donors need to make our position very clear.  We are not boycotting to protest corporations buying conservative candidates.  We are boycotting because we do not believe corporations should buy ANY candidate in any election.  Period.

If you are one of those people who firmly believe your dollar is better spent at Target than at WalMart, you might want to reconsider.   Target is taking advantage of the Citizens United decision, and the corporation is casting its vote with the far right in Minnesota.  The corporation contributed over $150,000 dollars to Tom Emmers, GOP candidate for governor.  Emmers is a poster child for the Moral Majority, or whatever they are calling themselves these days.   He is anti-gay rights and supports Arizona’s  new, draconian immigration law.  His campaign donated to a Christian punk rock group that is on record as saying executing gays is moral.  With 7 kids, Emmer’s not just anti-abortion.    (Can I get an “every sperm is sacred?”)

Target joins 6 other companies that gave at least $100k to the GOP backed political action committee Minnesota Forward. The group freely admits that it is made possible by the Citizen’s United case, and that the group will support pro-business candidates. Story here.   Is it any secret that for-profit corporations are going to support the GOP?   Private industry over government over the individual is the rule of thumb for the free market.

Our ability as private citizens  to influence the government is inversely proportional to the amount of corporate cash flowing into campaign coffers.   It is vitally important that citizens take back their power.  Vote with your dollar to keep corporations out of government.  Shop locally owned small businesses.  Let the megaretailers know you will not give one single dollar of your income to them until they leave government to the people.  Start with Target.  Boycott Target today.   You may join the protest at MoveOn.org.

Yesterday we encountered a Secure Arkansas petitioner at the Rodney Parham Kroger.  He was trying to get signatures for the group’s meanspritied and unnecessary ballot initiative.   Mexican immigrants don’t want our jobs, according to this guy.  They just want welfare.  That explains why I see them working everywhere…   I don’t think this is an issue Kroger wants to be mixed up in, and I hope they kicked him off their property shortly after I complained.  For those who don’t know, the ballot initiative is to keep any undocumented person over the age of 14 from receiving government benefits.  It turns out that’s already Federal law, but, hey, who’s counting?

The “grassroots” group has never published its sponsors, as previously advertised on their website.  They even removed the “sponsors” link.

I have been waiting to see how the rhetoric from Progressive bloggers would swing now that it’s Blanche vs. Boozman in the Senate race.   I cynically predicted that there would be a softening towards the incumbent and a move to make amends.  I was wrong, at least on some counts.  ArDem of BlueArkansas had this to say on the topic:

As recently as yesterday I was discussing the possibility of helping Lincoln out if just to try to keep her from becoming a serious drag on the ticket. Some people have already urged me to make that push. After reading this [refers to Blanche Lincoln's apparent concessions for Walton-backed Arvest Bank] today, I realize that that’s not going to happen. …

We are not going to sit down and keep our mouths shut just because she managed to squeek out of the primary. Wrong is wrong, and when she’s wrong we’ll call her and everyone else on it. And if Senator Lincoln really wants to fight a two front war going into the general, then that choice is hers.

I couldn’t agree more.

The Green Party of Arkansas has fought the uphill battle again to be included on the ballot.  From the StatePolitics blog:

Green Party of Arkansas spokesman Mark Jenkins tells me that they plan to hold their nominating convention on July 24 although the exact date and time have not been worked out. Jenkins is not sure how many candidates the Party will field but if certain that John Gray will seek for their U.S. Senate nomination and Ken Adler will seek nomination for their nomination for U.S. Congress – District 1.

This will put John Gray and Independent candidate Trevor Drown alongside Republican Rep. John Boozman and Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln on the ballot for U.S. Senate in November.

If you were planning to skip the vote for Senate this year due to the bitter aftertaste of  both major party candidates, a vote for Gray would accomplish much the same thing and may make you feel like a better citizen.

John Brummett exposed the root of the problem with Tim Griffin in an editorial last Friday, accurately depicting the Congressional candidate as “a Rovian operator who knows and espouses the right-wing boilerplate.”   There’s that.  And the related fact that he was embroiled in a Bush II-era political scandal.   If that’s not enough to turn voters away, there’s also the little issue of his political philosophy.  At the Political Animals luncheon last week in Little Rock, Griffin said that being a low-labor-cost state is an advantage that Arkansas should keep.    Brummett made the assumption that “low labor costs” is a euphemism for low wages.  Griffin disagreed, and, it turns out, he’s right.  Labor costs do include much more than wages.  They represent the total value of a workers compensation and benefits.

Labor costs include more than just the hourly wages and salaries paid to a company’s employees. The cost of labor also includes employee benefits packages. Health insurance, disability insurance, PTO (paid time off) and 401-K plans all fall under the umbrella of labor costs.

And there’s workers compensation insurance, the premiums for which stay lower either if not so many of your workers get hurt or you don’t get hit with big payouts when they do get hurt.

Griffin is saying it helps Arkansas economically that employers invest less in their workers here than they do in some other places. He is saying we need to keep this situation intact.  [Opposing candidate Joyce] Elliott presumably believes we should aspire to have our people assigned greater value, and perhaps she will talk about that when she addresses this same Political Animals Club on Thursday. Griffin probably would be better off to couch this Arkansas advantage in a general cost of living.”

It’s one thing (not necessarily the right thing) to be anti-Obama, Arkansas.  It’s quite another to support out of spite a candidate that wants to keep the real value of the people that make the economy run (the workers) artificially low in order for business to profit. 

I have been convinced for some time that the “grassroots opposition” to healthcare reform has been largely a figment of the media’s imagination, brought on by the wishful thinking of the GOP and their lapdogs, the Tea Party.    Nowhere else in the country is reported to be as anti-reform as the South.  Surprising then, that the pro-reform Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Alabama has offed his anti-reform rival in the primary, winning by a whopping 24 points.     The challenger, Ron Sparks, ran on a platform of strong support for the healthcare reform bill, and even stated he would support the inclusion of a public option.   From ThinkProgress:

Unlike Davis, Sparks ran as a strong proponent of federal health care reform. During a debate last year with Davis, Sparks challenged the congressman to support tough federal health care reform, stating, “if I was in Congress, I’d fight for a public option.” And during a later speech before the Democratic Women of Madison County, Sparks was unequivocal in his support for federal health care reform, saying, “Hear me loud and clear. I support President Obama’s health care package. I support the public option. I have been vocal about it.”

Here in Arkansas, a similar situation is playing out in the Lincoln/Halter race.   Like Davis, Lincoln has spent not only most of her campaign, but most of the past two years, positioning herself to the right, fearing the Conservative vote.  Halter has reached out to the Democratic base and is reaping the benefits.  The rural support for Halter in the primary election is an indication that average Arkansas voters are leaning his way.    Only those who are not paying attention, or who don’t really understand Arkansans, will be surprised if Halter defeats Lincoln in the run-off.

Robbie Wills’ most recent campaign flyer wins my vote for most reprehensible piece of campaign propaganda for 2010 (so far).    Let’s fact check:

Joyce Elliott wants to restrict gun rights:  Joyce gets a C- from the NRA.   That’s fairly middle of the road, and Mr. Wills only gets a B according to 2008 data.  Joyce Elliott even voted with the Arkansas Rifle and Pistol  Association 86% of the time in 2001 (relying on Project Vote Smart site for this information, because the NRA and ARPA sites are very hard to navigate and it’s almost impossible to find their ratings lists).

Joyce Elliott wants to outlaw school prayer: False. She voted against a bill (AR HB2971) that would have given overly-broad freedoms to student groups.  The bill does NOT seek to outlaw school prayer, and it appropriately died in the Senate.

Joyce Elliott favors legalizing the “radical partial birth abortion” procedure: Misleading: First,  prior to the referenced bill (AR HR1113 of 2009, now AR Act 196)  the rarely performed procedure was not explicitly banned in Arkansas.   Elliott and others voted against this nasty piece of legislation because  inadequate provisions were made to protect physicians performing a late-term abortion for the health of the mother and inadequate provisions were made to protect the woman’s privacy, among other things.   Partial-birth abortion, as vile as it may be when used for reasons other than life of the mother, is performed so rarely as to be a virtual straw man used by the Pro-Life lobby to erode abortion rights in general.

Joyce Elliott is ineffective:   False. Joyce Elliott is the Senate Majority Leader.  She was named one of the 10 most influential legislators in 2009 by Talk Business, and actually ranked higher on this list than Mr. Wills (she was third, he was last).  Try again, Mr. Wills.

When is enough enough?  If Mr. Wills fails to apologize for this outrageous campaign mailer, I will likely not vote for him in any election.

I am struggling this week with a moderate amount of guilt and a similar amount of frustration over the upcoming run-off elections.    First, the guilt.  I have been trying every day since the primary election to find a way to help my preferred candidates without compromising my own, very Southern and deeply held, sensitivities about privacy.   It seems that there is no way to spend time, volunteer time, that is, on a political campaign, without knocking at doors or making phone calls.    It frustrates me that modern politics has come down to this.    I suppose I can see the utility in it.  I’m certain it’s true that even the people who get irritated and hang up on you or slam the door in your face heard your candidate’s name, and that has to make a difference at the polls.

I had the misfortune to have been raised to appreciate the Golden Rule.  I hate getting called by people I don’t know, especially at dinner time.  I can’t remember the last time I heard a knock on the door that I wasn’t expecting and thought, “Great!  What exciting product, person, or religion will I learn about this time?  Yippee!  What an opportunity!”   No, I hate it, and that’s why I can’t inflict it on others.

To put my aversion to cold-calling and door-knocking in perspective, you have to understand that even when I was a practicing Christian I never went door to door for Jesus.  If the threat of hellfire and the Devil wasn’t enough to get me out on the stump for the Lord, I’m sure Bill Halter will understand when I decline to become an evangelist  for him.

To assuage my guilt, I attempted to find data suggesting that such “get out the vote” efforts are not effective.  Alas.  From Wikipedia I learned

The importance of get out the vote efforts increases as the total percentage of the population voting decreases. For instance, with only two-thirds of the population voting in a Canadian election it is often far easier and more cost effective to ensure that a hundred supporters show up on polling day than it is to convince a hundred voters to switch support from one party to the other. This has also tended to polarize electoral politics. A 90% turnout from a party’s radical base is often better than a 50 percent turnout from both radical and moderate supporters.

Drat.  Run-offs are notoriously low-turnout elections.  There is some hope, here, though.  Point me to the radical base and I’ll be happy to help you get out their vote.  The radical base will be happy to hear from me, and we’ll have a nice chat and rally session when I call.  I’ll drive people to the polls.  I’ll stand at an intersection with a sign.  I’ll man a booth at a public event.  Just please don’t ask me to bother anyone who  doesn’t want to be bothered.    If this makes me useless in modern politics, so be it.  I leave it to the sales-oriented, the people people to carry out the messy business of democracy.

Ah, alliteration.

Blanche Lincoln is in trouble, and her campaign is pulling out all the stops and a former President to try to gain momentum.     It’s pretty evident that a simple Lincoln for US Senate rally wouldn’t draw a very big crowd, so Bill Clinton has agreed to serve as the main attraction.  Just in case Arkansas’ favorite son isn’t enough of a draw, there will be free stuff  (read “special photo” )and… a raffle.  Contributors earn a chance at a back-stage pass to the rally.  One notes that the campaign does not actually promise face time with the Pres.

Over a hundred people turned out on Sunday for a Halter campaign volunteer meeting without further incentive.  People drove in from Texarkana and Fayetteville just to see Halter and sign up to volunteer for his campaign.   Blanche Lincoln’s got gimmick, that’s for sure, but Halter has the honest, enthusiastic support of Arkansans.   No celebrities.  No raffles.  We’re backing his campaign for nothing more than the satisfaction of doing the right thing.

One of the most significant aspects of the primary elections in Arkansas was the indifference of the average Arkansas GOP voter to Tea Party politics.  Tim Griffin aside (and he’s more a Rove GOP insider than a true Tea Party believer), extremist candidates from the Right were rebuffed.  Bye, bye, Mssrs. Baker, Hendren, Holt, Wallace, and the rest of the comedy crew.  Arkansas voters aren’t the extremists you, and the rest of the country, thought they were.   It turns out that John Boozman isn’t too far to the left for Arkansas, after all.   (It remains to be seen whether he’s too far to the right, but eve the state’s Conservatives admit he’s certainly not too far to the left.)

Certain positions taken by the Tea Party appeal to Arkansas voters, it’s true.  2nd Amendment rights are paramount here, and individual freedoms are respected.   But Arkansas voters can see through the rhetoric to the real message of the Tea Party.   Folk from Arkansas know a corporate-sponsored front group when they see one.  Arkansans aren’t too keen on having their right to elect their senators taken away through the repeal of the 17th Amendment.  They aren’t even sure repeal of health care reform is all that great an idea, especially now that some benefits are starting to come through for them.    They know they aren’t in favor of unregulated free enterprise wreaking economic chaos on their bank accounts and retirement plans.