(Note: these learning modules encompass the
actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss
class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students.
Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)
Arkansas has historically been one
of the most Democratic dominated of the Rim South states. With few exceptions,
Democrats held the governorship and both U.S. senate seats until 1996, when
Republicans finally became competitive. The saga of Arkansas is best told by
focusing on three Democratic titans and their campaigning and governing styles
that perpetuated their party’s political hegemony, two of whom each served as
governor and U.S. senator and one of whom became President.
Dale
Bumpers beat two former governors to win the gubernatorial election in 1970. He
was a practicing attorney and a civic leader from a small
town who
talked with a western drawl. Bumpers
was viewed as being young, articulate,
intelligent, and honest- a forward-looking person
who would improve state government. As governor, he raised
teacher salaries and expanded public colleges by raising the state income tax
and making it more progressive. He improved care for the elderly,
handicapped, and the mentally retarded, and established a consumer
protection agency. Bumpers also reorganized state government, and instituted
civil service exams for state jobs. In 1974 he upset in the Democratic primary
the state’s Senator J. William Fulbright, a moderate liberal who as chair of
the Foreign Relations Committee had been a thorn in the hide of Republican
Presidents for his anti-Vietnam war activism. Fulbright had been in office for
nearly 30 years, and he finally turned off voters with his aloof,
holier than thou arrogant image. Bumpers
on the other hand spoke in a language that factory workers and farmers could
understand, and he was passionate in
condemning the profits of big oil companies. His voting record in the Senate
was initially moderate liberal, but over the course of his 24-year senate
career it soon fell into the most liberal of the 5 ideological categories.
Bumpers won re-election three times by stressing his constituency service, the federal
projects that he brought to the state, and the 100 days that he spent in his
district each year. He also skillfully portrayed some of his stances in
conservative terms, such as defending his opposition to the Reagan tax cuts
because of the federal budget deficits and the fiscal
irresponsibility that of unbalanced budgets.
David
Pryor was a moderate congressman who became famous for posing as a nursing
home attendant on weekends to expose nursing home abuses. After
winning the governorship in 1974,
he worked to attract high wage industries to
Arkansas, appointed an historic number of blacks and women to state
government, and was fiscally conservative by holding spending down. Pryor
was elected to the Senate in 1978,
and he won his first of two re-elections by campaigning tirelessly for the year
before the election with a person-to-person tour through
the state and a slogan Pryor Puts Arkansas First. He
defeated a very conservative Republican, talking about how he cared about issues
that affected Arkansas and the people of Arkansas, and how he would
represent “real people with problems” (Fenno
book, 1996, Senators on the Campaign Trail). Despite an overall liberal to moderate
liberal roll call voting record, Pryor avoided the liberal label by highlighting
his support for a balanced budget, his
opposition to flag desecration, his fight against government waste in the
use of outside consultants, his enactment of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and his
defense of the Rural Electrification Administration that
helped Arkansas. Reporters following him as he met with constituents described
Pryor as personable, folksy, unassuming, decent, a real nice guy who never
made enemies and who knew many constituents on a first name basis (Fenno
book, pages 284, 286-288). He would often get to his Senate office in D.C.
before his receptionist, and he would humbly answer the phone himself to talk
to Arkansas residents who were calling. I actually met him once when I attended
a University of Arkansas ceremony, as the organizers trying to recruit their
government institute director seated him on my left and a college board member
on my right. Pryor, retired from the Senate by then, was still a real nice and down-to-earth guy.
Before a public ceremony where I and other southern politics scholars spoke to
the university community, he came backstage and set us at ease and humbly
thanked us for coming to speak to the students of Arkansas.
And
now we get to the saga of Bill Clinton. His
career started as state attorney general, where he
fought for consumers and
against the utilities. He won the 1978 gubernatorial election
as a New South progressive, but then angered voters by raising
car tag fees and letting President Carter locate Cuban
refugees (“undesirables” expelled by Castro) at the state’s Fort Chafee, where
twice they scared residents by breaking out and fleeing the camp. Clinton
suffered his one political defeat in 1980, as voters turned him out of office
as they viewed him as too aloof, too egotistical, and too
big for his britches. Clinton became The Comeback Kid in 1982 by
beating the Republican who had beaten him two years earlier. He did it by
publicly apologizing for being out of touch, and by
blaming the incumbent for the recession and high unemployment. As governor for
the next ten years, Clinton was most known for improving education, an issue
that the First Lady chaired a task force on. (Indeed, Hillary was so
impressive when testifying before a state legislative committee on education
that a Republican lawmaker joked that, “I think we voted for the wrong
Clinton.”) Governor Clinton raised teacher salaries, lowered
class sizes, and instituted a longer school year and an 8th
grade student competency test. He
fought the teachers’ union by enacting accountability through teacher
testing. Late in his gubernatorial career, he raised taxes for enhanced preschool
opportunities, required kindergartens
statewide, established a scholarship program, and funded another teacher pay
raise. Diane Blair, a University of Arkansas professor who worked in the
Clinton administration, related how he had great charisma and would
personally connect with people. In her words, he
would “show up at every fish fry, at every Democratic
party event, at every bake sale and shake every hand until he had shaken them
all” (Barth, Blair, and Dumas book chapter in Southern Politics in the 1990s,
Lamis editor, 1999, page 180). He made a special outreach appeal to African
Americans, attending black churches, homes, and
black organization dinners. Clinton then went on to the Presidency in 1992, and
even won four southern states, the best showing for a Democrat in the South
since Carter in 1976.
So,
what the ---- happened? Why is it today that Republicans control both of the
state’s U.S. Senate seats and the governorship? Why do Republicans hold over
three-fourths of the state legislative seats, and why have the last five GOP
presidential candidates won with 60% or more of the state vote? Well,
Republicans broke the near-Democratic monopoly in the governorship when
Clinton’s successor, Jim Guy Tucker, was convicted of two felonies in the
Whitewater investigation. When Tucker changed his mind about resigning the
governorship, GOP Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee threatened to call the
legislature into session to start impeachment proceedings; Tucker resigned.
Huckabee as governor had great people skills, being a glib, gregarious preacher
of a large Baptist church, and like Reagan he was a great communicator over the
media. Serving two full terms as governor, he improved education, promoted
economic development, made African American government appointments, and along
with President Clinton personally escorted the Little Rock Central High nine
students into the school that they had been denied entrance into 40 years
earlier. The next two term Republican governor was Asa Hutchinson, who was first elected in 2014 by
stressing state issues, like creating jobs, making education more relevant to
the employment marketplace, boosting tourism, and enacting criminal justice
reform. Hutchinson won re-election by working with both parties in the
legislature to expand Medicaid under Obamacare (adding a work requirement), and
to require that all public high schools offer computer science classes. The
current governor is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump's press secretary and
daughter of a former GOP governor. Her landslide election mirrors the over 60%
of partisan voters who identify with the Republican Party.
Democrats
had two impressive, recent 2-term Senators, yet they managed to lose them both!
How could this have happened? Well, one was Mark Pryor, the son of David Pryor.
He had the same appearance and mannerisms of his father, and the same
philosophy of Arkansas Comes First. He lost a tough re-election bid in 2014 to
Republican Tom Cotton, in a midterm when President Obama had a 68%
disapproval rating among state residents and when Republicans outnumbered
Democrats among exit poll voters by 5%. Pryor made two unforced errors in my
opinion. He ran an ad with his aging father, and when his father talked about
how his son had battled the insurance companies when also fighting cancer, I
just saw two aging relics. Pryor also made a mistake in attacking his
37-year-old opponent as having a sense of “entitlement,” because Cotton talked
about his Army combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The youthful Tom Cotton
ran a playful ad that had his actual drill sergeant George Norton dressing him
down, and Cotton talking about how he had learned accountability, humility, and
putting the unit first from his military training. (Check out this ad on U-tube
by googling Tom Cotton at ease ad.) Cotton looked cool and humble, and the
Democrat looked desperate. In Cotton's 2020 re-election bid, Democrats did not
even have a candidate as their one hope withdrew after the filing deadline had
passed. The Democrats’ other senatorial star was the two termer Blanche
Lincoln, a moderate liberal. In 2010 state liberals like the AFL-CIO were
angered that she wasn’t liberal enough, so they forced her into a bloody
primary, and she squeaked through the runoff with a mere 52% vote. Conservative
GOP Congressman John Boozman, benefitting from the 62% of residents who
disapproved of Obama’s job performance, unseated Senator Lincoln. Showing the
political ignorance of the left-wing, 53% of exit poll voters actually believed
that Lincoln was too liberal, so how could a more liberal Democrat have won the
general election? In any event, a Democrat with a moderate liberal roll call
voting record was now replaced by a Republican with a conservative roll call
record. Way to go, liberal Democrats! Senator Boozman in my opinion was one of
those smart Senators (like Rubio) who did not blindly defend Donald Trump in
2016 (especially after the groping tape). Boozman just admitted that both major
party presidential candidates were flawed, and after winning re-election he
said that the two parties should come together and find common ground to solve
the problems that our nation faced. Boozman won reelection in 2022 by a
two-to-one landslide.