Friday, August 26, 2005
Asa On the Run
I got a special treat, tonight. At the community college where I work, Asa Hutchinson spoke to a group of about 100 people who were attending a fund-raising dinner to support his run for the Arkansas governor's seat. It appears that he will be running against Mike Beebe, our current State Attorney General. The seat they will be competing for is one which will be vacated by a probable 2008 presidential contender, Mike Huckabee, who has held it for the past 9 years.
This is going to be a state race watched by the national media, I believe. Already, there are allegations being made concerning Hutchinson's possibly taking advantage of his insider knowledge within the growing Homeland Security industry. On the other side of the coin, Mike Beebe is a leader of a state Democratic party which is in the throes of a scandal concerning candidate's filing fee abuses.
Here are some quotes from his speech:
"What is critical to industry in our state.......the need to create non-manufacturing jobs" This is his way of addressing the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector of Arkansas employers. Sounds reasonable to me.
"Technology is the key to homeland security." Big Brother will be watching me.
"DEA, Arkansas-get rid of methamphetamines. Technology, Arkansas-that's where we need to be heading". I agree with that!
"You can get a great education at home in the state of Arkansas." This is true.
"The property rights issue...I think that decision was wrong". Of cousre. This is already an issue that some liberals who claim to be "progressive" are screaming about.
"Right now we have men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan....we need to be stalwart-we need to perservere." There SHOULD be no question about that.
"How in the world do you go to sleep at night knowing it is your responsibility to protect the country from a terrorist attack?" He seems to have done a pretty good job in that area. Arkansas-a police state?
It was a good speech-about what I expected. He talked for a few minutes about his experience in Washington before focusing on what he intends to do in Arkansas.
There's still a chance that some other Republican may file to oppose him in the primary. I'm looking forward to a good old Arkansas political dogfight over the next 14 months.
