Letter to the Editor by Richard Hughes, IV: I have tried long enough to restrain myself as I have watched the leadership of the Republican Party of Arkansas send the wrong messages, run the wrong candidates and generally take the party in the wrong direction, while blame is placed on the wrong people, so I have sounded off in a Letter to the Editor which I have provided to the ARRA News Service: LITTLE ROCK — GOP behavior obstructionist
Some Republicans whine about our state party’s lack of success-no constitutional officers, no substantial legislative gains, only one GOP member of Congress. A predominant reason attributed to our party’s shortcomings is Mike Huckabee, specifically that “his people” drained the party financially. However, the party was clearly on its feet well before Huckabee left office.
Our late lieutenant governor and GOP chairman, Win Rockefeller, deserves substantial credit for our party’s past greatness. He lit optimism in its fold, leaving it with no debt and roughly $400,000 in the bank. Win made us proud to be Republican, opening every meeting with an all-together-now chant of his motto for the party, “Representing the views and values of everyday Arkansans.”
As for the party’s current status, past GOP chairman Sheffield Nelson put it best recently when denouncing current chairman Dennis Milligan’s unreasonable treatment of the current governor’s severance tax proposal, saying it makes us look like obstructionists and “aginners.” “Aginner” is the exact word I have been searching for to describe some factions of our party.
Passing on an opportunity to demonstrate leadership, the chairman issued his arbitrary default response. Such is foolish considering that the deal resulted from cooperation between Nelson, industry leaders and the governor. These and recent similar actions imply that our party is automatically against everything, including recruitment of decent candidates (or, lately, any candidates) for statewide and congressional offices.
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