56,429 Huckabee Supporters Refused to Vote for Hutchinson in AR on Nov. 5

AR Secretary of State (statistics) | 12-23-02 | Theodore R.

[Theodore R.]

In the AR general election of Nov. 5, 56,429 persons who supported the reelection of Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee (a 53 percent winner) did not vote for Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson (a 46 percent loser). Huckabee polled 427,082 votes, compared to Hutchinson's 370,653.

It is believed that many of these 56,429 persons were Christian conservatives who objected to Hutchinson's divorce and remarriage to a young staffer. Their actions enabled the Democrat senatorial candidate, Attorney General Mark Pryor to unseat Hutchinson and resume the Pryor family dynasty in AR. While Hutchinson was strongly prolife, Pryor is expected to support abortion on demand but perhaps not partial-birth abortion. Ironically, in upholding the highest standard for their candidate, Republicans in AR allowed the far more liberal choice to emerge victorious. When will Republicans stop shooting themselves in the foot? Besides Huckabee, the only other Republican statewide winner was the pro-abortion Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, a 60 percent winner.

[Consort]

The end thereby justifying the means.

There is no end — it's an ongoing struggle (open ended parable for you religious types).

[UofORepublican]

Hutchinson may have made a mistake in his past, but I would not vote against a person just because they had a divorce and remarried. Hutchinson had I think around a 100 rating from the ACU and supports the same things in office that most christian conservatives would. It's sad that he will be leaving.

[Theodore R.]

I did not know, Cogburn, that Hutchinson was sanctimonious and hypocritical. Do you know the circumstances of his divorce? I do recall that in the 1996 contest, he nearly lost a teenage son in an auto accident, or some kind of accident.

[Robert_Paulson2]

The same crowd had an attitude towards the "divorce" president... reagan, though he still was elected.

Any man who has been divorced, had sex with more than one woman in his lifetime, or even thought about having sex with more than two women is an "evil adulteror" in the minds of some...

By that measure, ONLY JESUS did NOT commit adultery... and the kid died before reaching puberty. If the standard is NO SIN, or NO FAILURE, we cannot ever win anything at all.

When a woman leaves a man, abandons the marital bed, or "departs" (or the reverse) the remaining partner is free to marry again, without the stain of adultery, so says paul the apostle... But we cannot know who really left whom in such matters.

Gaining an appreciation for the basic principles of a little GRACE and MERCY might go a long way towards clearing this up. "he will have judgement without mercy who has shown NO MERCY... and mercy laughs in the face of judgement"

who cares, it's not my state. let THEM deal with the choice of a baby killer, rather than the "stigma" of electing a man whose wife allegedly left and divorced her "evil" husband.

If they won't vote for a "sinner" that rules out the entire 288 million of us for ever being in public office. This "smear campaign" worked so well, like it has in the past for other democrat operatives. Smear the conservative with a moral "implication" like they did hershenson in LA... and then the devil worshipping baby killers can obtain and stay in office forever!

REally smart.

[sinkspur]

The end thereby justifying the means.

I don't understand.

The "end" was Hutchinson getting elected.

What "means" did you have in mind?

Are you trying to say that Hutchinson shouldn't have been elected because he'd been divorced, a divorce his wife agreed to?

You're disqualifying lots of folks if that's your criteria.

[montag813]

Are we now to pressure Christian conservatives into a pragmatic course, ignoring the issue of character, just because it serves our purposes?

Yes

[sonofron]

Pryor ran on his "arkansas first" platform and alot of people went for it. of course i can't complain, i didn't register in time to vote(moved to a new county). if would have voted for hutchinson, despite the fact he ran a lousy campaign.

[Robert_Paulson2]

"...and the kid died before reaching puberty"should have been"and perhaps the kid who died before reaching puberty..."

[rdb3]

They got what they wanted. But they lost what they had.

Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[Consort]

Scoreboard:

Divorce Christian Conservatives

1 0

[Theodore R.]

The raw numbers clearly show that over 56,000 who voted for Huckabee did not vote Republican for senator. That is not in debate. The reasons for their decision can, however, be debated. The total vote for governor was 905,332, and the total vote for senator was 803,959. Undoubtedly some voted Huckabee and Pryor. Probably none to speak of voted Hutchinson and Fisher, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate strongly endorsed by AR Bill.

[Theodore R.]

Correction: the AR gubernatorial vote total on Nov. 5, 2002, was 805,332, just 2,000 more than the senatorial contest total.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Let me offer a hearty "second" to your "yea".
and a hearty AMEN for the wisdom.

stoning the adulteror was NEVER God's answer.
Who among us does not believe the woman "taken in adultery" would not be a better senator than robert kkk byrd?

Conservatives can be very vainglorius and believe that they are holier than God... If God can forgive and restore, we should consider that we are not more holy than him... and do the same for those who change their ways.

Sometimes you have to get away from the "dripping faucet." Or so said solomon... the man with several thousand of them.

Maybe hutchinson had a "dripping faucet" who wanted to leave him for a better "bathroom." Good riddance and move on might have actually been in order. The dems played this morality smear rather well. They KNOW their enemies very very well indeed. Played us like a two bit whore, they did.

Kudos for their incredible skill and damn us for our PHONEY virtues... WE are skilled at snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory. Too bad. Because we could have won even more powerfully than we did, BIG TIME...

[Ahban]

Idiot? Please mind your manners- especially when you have no idea what you are talking about. Where do you get your facts, CNN? I am a conservative Christian who voted for Hutchinson but did not vote in the governors race. In other words, I did the opposite of what you and that other know-it-all accused conservative Christians of doing.

[aruanan]

It is believed that many of these 56,429 persons were Christian conservatives who objected to Hutchinson's divorce and remarriage to a young staffer.

It is believe that many of these were knee-jerk responses by people who

a. never bothered to find out if Hutchinson had grounds to divorce his wife,

b. (if he did not) didn't bother to consider that voting in such a way as to put a Democrat in office could be even more immoral than electing Hutchinson, and

c. are the type of people who'd tell a home invader where the children are hiding because lying to him about it would be a sin.

[hunter112]

Something democrats don't have to worry about
Their supporters have no standards

Not exactly. In this instance, Hutchinson not being "pure" enough hurt us, but I think back to 2000, when Algore (of all people!) was not considered enough of an eco-nut for the Nader supporters. It cuts both ways.

[Ahban]

Jim Bob Duggar was a three term state representative. He is a telegenic fellow with great magnetism who ran a wretched campaign. He was running because he did not agree with what Washington was doing to Hutchinson, morals wise, but felt he could not say so. Since he and Tim agreed on the issues, that left him with absolutely nothing to say. He tried to beat a sitting senator in a primary with a substancless campaign. That was not a very smart thing to do, but I still don't see why, from New Hampshire, you can look down and say he was not a real candidate.

[Theodore R.]

Gee, I never said all conservative Christians deserted Hutchinson. It is highly unlikely that very many voters in AR voted for Hutchinson but for no one for governor, but it happened in your case. Aren't both Hutchinson and Huckabee ordained Baptist ministers? So why did you desert Huckabee? The woman who opposed him was a disciple of AR Bill.

[aruanan]

During the Clinton administration, we conservatives repeatedly insisted that character mattered.

Of course character matters; but it matters that our characters win, some of which may not be as good as we'd want them to be, rather than yield the majority to their characters who are even worse. To cause by inaction something worse to happen is to be culpable for that worse outcome. Those who stayed home in both the Clinton elections or who voted for a candidate that couldn't possibly have been elected bear partial responsibility for Clinton's time in office; especially for his second term since there was no way anyone who isn't a carrot could plead ignorance of the pestilence that was Clinton. A vote against a worse candidate is better than refraining from voting for a less worse candidate since the former will help prevent a demonstrably worse condition than the latter. The latter is simply self-indulgence.

[Ahban]

I suggest you calm down. Stoning adulterer's at one time did seem to be God's answer, and claiming that it never was is very dangerous spirtual ground indeed.

Though I voted for Tim, I feel that God's will was done in this race. Perhaps the best thing that could happen to Tim is that he lost, maybe getting away from Washington will help him. Since the GOP won the sentate anyway, I don't think one baby extra will die by abortion. PBA ban is the only thing that the GOP is willing to do (maybe, or maybe they will cheat us again) and Pryor will vote for that.

In the long run, it is best to insist that our leaders have high moral standards. Such integrity may frustrate the short-sighted, but it is our only hope in the long run of electing good men and keeping them free of the corrosive influence of DC.