Problem here is that assuming he ran and won as Senator, he would become de facto head of the state GOP, and he already demonstrated that he wanted only yes-men and non threats to his “authority” (stunts like running his wife for Sec of State). He would make sure only VERY weak GOP candidates for all the other offices would be allowed to run, and then they’d all predictably lose. The only reason we had the other successes in the ‘90s with Tim Hutchinson for Senate and the late Win Paul Rockefeller for Lt Governor was because the former had national backing that went over Huckster’s head and the latter had deep pockets to run independently.
I don’t want to see him as Senator, because that would be the enormous cost to his getting elected. I’d rather cultivate a farm team of GOP candidates for the future, the team that he SHOULD’VE been creating in the ‘90s and wasn’t. It’s astonishing that Mississippi and Louisiana jumped far ahead of Arkansas in GOP numbers, since both were even less GOP than AR was not long ago, but now we dominate those states while AR has a GOP weaker than any other Southern state, the weakest since 1966 (and even then, we had THREE prominent Republicans elected, Congressman Hammerschmidt, Gov. Rockefeller & Lt Gov Footsie Britt), and now have only 1 single Republican, Congressman John Boozman holding the ultra-GOP district that has been that way since 1966.
Yes, you’re right about his high-handed management of the party into oblivion. That is truly Huckabee’s legacy to Arkansas Republicans.
I think now is the time to organize. My county, traditionally Democrat, went narrowly for McCain-Palin this year (at least it appears so far) yet went for Kerry in 2004. I’m going to compare vote totals from national/state/local races to see what kind of disconnect between the Democrats and the Arkansas voters can be nurtured.
Local organization will take awhile, but I want to start now so we’ll be ready when Zero the Magnificent starts stumbling and buyer remorse sets in.
I’m hoping that if Boozman doesn’t run (he probably won’t), than a charismatic state legislator or local officeholder runs and makes a good impresssion. That would be the beginning of a farm team.