Lots of free eats and drinks are on tap at the Capitol today along with the usual legislative foolishness, such as destroying the U.S. Constitution, punishing Libertarians and stripping the judiciary of even the appearance of political impartiality.
First the freebies:
Breakfast: Capitol Hill Building, hosted by Arkansas Campaign for
Lunch: Red and Blue Events Venue, hosted by the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation/Arkansas Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus. “Legislators only,” the calendar says.
Standing special interest lunch: The nursing home lobby, the Arkansas Health Care Association, is continuing its practice of a daily free lunch at the Capitol Square Apartments. Nominally all members are invited,
Cocktail hour: Capital Hotel, Arkansas Realtors Association. Since another valiant effort to bring Arkansas into the 20th Century (I know we’re in the 21st) on landlord-tenant law is on the legislative agenda Thursday, I expect some business will be discussed tonight. Realtors historically have crushed proposals to extend legal protection to tenants.
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* CONSTITUTIONAL ATTACK: A lobbying group for an effort to call a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution will be out in force today for what they hope is
* LIBERTARIAN ATTACK: The House also is scheduled to take a vote on the Senate bill to make it harder for a third political party to qualify for the election ballot with higher signature requirements. It’s already hard, but the Libertarian Party has managed. It would be even harder courtesy of Republican Sen. Trent Garner, a fan of one-party government. UPDATE: It passed with no debate, 61-21. Libertarians have talked about a possible lawsuit.
Speaking of one-party government: Republican Rep. Robin Lundstrum has entered the race for
The GOP actually favored this change for a practical not principled reason — to end lucrative filing fees for judicial candidates that benefitted the Democratic Party. No matter. It was done.
Since then, an increasing number of judges have gone out of their way to send signifiers that they really are Republicans — Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood employed Mike Huckabee as a
This is not enough for Lundstrum, apparently, who probably correctly presumes an “R” after a judicial candidate’s name would produce the automatic vote it has produced for statewide offices. I wouldn’t think an overt attempt to put the thumb on the scales of justice would make the ballot, even with a Republican-majority legislature, but who knows?