Leader of party rebukes senators
Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/224902/
The state Democratic Party chief and two prominent state senators in his party differed Monday over the senators associating with Republican fundraisers and his comments suggesting one of them might have preferred a Republican candidate for governor.
Bill Gwatney of Little Rock, the party chairman, wrote an April 23 letter criticizing some Democrats’ support of Republican candidates.
Although Gwatney did not mention names, it’s been publicly reported that leading Democrats have been associated with the Republican fundraisers: incoming House Speaker Robbie Wills of Conway, incoming Senate president pro tempore Bob Johnson of Bigelow and current Senate Pro Tempore Jack Critcher of Batesville.
All three say they just lent their names to the invitations. They did not make calls, donate money or otherwise campaign for Republicans.
Still, Gwatney’s letter said such actions “work against their own self-interest as well as the interest of the Democratic Party.”
Gwatney did not return two phone calls from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday, but told The Associated Press that Critcher, who allowed his name to be used by Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, for a fundraiser last year, helped a candidate who participated in attack ads on Gov. Mike Beebe. Johnson was also listed as a host for Baker’s fundraiser.
“That tells me Jack Critcher thinks Asa Hutchinson should have been governor,” Gwatney told the AP.
Hutchinson, now a lawyer in Little Rock, is a former congressman who was the GOP nominee for governor in 2006.
Gwatney has said that Baker, as state Republican party chairman, helped raise money for an independent advocacy group that ran ads in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign linking Beebe to former state Sen. Nick Wilson of Pocahontas, convicted on two counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy in 1999.
That same group, Coalition for Arkansas’ Future, ran ads in 2006 against some of the Democrats who were hosts of an April fundraiser for Republican Rep. Bryan King of Green Forest. That’s the fundraiser for which Wills, along with 11 other Democrats, was listed as a member of a host committee.
Baker has denied raising money for the group.
Critcher said he was “shocked and disappointed” with Gwatney’s remarks.
“He knows how ridiculous that statement is. Bill Gwatney knows better than that,” Critcher said.
Critcher, who is term-limited from seeking re-election, said he didn’t realize Baker had an opponent when he agreed to lend his name to Baker’s invitation. Democrat Joe White, a Conway businessman, is running against Baker in the Nov. 4 election.
Critcher said he’s been friends for eight years with Baker and would volunteer his name again to his friend if asked.
“Friendship transcends politics. I’m loyal to my friends,” Critcher said.
Critcher said political involvement around the country has declined and he is thankful Arkansas has less partisanship than many other states.
“If it’s a good idea, it’s a good idea. It doesn’t matter whether it originates from a Democrat, Republican or a spotted dog,” Critcher said.
Johnson said anyone interested in partisanship “should run for Congress.”
The state’s part-time Legislature — together for a few months every other year — doesn’t work like Washington, D. C., Johnson said.
“I don’t support a Republican because they’re Republican, and I don’t support a Democrat just because they’re a Democrat,” Johnson said.
Wills said he has no plans to be involved in any other Republican fundraiser. He agreed to be listed as a host member for King before his Democrat opponent — David A. Stoppel of Eureka Springs — announced. He didn’t want to break his word, he said.
“It was an isolated incident,” Wills said. “It’s important for me to keep my word.”
Gwatney’s two-page letter, sent to the state’s Democratic constitutional officers, legislators and congressional delegation, said “party faithful do not understand why the Democrats that they have worked to elect would support a Republican.”
Anyone who tries to link Critcher with Hutchinson, Johnson said, “has too much time on their hands.”
Gwatney said he had heard complaints on “several” occasions about the fundraisers and wrote he would be “neglecting my responsibility if I did not address them in some way.”
Friendships are good and help form public policy that “benefits all Arkansans,” but “friendships for legislative purposes should be left at the door of the Capitol. Please do not be fooled into thinking that anyone on the other side will be your friend while in the middle of an election,” wrote Gwatney, a former state senator. Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.