Republican Rumblings

Washington County Republicans have been making the news this week. The biggest surprise was the announcement by someone named Gene Long that he has the time to run for public office and wants to be in the state legislature. He will challenge incumbent Jim House, the popular Fayetteville representative who has been one of the more impressive freshmen legislators of the last session.

Long is an insurance salesman from Louisiana who has lived in Fayetteville for 10 years. According to an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Long said he doesn’t have anything against Representative House, and he can't name anything specific that he would do differently from the incumbent legislator. “It’s just the perfect time for me,” he said. We'll see.

Mark Martin, the unpredictable Republican State Representative from Prairie Grove, issued some kind of statement this week complaining that the National Right to Life interest group has endorsed Republican Fred Thompson for President. Martin said it made him sad, because Thompson does not support amending the United States constitution to ban all abortions, and that he would not be giving the anti-abortion organization any more money.

Other big news this week for Arkansas Republicans is that Dick Cheney will be in Little Rock on Friday to raise money for John Boozman, and Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi, endorsed Mike Huckabee for President. It's a Grand Old Party.