Catch a Mexican by the Toe

State Representative Jim Holt Jon Woods (R-Springdale) has decided to crank up the Fear Factor to get people to sign a petition. He and a small group of Republicans are pushing an initiated act to make sure that Hispanic graduates of our high schools do not get in-state tuition or that sick children do not get medical attention, unless they can provide proof of citizenship.

A woman named Jeannie Burlsworth is heading up the petition drive, and she thinks Northwest Arkansas is a good place to gather signatures. “I went up there last week. I was so disappointed because it’s starting to look like Mexico up there,” she said. She says she’s received about 45,000 signatures on petition pages so far, and she has until July 7 to turn in 61,974 valid signatures of registered Arkansas voters to get on the ballot. Scott Leachman and Tammy McCannon of Rogers easily collected lots of signatures outside the state revenue office in Bentonville last week. “Give me a pen!” said Rogers public school teacher Elizabeth Smith.

To spur additional signatures, Rep. Holt Woods told a meeting of the Washington County Republican Women that Mexican gang warlords in Springdale and Rogers were putting out hits on good Americans in Chicago and across our fair land. When questioned, Rep. Holt Woods said he didn’t know all the details, that the information was “outside of my expertise," and that Kelley Cradduck of the Rogers Police Department Internet Surfing and Gang Squad had told him something sort of like that.

Cradduck said he didn’t know of anything akin to a “hit." Springdale Police Sgt. Shane Pegram said he didn’t know of anything like that, either. “We have no such case. We have no intelligence to suggest any of that... We’re not aware of hit orders coming out of Springdale.” Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said he knew of nothing similar, either, and “That’s pretty scary stuff. That’s spooky to a lot of people. I would assume that a legislator speaking in his official capacity on this kind of subject would not misrepresent this, but I certainly am not aware of that type of intelligence.”

Rep. Holt Woods said later that he was sticking with his story. “It’s impossible for the mayor or myself to be up to date on every little thing that happens, but... this is what I was told. As an elected official, I have to take that information and go with what I have.”

Yep. Even if it is total bullshit, it seems, as long as it will help him get another 16,000 names on the petitions and more Republican votes in Springdale.