BEEBE Announces for Arkansas Governor

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.polstate.com/archives/007075.html

Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe is announcing his candidacy for governor today on a seven city campaign swing across the state that will take him from his hometown of Searcy, to Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Texarkana, Pine Bluff, Little Rock, and Jonesboro. Beebe, who is serving his first term in the Attorney General?s office, is the first Democrat to enter the race to succeed term-limited Governor Mike Huckabee (R). All of the other major Democratic officeholders have taken a pass at the race to let Beebe have the nomination.

Beebe was elected a State Senator from White County in 1982, and served until 2002, when the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was elected Attorney General, succeeding Mark Pryor who was elected to the U.S. Senate after defeating incumbent U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson (R). Beebe joins two high name Republicans already in the race, Lieutenant Governor Win Rockefeller and former U.S. Representative and Undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Asa Hutchinson.

With the Republicans expected to have a bloody primary, and Beebe expected to have a free pass, this could be a good opportunity for the Democrats to take back the Governor?s mansion that they last held in 1996. But there are many unknowns in this race. Who will come out on top in the GOP Primary? Will Beebe prove to be a great campaigner against a well known Republican candidate (Beebe has never had an opponent in any race)? How will the national political environment be in 2006? We will wait to find out.

It promises to be an exciting 2006 in Arkansas.