Tagged: Nic Horton
Visit The Arkansas Project!
Just wanted to post and remind you all that, while The Patriot has gone a bit dormant — for now — you can still keep up with my writing over at The Arkansas Project. I’m posting daily about happenings at the state capitol.
The Arkansas Project <– click it. Read it. Bookmark it.
Oh, and don’t worry — The Patriot will be back, probably around the time the Searcy City Council proposes their monthly tax hike. And that could be sooner rather than later.
Searcy A&P Tax Rejected Again, As Predicted
Many of you have written, inquiring about the results of the A&P tax in Searcy. In short, it was a rear-kicking:
FOR: 3,289
AGAINST: 4,312
That’s a margin of about 14% (I predicted a larger defeat than the last go around, which was 10%, and said the margin could be as much as 16-18 points).
(Sorry for being so slow to the party here — I was up until early Wednesday morning doing live election coverage for The Arkansas Project and have been quite busy since, prepping for the upcoming general assembly and traveling for work)
I’ll have more analysis of the tax election in the coming days, but let me just say here now, as I told the folks on Newstalk 99.1 FM on Tuesday night:
I hope the city gets the message. I hope they can finally realize that the people of Searcy do not want the A&P tax — not now, not ever.
I’ve been saying this for years – they have called me crazy, accused me of being “against the children,” blah blah blah. But guess what? I’m right. The people of Searcy have affirmed this once again. Unfortunately, as I predicted on the radio, the fight is probably not over. The hosts were shocked by this statement — “This is a settled issue,” the said. But, the very next morning, Alderman Don Raney apparently left the door open to another run at the tax in his post-election interview with the local paper.
I’m not trying to be a sore winner. For whatever reason, there is a fairly large faction in this city that now thinks that the city is now doomed and their children’s futures are doomed because higher taxes have not been forced upon the people of Searcy. Scarily, they seem to think my fiscal conservatism poses a greater threat to threat to their children’s’ future than Obama does. If you hold these viewpoints, please seek psychiatric help immediately.
But here’s the really scary part: A failed city council candidate with a WordPress account is now more in touch with the people of Searcy than the 8 city alderman, who voted for the tax, and the mayor.
This is a problem that needs a solution. A serious disconnect exists between the people of Searcy and their “leaders.” It’s (past) time to start working to bridge this divide.
More analysis (and perhaps a few samples of recent hate mail) to come!
Nic Horton, Editor
Joining The Arkansas Project
I will be joining The Arkansas Project as a blogger starting, well, today. Thanks to David Kinkade for his heart-felt welcome.
Anywho, have no fear, The Arkansas Patriot isn’t going anywhere. We will still be covering Searcy/White County issues here and producing our video series Patriot Talk. However, most of my more analytical & state/national commentary will be posted at The Arkansas Project. And I’ll try to link back to the posts here at The Patriot for your viewing pleasure.
I am grateful for the opportunity as it fits masterfully into my plan to colonize the entire Arkansas blogosphere. Watch out Tolbert, you’re next!
Hope you enjoy The Project.
Week In Review: Patriot Honored, Vetting The Judge, & Governor Beebe’s Dirge
Here’s a look at our top stories from this week:
- The Patriot & Editor were honored by Searcy’s highly-esteemed newspaper of record in a Sunday editorial. You should read this post, especially if you’ve been wondering why I’ve been referring to myself as a ‘failed city council candidate’ a lot this week.
- TMZARK defends their social media policy. They hear us, they just don’t care. No really, they think this is a good strategy. Death is really good for their ratings!
- One of our most loyal readers has some questions for the Searcy paper. It’s amazing how partisan they were while deriding The Patriot as an example of “partisan politics at their worst” and “partisanship run amok.”
- The Arkansas Republican House caucus unveiled their strategy platform. Yeah, this happened like three weeks ago, but Bobby Petrino hijacked the news cycle and it didn’t get nearly enough coverage.
- Do drug testing requirements for welfare applicants constitute an ‘unfair search?’ The ACLU thinks so. SHOCKER.
- We’re going to vet the judge. You really will not want to miss this series of forthcoming articles about the White County Judge’s governing record.
- Governor Beebe controls the Searcy media? They’re singing a lovely harmony to his political dirge in Friday’s paper, generating a story that the bypass project may not be completed and of course, if it doesn’t, it’s all Senator Dismang’s fault.
- Nic joined The Paul Harrell Program for a great discussion about policy & politics in Arkansas. This 20 minute interview is good stuff.
- Governor Beebe has some great advice for Arkansas politicians: ‘Act like adults.’ Perhaps he should consider leading by example.
We’ve Got Audio! My Appearance on The Paul Harrell Program
Happy to be able to share this video of my appearance on The Paul Harrell Program yesterday afternoon.
I wish I could embed it and let you view it right here on the site, but unfortunately WordPress isn’t currently supporting embeds from UStream. (So does this make me a “failed city council candidate with a failed WordPress account?”)
Anyway, jump to the 1:05:00 mark and check out Paul’s awesome intro. I pop in right afterwards and stay on thru the whole segment. Hope you enjoy.
I very much enjoyed getting to visit with Paul & appreciate him having me on the show. We were able to discuss some of our recent coverage here on the blog, including my article on welfare drug testing, my thoughts on Congressman Rick Crawford’s millionaire tax plan, and the unveiling of the Arkansas House Republicans’ platform.
You can find the full interview here.
