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Voters in Carroll County and statewide sent a clear message in last week’s election regarding how they feel on matters both statewide and here at home.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, nearing the end of her first four-year term after being elected with more than 60 percent of the statewide vote in 2022, ran unopposed in the Republican primary in her bid for re-election. She’ll be on the ballot in November, and she’ll remain a heavy favorite. Still, there’s little doubt that she lost badly in the March 3 election.
Three Republican state Senate candidates that carried heavy backing from the governor all lost badly — including Bobby Ballinger in the District 28 race against incumbent Bryan King of Green Forest. King carried 60 percent of the vote districtwide, even more in Carroll County. Sanders-backed Trey “BoDirt” Bohannan lost to incumbent Ron Caldwell, and Senate Republican leader Blake Johnson was booted by state Rep. Jeremy Wooldridge.
King and Caldwell irritated the governor by opposing her plans to build a 3,000-bed prison in rural Franklin County. As retribution, Sanders backed Bobby and BoDirt. The voters, however, hold the real power. They chose King and Caldwell.
After the votes were counted, King called the primary a referendum on Sanders’ record as governor. I tend to agree, and the results were dismal for Sanders.
She’ll likely still win by 10 points or more in November against Democrat Fred Love, who visited Berryville before the primary and who impressed me with his compassion and empathy for those among us with the misfortune of being poor, or sick, or disabled. Compassion is a quality not often exhibited by our petulant governor, so you’ll have to indulge me if I don’t have much sympathy for her primary whipping. She’s still in charge, but that had to smart. As I said, she’ll win in November. My prediction is she tries to bolt to the Senate in 2028.
Here in Carroll County, voters in the Republican primary backed incumbent County Judge David Writer by a margin of more than 21 percentage points over challenger Dianna Baird. Clearly, there’s a message in that result, as well. Throwing spaghetti against the wall is plenty messy, but generally ineffective.
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