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Year's worth of Bubba Awards Sunday, Dec 31, 2006 By John Brummett To continue the week's theme of wrapping up 2006, here are the Bubba Awards for political achievement, dubious and otherwise, in Arkansas during the calendar year now ending: Best Political Commercial - Either of those featuring Bill Halter and his old high school football coach. They got Halter elected. Worst Political Commercial - Asa Hutchinson's with the kids calling Mike Beebe names. Best Victory Speech - Mike Beebe's saying he would have lost if Win Rockefeller had lived. Worst Victory Speech -?Jim Holt offering condolences to the Democrats and the state for being stuck with Halter. Best Endorsement - The right-wing Little Rock paper's of Vic Snyder. Runnerup: Beebe's of Mike Huckabee by reappointing all those Huckabee people. Second runnerup: Mark Pryor's of Joe Lieberman. Worst Endorsement - A guy named Ron Crawford, a basketball coach of some description, airing radio spots trashing Beebe because Paron High School got closed. Runnerup: Rudy Giuliani, abortion and gay marriage advocate, for Hutchinson. Best Campaign - Beebe's. Worst Campaign - A tie covering all those waged by members of the Republican ticket for state constitutional offices. Dishonorable mention: Andy Stumbaugh and Stubby Mayberry. Or have I confused those? Best Legislators - Steve Bryles and Jim Luker, moderate Democrats from East Arkansas, arguing successfully for special consideration in the school funding formula for poor, majority-black districts that lose students year-to-year; term-limited House Speaker Bill Stovall, budget savant largely responsible for the surplus; and Dave Bisbee of Rogers, for speaking so much truth. Worst Legislators - Any of the Senate Brotherhooders who exist to wrest turf from harder-working and more policy-conscious senators and to spend surplus funds with arbitrary equality, namely Bob Johnson, Steve Faris, Randy Laverty, Gilbert Baker, Shawn Womack, Ruth Whitaker, Denny Altes, Paul Bookout, Terry Smith, Jack Critcher, Ed Wilkinson, Sharon Trusty, Tracy Steele, Irma Hunter Brown, Bobby Glover, Bill Pritchard, Jack Crumbly, Barbara Horn, Tim Woodridge, Jerry Taylor and, maybe, though I hadn't thought so, Hank Wilkins. But the last roll call showed 21 for the Brotherhood and 14 good guys, also known as the Otherhood. Most Improved Legislator - Benny Petrus, the incoming House speaker, who came on as merely a back-slapping good ol' boy, but who, so far, has worked hard to grow into his leadership role. Most Worsening Legislator - Bob Johnson once had worthy potential. Now he's the Brotherhood glue and the only legislator to be cited by the Supreme Court - so far - for illegal spending in the General Improvement Fund. Best Legislative Trend - To provide tax relief to low-income working people. Worst Legislative Trend - To declare school reform finished when it's an ever-moving target and the Supreme Court hasn't gone away. Best Arkansas Political Blog - Arkansas Times, by far, though there's a right-wing one called Citizens Journal that does hilariously doctored photos, including the one that made me out to be Beebe's waterboy. Worst Arkansas Political Blog - So many nutty right-wing things to choose from, but arkfam.com stands out. Best Arkansas Political Coverage on Television - Roby Brock when he ventures into politics on his weekly syndicated "Talk Business" show, even those times when he doesn't invite me on for analysis. I think I'd credit him even if I didn't possess such a blatant conflict of interest. He did some pretty good statistical analysis. Worst Arkansas Political Coverage on Television - Well, let's not call names. Some of those people are friends of mine. Or were. Best Poll - Ours, by the Oakleafs, by golly. Worst Poll - That one by the state Republican Party that doctored the sample and still couldn't get Hutchinson ahead. ------- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
