Arkansas

LiberalArkie

(16,505 posts) Thu Nov 12, 2015, 09:11 PM Nov 2015

Max Brantley: Judges take center stage

Sure, 19 Republican and Democrats are on the Arkansas presidential primary ballot March 1. And some voters can participate in Republican bloodletting between ultra- and ultra-ultra-conservative legislative candidates over Obamacare.

But the real action will be the nonpartisan judicial races, particularly two contests for the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Associate Justice Courtney Goodson will face Circuit Judge Dan Kemp of Mountain View in a race for chief justice. It's a position that once had administrative authority over the court, but the power has been diminished by rump majority caucuses of the seven-member court. Now-retired Chief Justice Jim Hannah was too nice for his own good.

Goodson was Courtney Henry when she got elected to the Court of Appeals on scant law clerk experience. Her Democratically connected in-laws were critical in her reach for a seat on the Supreme Court. Shortly after her election, she shucked her husband. She remarried to a powerful lawyer, John Goodson, who'd gifted her with mounds of expensive purses. She'd later disclose that she and hubby enjoyed a $50,000 Mediterranean cruise on a private Tyson yacht, courtesy of a well-connected lawyer friend.

Art_from_Ark

(27,247 posts)

1. Are these statewide contests?

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 07:34 AM

Nov 2015

I assume they are, but I can't take anything for granted.

LiberalArkie

(16,505 posts)

2. Some are, the supreme court positions are state wide. I hate it being non partisan.

Reply to Art_from_Ark (Reply #1)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 07:54 AM

Nov 2015

Because you can't tell what party they are.

Art_from_Ark

(27,247 posts)

3. I guess we'll have to refer to their Wiki bios

Reply to LiberalArkie (Reply #2)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 07:59 AM

Nov 2015

It's too bad the Arkansas Gazette as a separate entity from the Democrat is defunct. The Gazette always provided a good guide to liberal candidates until it was taken over by Gannett.

LiberalArkie

(16,505 posts)

4. Arkansas Times always has a guide before the election. Most of the Gazetters formed the

Reply to Art_from_Ark (Reply #3)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 09:12 AM

Nov 2015

Times after the purchase. Max Brantley runs the Times.. Nice weekly paper that is free in the city. Find them and like them on Facebook and you will get their daily newscast.

Art_from_Ark

(27,247 posts)

5. Thanks for the heads-up

Reply to LiberalArkie (Reply #4)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 09:20 AM

Nov 2015

I never knew the Times was formed by former Gazetters, but now that I think about it, it does make sense considering the resemblance between the two.

LiberalArkie

(16,505 posts)

6. From Wiki

Reply to Art_from_Ark (Reply #5)

Fri Nov 13, 2015, 09:25 AM

Nov 2015

Arkansas Times, a weekly alternative newspaper based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a publication that has circulated for nearly 40 years, originally as a magazine. Its current format stems from reaction to the Arkansas Democrat‍‍ '‍s buyout of assets from Gannett's closure of the Arkansas Gazette in 1991, which had resulted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Arkansas Times ' senior editor, Max Brantley, is among those former Gazette staffers who lost their jobs as a result of the merger. He was the first editor of the weekly edition in May 1992. The Gazette's editorial cartoonist, George Fisher, became the Times cartoonist until his death.

Billed as Arkansas's weekly newspaper of politics and culture (similarly styled as other regional publications like The Memphis Flyer), Arkansas Times is noted for its opinion columnists and feature articles that take a decidedly liberal stance in comparison to the larger, daily Democrat-Gazette.

Reply to this discussion