Secretary of State Debate

On Wednesday evening, Oct 11, Jim Lagrone and Charlie Daniels squared off in the AETN sponsored debate. When a reporter question about Daniels putting his son and daughter-in-law on the Secretary of State payroll, Daniels, an astute old-time politician, stepped right up and said "yes, I did." He claimed his two family members were the two most qualified people he new and obviously didn't see why he should hire his family. Supposedly, he has numerous other relatives working on the state's payroll at the Capitol. His repeatedly when confronted said that things have gotten better and will continue to get better at the SOS office. We should all hope so.

Jim Lagrone articulated the problems at the Secretary of State's office, specifically with the major Arkansas primary election problems in various counties including the disenfranchisement of many voters, especially military voters. When asked as a Baptist preacher if he was negatively campaigning, Lagrone pointed out that it is not negative to identify the major areas and examples of problems occuring under the direction of Daniels. Jim expressed his concern for the need to protect the rights of all legal voters.

Obviously Daniels has name recognition and wishes to stay in office as long as possible. As former Arkansas Land Commissioner who was term limited but he didn't follow voter expectations of retiring to private life but instead moved on to SOS. It was noted that Daniels left a lot of unfinished work which his replacement quickly cleaned up. Jim Holt is the first viable candidate that Daniels has faced in years. Arkansas has a real opportunity to see significant improvements in the Secretary of State office including the stopping of the Daniels' nepotism policy by voting for Jim Lagrone for Secretary of State.