I’ve invented a new game that I’m hoping will catch on. It’s called “Mailer Madness.”
The way it works is sort of like a hand of poker. Everyone puts in a dollar to start, and then adds a dollar each round until someone correctly guesses the gist of the next dark-money mailer that will clutter up our mailboxes and ultimately our landfills.
I have a couple of guesses:
• “Bryan King started the Bubonic Plague!”
• “Bryan King is a Chinese spy!”
• And maybe the worst one yet: “Bryan King’s favorite meal is steak, cooked well-done and served with ketchup and unsweet tea!”
Silly, right? Well, are they really any sillier than some of the junk we’ve all been getting?
Maybe, it would be easier — and save us all a lot of aggravation, save somebody a lot of postage and probably save a few thousand trees — if the mailers just came right out and told the truth: “Bryan King stood up to the governor and she doesn’t like it and wants him out of the Arkansas State Senate.”
There. See how easy that was?
Of course, I can’t say for a fact that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is responsible for these ubiquitous and misleading mailers — or the incessant text messages (at least I can respond to those and pretend that someone actually sees what I have to say.) Those are the work of something called “Freedom Forward Alliance.”
“What’s Freedom Forward Alliance?” you ask.
Good question. And we’ll never know the answer, since the U.S. Supreme Court says it’s OK to spend money anonymously in an attempt to influence an election.
Still, we can hypothesize. Here’s my theory: Gov. Sanders is ticked off because Sen. King voted against a couple of her pet projects. Those would be the LEARNS Act and her proposed prison in remote Franklin County. So the governor and her wealthy friends are pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a local campaign because they won’t put up with anyone questioning her policies.
Sen. King says he voted against the LEARNS Act because he believed it wasn’t fiscally responsible, and he’s opposed to the prison boondoggle for the same reason.
The mailers, though, would have you believe that Sen. King voted in favor of allowing our children to be indoctrinated into “woke” thinking.
One mailer was particularly disturbing. It showed an individual who appeared to be … wait, I need to warn you that some material may be offensive; please stop here if you are sensitive … I can hardly bear to type this. The individual pictured in that mailer was, well … reading to a group of children!
The subject of indoctrinating our children is a topic unto itself, but just for the record, Sen. King has explained his opposition to the LEARNS Act multiple times, and it has nothing to do with ‘woke’ culture.
It’s more than fair to say that Sen. King is very much a fiscal conservative. He tends to focus on how any particular piece of legislation will impact the state’s finances. He had deep concerns about the LEARNS Act in that regard — and those concerns have been borne out.
Sen. King is, in fact, a big proponent of school choice. He’d just like to do it in a way that doesn’t leave the state financially vulnerable.
His opposition to the Franklin County prison is also rooted in fiscal conservatism.
Gov. Sanders, of course, was hopping mad. And her strategy was to find someone to run against Sen. King in the upcoming Republican primary.
So, she looked all around for a suitable opponent. And came up with … Bobby Ballinger Jr.
For the record, Mr. Ballinger says he did not approve or authorize the mailers sent out by Freedom Forward Alliance. He must have been so pleasantly surprised to see all that mud being slung at his opponent just a few weeks before the election! It’s almost as if someone else was doing the dirty work so he didn’t have to.
Speaking of dirty work, it wouldn’t be fair to say all of this without touching on Mr. Ballinger’s agricultural pursuits. Campaign materials proudly describe him as a “farmer,” although one online report points out — correctly — that Mr. Ballinger’s most recent Statement of Financial Interest does not reflect any income of $1,000 or more from farming.
I asked Mr. Ballinger by email about that report. Initially, he replied that he would not comment on “fake news.” In a follow-up email, I reminded Mr. Ballinger that he is a candidate for public office and that I was presenting him with an opportunity to answer my questions directly and set the record straight. Mr. Ballinger then responded, very politely, to say that he and his wife have operated a small family farm in southern Madison County for more than a decade, not for income but as a lifestyle and to feed their family. Fair enough. Mr. Ballinger said his 2025 Statement of Financial Interest will reflect income from farming.
Mr. Ballinger also responded to my question of whether it’s accurate that his state contractor’s license has expired, as also was reported online. Mr. Ballinger said he has filed the renewal paperwork, has been granted an extension and remains in good standing with the state contractors board.
I sincerely appreciate Mr. Ballinger’s candid answers to my questions.
He offered another candid answer at a candidate forum hosted last week by the Carroll County Republican Committee.
Asked point-blank whether he would support the construction of a prison in Franklin County, he responded that he would not.
I can picture the mailers now. They might start arriving by next week: “Bobby Ballinger Jr. is soft on crime!” And that, really, is the point. When anonymous money is allowed to flood our mailboxes with halftruths and caricatures, the facts become optional and accountability disappears. The only people who ever have to sign their names to the nonsense are the voters — when we’re left to sort out what’s real after the damage is already done.
••• Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Eureka Springs Times-Echo.
