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His [AR AG Beebe] moment arrives
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Candidate
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem May 11, 2005 05:26pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | Newspaper - Arkansas Times |
| News Date | Wednesday, May 11, 2005 11:25:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | After years of expectation, Mike Beebe prepares for the (only) fight of his life
Warwick Sabin
Updated: 5/12/2005
Mike Beebe decided he was interested in running for his local state Senate position in 1981. He was a 34-year-old attorney in Searcy and had never held elective office.
The odds were against him, for a number of reasons. First, the new lines drawn after the 1980 Census added his part of White County to a new Senate district dominated by Arkansas and Prairie counties. That benefited the incumbent, W.N. (Bill) Hargrove, a veteran senator who hailed from Stuttgart, the biggest city in Arkansas County.
“I didn’t know anyone in Arkansas County,” Beebe said.
But he decided to run anyway, and in January 1982 he went to Gillett for
the Coon Supper, the biggest political event in Arkansas County, and a required stop on the circuit for any statewide politician.
“So we go by this guy’s house who always has a party before the Coon Supper,” Beebe remembered. “Back in those days, we had these tin buttons with my name on it, a sack full of buttons. [A friend] grabs them, he knows everyone, and he starts sticking Beebe buttons on everybody. So they all have my buttons on at the supper. We’re in Mr. Bill’s county, and it had an effect.”
Sure enough, Hargrove announced a few weeks later that he would not seek re-election. The Coon Supper story gets extra mileage because the pre-party was hosted by Marion Berry, now an Arkansas congressman, who claims credit for launching Beebe’s political career. |
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