What the hell happened to Mike Ross?

[Maxwell]

I'll preface this by saying I haven't heard much about this race.

Maybe it was Asa Hutchison running a good campaign, but I was kind of shocked I heard less about this race. Ross had bullied his way into the Dem primary with his fundraising, caused Bill Halter to end his bid, and it was supposed to be neck and neck between Hutchison and Ross. Ross had several potential advantages - being a fairly conservative Democrat, was a very Arkansas kind of a guy, and had Bill Clinton on his behalf. What went wrong for him or right for Hutchison?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Same thing that happened to Pryor. Hutchinson/Cotton ran good campaigns and Pryor/Ross just couldn't get past Obama's lousy approval rating in the state. Early on when there were a lot of undecideds, things looked okay, but at the end, undecideds simply broke along party lines, favoring Hutchinson/Cotton.

[Lief 🗽]

Hutchison running a mistake-free campaign + Obama's approvals being in the 20s. Nothing Ross can really do about that.

[Maxwell]

Hutchison running a mistake-free campaign + Obama's approvals being in the 20s. Nothing Ross can really do about that.

It's a Governors race, Obama being in the 20s shouldn't matter that much, but I think the first thing is really what did Ross in. Ross would've had to run against a flawed Hutchison that most of us were expecting, when the reality turned out to be entirely different.

[Orser67]

Pretty much all of the Interior South states won by Clinton in '96 (Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia) have had disappointing races for Democrats (or non-races in Tennessee's case). I wonder if Ross's failure shows that Democrats are on their way to being truly finished in this region (except maybe in Kentucky).

[KCDem]

Beebe didn't do enough for Ross / Arkansas voters are dumbs.

[Indy Texas]

Pretty much all of the Interior South states won by Clinton in '96 (Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia) have had disappointing races for Democrats (or non-races in Tennessee's case). I wonder if Ross's failure shows that Democrats are on their way to being truly finished in this region (except maybe in Kentucky).

It amazes me how Tennessee's Democratic Party basically evaporated overnight. They went from a very competitive 2006 Senate race, a popular governor and a House delegation majority to a placeholding phone booth party.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Ross hasn't run a bad campaign, but Hutchison has run a perfect campaign.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

OK, it can be hard to win in an Obama midterm in Arkansas, but Beebe won by 31 points.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Hutchison ran an A+ campaign.

[Tender Branson]

Hutchinson, guys. HUTCHINSON.

[Timothy87]

He's a Democrat.  That's what happened

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'll preface this by saying I haven't heard much about this race.

Maybe it was Asa Hutchison running a good campaign, but I was kind of shocked I heard less about this race. Ross had bullied his way into the Dem primary with his fundraising, caused Bill Halter to end his bid, and it was supposed to be neck and neck between Hutchison and Ross. Ross had several potential advantages - being a fairly conservative Democrat, was a very Arkansas kind of a guy, and had Bill Clinton on his behalf. What went wrong for him or right for Hutchison?

Clinton's influence in Arkansas has been waning for some time now.

Even earlier, despite his own popularity, Clinton was unable to generate coattails for fellow AR Democrats for several occasions (most evidently in 1996).