Dr. Jay Barth with Hendrix College comments on our latest poll results on Arkansas politics (clip from Talkbusiness)

Talk Business reported today in the article “Poll Shows Beebe Strength, Pryor Shaky,” the following:

A new Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll shows Gov. Mike Beebe (D) maintaining his high job approval rating, while Sen. Mark Pryor (D) appears to be battling a voting public frustrated at Washington.

In a Talk Business-Hendrix Poll taken during the legislative session, Beebe had a 62% job approval rating with only 19% disapproving of his job performance.

“Beebe’s numbers are amazing,” said Dr. Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College, who helped craft and analyze the poll.

Sen. Mark Pryor, who is not up for re-election until 2014, may be the next big target for Arkansas Republicans who gained two Democratic House seats in 2010. In our poll, Pryor received a 40% job approval rating, with 36.5% voicing disapproval of his job performance. 23.5% did not have an opinion on Pryor’s job performance.

Could Pryor be suffering from the forces that sunk Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) in her 2010 re-election campaign?

“I think to some degree he is. Certainly, he has become a polarizing figure because basically all things political – especially now related to Washington – are polarizing,” said Barth. “Assuming he runs for re-election, we’re going to see a tough Republican opponent… I think the national Republican Party is going to see this as a winnable seat mainly due to the poor performance of Democrats in national elections over the last couple of cycles.”

Barth added that Pryor is in better shape than Lincoln since the election is still two cycles away, the popularity of his family’s name, and the fact that he has some better numbers in Republican-rich northwest Arkansas than most Democrats normally pull.

I take it as a hopeful sign that Senator Pryor is willing to be a part of a deal that includes a plan of meaningful cuts to the federal budget before he will will agree to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling.  That is a result of listening to what the people of Arkansas have to say on the matter!!!! 

Jay Barth makes the comment that Republicans will be expecting to defeat Pryor “due to the poor performance of Democrats in national elections over the last couple of cycles.” Anybody can open their eyes and see the clear trends in Arkansas.

The makeup of the Arkansas State Legislature has changed dramatically in the last few months. This  has been true of the states around Arkansas too. The number of Republican State Representatives in surrounding states outnumbers the Democrats 540 to 319 (MO, TN, TX, OK, MS, LA, and KS) while the Republican State Senators are 178 to 99. Only Mississippi’s State House of Representatives is controlled by the Democrats while the other 13 bodies are controlled by the Republicans.

The liberals in Arkansas seem to be angry about the shift in political power in the south. John Brummett has resorted to name-calling.

Does Pryor have a chance to win re-election? He needs to be a standup guy when it comes to getting this national debt down and that doesn’t mean trying to raise taxes on a slow economy. Traditionally the spending our federal government has done in the last 50 years has been less than 20% of GDP, but this year it is 24.7%. We must get our spending down!!!!!!!

I think that Lt. Governor Mark Darr would defeat Senator Pryor in 2014 , but it appears that Darr is considering running for governor in 2014.

The crowd freaks out as Bill Clinton arrives, and then Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor speaks at an Obama rally in North Little Rock on 10/24/08.

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After the announcement of Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton, we look at how life will change for the royal bride to be. (Nov. 16)

Part 5