Businessman Scott Wallace is Mike Huckabee’s choice for the Republican nomination for the 2nd District congressional seat.

The former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential contender says Wallace’s personal experience in real-world business and deep ties to the Central Arkansas district make him the strongest GOP candidate for November.

Tim Griffin of Little Rock is also seeking the Republican 2nd District nomination.

Five Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination to succeed retiring incumbent Democrat Vic Snyder.

Robert Obar, chairman of the Pulaski County Republican Committee, tells Politics in Arkansas he sees nothing irregular in the committee’s decision to have a political candidate serve as moderator of an upcoming debate.

The committee is scheduled to sponsor a debate between Republican U.S. Senate candidates at the Holiday Inn Presidential in Little Rock on Friday from 6:30-8 p.m. Jim Keet, a Republican candidate for governor, will be the moderator.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity for him to get out and get to see people,” Obar said.

Though a candidate for state office, Keet has been outspoken during his campaign on national issues such as health care reform. Obar said Keet will serve strictly as a moderator during Friday’s debate and will refrain from expressing his own political views.

A month into his candidacy, Republican Jim Keet’s campaign is still taking calls at the GOP state headquarters.

The party’s main line is listed on Keet’s news release today criticizing Gov. Mike Beebe for hiring a New Jersey firm to straighten out problems at the Alexander Human Development Center.

A call to the number listed under campaign contact Katherine Vasilos’ name on the release was answered by the state Republican Party executive director himself, Chase Duggar.

Duggar says Keet’s campaign is working out of GOP headquarters “until he’s able to get his own office.”

By that, Duggar says he means Keet is “waiting on a spot that’s going to come open.” Duggar says Keet’s campaign is using its own computers but that the campaign is “using our land line from time to time.”

Duggar referred other questions to Keet’s campaign.

When the campaign’s only current paid staffer — Allison Johnson — returned a call, she said she could not speak for the campaign.

Keet reported raising $589 in February — for his aborted run for lieutenant governor.

It’s getting hard to tell that the majority rules in America these days, U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, said on the floor of the U.S. House today in denouncing the new health care reform bill.

Boozman, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said this in his speech:

“Madam Speaker, America is a democracy, not a monarchy, but you wouldn’t know it by the way the American people have been ignored by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid.”

Video of Boozman’s speech is available here.

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln says she’ll hold a town hall meeting in Forrest City on Friday on the topic of child nutrition.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the Forrest City Civic Center. Lincoln says she plans to discuss the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which she says will be the largest-ever investment in child nutrition programs.

Lincoln is chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Retiring U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder got a thank-you letter today from a pro-life group.

Arkansas Right to Life members, pictured here outside Snyder’s Little Rock office, delivered a letter thanking Snyder for the vote in November in favor of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the House health care bill, which would prohibit federal dollars from being used on insurance plans that cover abortion.

The group also asked Snyder to vote against the Senate health care bill, which would prohibit the use of federal dollars on abortion coverage but would allow federal money to be spent on other types of coverage under plans that also cover abortion.
Customers who want abortion coverage would have to use only private money for that part of their policy.

The Senate bill is “the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation since Roe v. Wade,” the group said in the letter.

Democrat Patrick Kennedy says his 2nd District congressional campaign has gone in a new direction — north.

Kennedy’s campaign staff moved into new digs Monday on Main Street in North Little Rock. He becomes the only congressional candidate with primary headquarters in that city. His campaign team is headed by North Little Rock native Patti Julian.

Kennedy called for debates in all eight counties of the 2nd District among the Democratic candidates vying for the party’s nomination to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock.

Other Democratic candidates are House Speaker Robbie Wills of Conway and state Sen. Joyce Elliott, David Boling and John Adams, all of Little Rock.

Little Rock residents Tim Griffin and Scott Wallace are the Republican contenders.

Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate have been invited to a debate Tuesday night at UALR’s William H. Bowen School of Law, and most have said they will attend, according to the state Republican Party.

The debate starts at 6:30 p.m. and is sponsored by the Arkansas Federation of Young Republicans. KATV anchor Scott Inman is scheduled to moderate, and KATV plans live streaming of the debate on its Web site.

Questions for the candidates can be posted on the Young Republicans’ Facebook page, sent to their Twitter account or e-mailed to:
elizabeth.aymond@arkansasyr.org

UPDATE: KATV reports today that it will not stream the debate live, though it plans to have a video of the debate on its Web site sometime tonight or early tomorrow. Also, the station says U.S. Rep. John Boozman will not be participating, but Sarah Huckabee, his campaign manager, will stand in for him. The other seven GOP candidates have said they will take part.

Add one to the Tim Griffin household.

The Republican 2nd District congressional candidate and his wife, Elizabeth, welcomed the birth of their son this afternoon at Baptist Health Medical Center.

John Timothy Griffin Jr. weighed in at 9 lbs., 1 oz.

“We are very thankful for this blessing from God. My wife and son are doing well,” Griffin said.

This is the second child for the Griffin family, and first son. The Griffins also have a 2-year-old daughter.

The state Democratic Party is trying to make political hay out of a tweet today by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kim Hendren.

Hendren posted on Twitter, “Had to sell 5 black angus cows to stay in the game! But we’re in to win and still have a few more cows!!!”

In a follow-up tweet, Hendren said he needed cash to pay the $12,500 filing fee.

In a release headed “Kim Hendren Bets the Farm,” state Democratic Party spokesman Gabe Holmstrom says, “Sen. Hendren may have more cows to sell left in his barn, but lots of Arkansans can’t even afford meat for the dinner table. With a voting history like his, Arkansas might be better served if Kim Hendren stayed on the farm and tended his cattle.”