HOT SPRINGS - James Lee Witt and former President Bill Clinton reached back to their years together in Arkansas and Washington to point the way for a Democrat to win back a U.S. congressional seat in the state.
Witt, a former county judge in Yell County who is the unopposed Democratic Party nominee for the seat now held by Republican Tom Cotton, served as the state emergency-services director when Clinton was governor and as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Clinton was president.
Norm Mineta, who served in the Cabinet under both Clinton and former President George W. Bush, also joined Witt and Clinton at Saturday night’s fundraiser for Witt’s campaign for the 4th Congressional District seat.
“Both he and James Lee represent a tradition of public service in America where you put people first and you join the party that most clearly identifies with your predilections and then you work with everybody you can to get something done as well and as practically and as effectively as possible,” Clinton told a crowd of more than 350 people who paid at least $250 per ticket to attend at the Arlington Hotel. “It is something that is in very short supply.”
Both Clinton and Mineta cited Lee’s legacy as director of FEMA, which was under fire for slow disaster responses when Lee took over.
Mineta, a former Democratic member of Congress from California, said it was an agency that could “screw up a two-car parade.”
Clinton said FEMA had a history of being an agency where presidents put appointees who were “disappointees” in that they didn’t receive the appointment they may have sought. Instead, Clinton said, he turned to someone he knew was experienced in responding to disasters because, in the end, people who have lost everything from a hurricane, tornado or flood, “they want you to get something done.”
“When a disaster happens, there is no politics,” he added. “There are people, there is performance, or the lack of it. I wanted someone who could do the job.”
The former president said this is the attitude Witt will take to Washington because Witt isn’t a “cardboard cutout” or a “30-second ad” but a “real human being.”
“We need people in Congress who just want to get the show on the road,” Clinton said. “I’m tired of speeches.”
Clinton played down the sharp political differences between the parties in other ways, saying the federal budget won’t be balanced either by raising taxes - a Democratic talking point - or by cutting spending - a Republican talking point - until the nation enjoys sustained and strong economic growth again.
“He understands this,” Clinton said of Witt. The men share a friendship that dates back 40 years.
Clinton also argued that sending Witt to Washington would have made an “outsized effect” beyond being just one of 435 members in Congress because both “Democrats and Republicans” trust him.”
Witt also played down partisanship, saying he didn’t care if ideas were Democratic or Republican.
“If it’s a good idea, let’s do it,” he said.
He also stressed his long-standing ties to the district. Thanks in part to the opportunity one person, Clinton, gave him, he eventually was able to buy the farm his father once worked as a sharecropper in Yell County.
Witt lamented the lack of economic opportunity in the district, where he said one in four people live below the poverty line, and where people worry whether they can feed their families, pay the rent or mortgage, or even buy enough gas to get to work.
“I grew up that way,” he said. “I understand it.”
His campaign will stress jobs, job training, education and economic development, particularly through public-private partnerships such as those he forged with major corporations and even NASCAR when he headed FEMA. Witt also said he wants to help foster the public-private partnerships the community colleges are developing in the district.
The lack of jobs and education is the district’s greatest challenge, Witt said.
“You drive through some of these communities, you can see and understand why we need economic development, jobs and jobs training and education,” he said. “The other day when I was in Pine Bluff, I’m telling you Main Street in Pine Bluff, bless their hearts, they’re working hard and doing everything they can, but it looks like the city of Detroit; boarded-up businesses and everything.We can do better.”
Ruth Whitney, the campaign consultant who organized the event, said it was too early to say how much money the campaign raised.
“We have no idea, but it was an amazing response,” she said.
Witt’s campaign is relying heavily on old Clinton hands beyond the president himself. Several veterans of the former president’s gubernatorial and White House years attended the fundraiser Saturday night. Clinton’s former White House chief of staff, Mac McLarty, hosted a fundraiser Friday night for Witt in Little Rock.
Witt is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Two Republicans have filed for the seat: state Rep. Bruce Westerman and businessman Tommy Moll, both of Hot Springs.
Clinton, meanwhile, will be in North Little Rock today at a fundraiser for Pat Hays, a Democrat running in the 2nd District. Hays is the former North Little Rock mayor.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 04/06/2014