Oops. Leslie Rutledge has some explaining to do. Again. Her campaign for Arkansas attorney general keeps running into obstacles--technicalities to her, but big problems to others, usually her opponents.
Till now Ms. Rutledge's explanations have been more than plausible, even convincing. But this latest brouhaha sounds more serious, or at least it did when it first erupted. Which was last Tuesday, when the county clerk in Pulaski County up and decided she wasn't a properly registered voter. So decreed Larry Crane, and complications promptly ensued.
To mention just one of those complications: the state's constitution explicitly says that "no person shall vote in any election in the state unless the person is a qualified elector of this state and has registered to vote in a manner provided by law."
Oh, and what's more, violating that provision of the law is a felony. And furthermore and forthwith, that same constitution requires political candidates to be registered voters in order to be elected or appointed to public office.
In short, complications on top of complications, which is what lawsuits can be. It wouldn't surprise anybody to learn that a doozie of a landmark case is now in the works: Rutledge v. Crane, which could turn out as never-ending as Dickens' famous and not so fictive Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, which went on for lifetimes--providing a good living for generations of lawyers.
Something tells us that Ms. Rutledge is not only capable of explaining herself, but demanding explanations from her critics, and Clerk Crane turns out to be her critic-in-chief for the moment. Now he has some 'splainin' of his own to do. Why, for example, was Leslie Rutledge allowed to register and vote in previous Arkansas elections after her sojourn in the East when she signed on with Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign of 2008? After her return to Arkansas, she's voted time and again in this state--three times just this year, including the Republican primaries in which she was nominated for attorney general. How did that happen, Mr. Crane?
There's another little matter Brother Crane might address. It's called federal law, specifically the Voting Rights Act--and doesn't it say a voter may not be removed from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election? And isn't one coming up November 4th? What say you, Mr. Crane?
It's all enough to make a whole team of crack lawyers scratch their heads. But the fellow who's managing Leslie Rutledge's campaign--Wes Manus--seems to have no doubt about what's going on. He's issued a statement that's heavier on indignation than illumination, full of phrases about Larry Crane's "total lack of integrity . . . desperate Chicago-style partisan politics [and] attempt to steal this election."
Please, Mr. Manus, less heat, more light. Which is just what the people of Arkansas should be demanding of Larry Crane, too. After all, how many citizens besides Leslie Rutledge move around the country and then return to register and vote in their home state without any questions asked? Who will Larry Crane kick off the registration rolls next? And without proper notice at that.
Welcome to this Season of Ill Will, aka an American political campaign.
Just about the only thing we know for sure at this confusing moment is that Leslie Rutledge, who's running to be the state's top lawyer, could use a good lawyer herself. And so could the county clerk who's thrown this latest stumbling block in her path.
Editorial on 10/02/2014