Tricky Dickey

“That’s why Jay’s having to dig so much,” says James D. Smith on a recent Saturday in Murfreesboro where Dickey is addressing about 50 supporters in front of the Pike County courthouse. Smith, who is wearing a blue worksuit smeared with what appears to be blood, says he has taken time off from his job as a meat processor to be here. He worries that the president’s work on behalf of Dickey’s challenger may prove decisive. “That sucker’s coming after him.”

“That sucker” was recently the star attraction at a lucrative fund-raiser for state senator Mike Ross, Dickey’s Democratic challenger, at the Washington, D.C., home of former Clinton chief of staff Mack McLarty (also a onetime resident of Arkansas’s Fourth District). The president was scheduled to attend a second fund-raiser when violence erupted in the Middle East. Clinton nevertheless found time while making telephone calls to Arafat and others to place a call for Ross.

“I just know that if Mike Ross gets enough financial support to be able to compete with this avalanche of special interest money that’s being spent against him,” Clinton said by phone, “the voters in south Arkansas will vote for him.” Thanking him for his support, Ross told the president, “We’re going to win it for you.” The latest polls show the race is dead even. But it is an unusual race, says Ross. The Fourth District, he says, is the most Democratic district in which a Republican is running for reelection.

Gary Johnson, who happens to live in the small Hope, Arkansas, house at 321 E. 13th Street that was Clinton’s childhood home, makes a similar point. Asked why he supports Ross, Johnson says, “I don’t, to be honest, I don’t exactly know where he is on all the issues. This is a highly Democratic area and people have traditionally always voted for Democrats.”

This, obviously, is a problem for Dickey. Since taking office in 1992, he has won crossover support from many soft Democrats, a task made easier by a string of relatively weak challengers. Ross, though, is not weak. Folksy and articulate, he speaks easily and intelligently on a wide range of issues. He is a moderate Democrat whose positions seem to be a good fit for this district.

Ross makes standard Democratic arguments on issues such as prescription drugs, Social Security, and school choice. And he is relying heavily on labor support to stay competitive. Yet he has received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. And though he is pro-choice, he favors parental notification and opposes federal funding of abortions and would vote to ban partial-birth abortion.

Dickey, for his part, is focusing on pork and his own ability to deliver it as a member of the Appropriations Committee. “I say to the members . . . ‘We don’t want what’s fair, we want what we can get,'” he boasts to the crowd circled around him in Murfreesboro. “I’m in the room when they start printin’ the money. It’s a lot easier to put in at that stage than it is later on.” After ticking off a long list of federally funded projects he won this term, Dickey smiles and promises more. “I’ll say like Ronald Reagan said, ‘Ya ain’t seen nothin’ yet.'”

That evening Dickey is one of three featured speakers at the dedication of a new football stadium at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Dickey raised nearly $ 1.3 million in private gifts for the undertaking. He has gotten $ 7.5 million in federal dollars for other projects at this historically black school, but the stadium was built without any federal money.

According to challenger Mike Ross, that is a problem. “He didn’t get one dime in federal funds for this stadium,” Ross says, standing just feet away from Dickey in the chancellor’s sky-box. “And I voted for the bill [in the state Senate] that helped fund this stadium.” Dickey bristles when told about Ross’s comments. “That sorta shows that he doesn’t know anything about legislation and the Appropriations Committee.”

Local Democrats are mindful of the fact that, aside from raising money, Clinton could help Ross by reaching out to black voters like the ones at the football game. “If he walked in here right now, they’d go nuts,” says Shane Broadway, the Democratic speaker-designate of the Arkansas State House. “They love him.”

Dickey may be vulnerable on this score. He raised eyebrows last winter when black farmers from his district implored him to expedite payments from a discrimination settlement they had won from the Department of Agriculture. Dickey, known for his candor, told the group it was unlikely Republicans would help them since the group had worked against Dickey in past elections. “They’ll say, ‘You want us to take away from projects that serve our base, and give it to people who not only don’t vote for you but who work for your defeat?” he said to a local reporter. “It’s a miracle I can get anything done for them.”

The farmers were outraged. Dickey tried to save face by introducing a resolution calling for accelerated payments. The resolution failed, largely because of the unanimous opposition of the Congressional Black Caucus, looking to rip Dickey for the flip-flop. The local chapter of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association ended up endorsing Dickey, but the national organization supports Ross.

Dickey sees himself as something of a victim, and argues that many of his black constituents will not look past his party affiliation. “What I’m fighting is political profiling, even among friends from before I was elected,” says Dickey. “It’s like some cylinders are missing.”

Unfortunately for Dickey, there may be just enough time for Clinton to make good on those “White House threats.” Late last week, several newspapers reported Clinton would be on the road stumping for Democrats in key states, including Arkansas.

Stephen F. Hayes last wrote for THE WEEKLY STANDARD about the congressional race in Florida’s Third District.