Ross Wins Debate with Small Town Values

Press Release

Defining himself as the champion of the middle class, Mike Ross was the clear winner of the third Arkansas gubernatorial debate on Thursday, sponsored by the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) and the Arkansas AARP. Ross said his small town values and his plans to strengthen Arkansas's economy, create jobs and grow our middle class stood in sharp contrast to his opponent's record of voting against the middle class and his long career as a highly paid lawyer and lobbyist who took on multiple questionable clients only to advance his own career.

"The lessons I learned in small town Arkansas on my grandfather's farm and around my parents' kitchen table are the values that will serve as my moral compass when I lead this state as governor," said Ross after the debate. "My opponent has a history of putting millionaires and billionaires over Arkansas's middle class, voting time and again against raising the minimum wage and against tax relief for middle class families. And, as a lawyer and a lobbyist, Congressman Hutchinson made his money taking on some things that just don't pass the smell test in Arkansas."

Ross pointed out in the debate that Hutchinson, as a lawyer, made money by defending a U.S. official convicted of spying for the Chinese government.

"I think it's important that you the voter look at who we really are. Not just look at what we say, but what we do. … The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior," Ross said during the debate. "As a DC lobbyist, Congressman Hutchinson has a record of fighting for millionaires and billionaires and Wall Street. As an attorney, he even was paid money to represent a government official who was convicted of spying for Communist China."

That was not the only case Hutchinson took on that might not sit well with middle-class Arkansans. Hutchinson chose to represent in court a Guatemalan man who was denied a VISA because the United States government believed he "played a role" in drug trafficking. He even represented the president of a business responsible for "the largest meat recall in U.S. history" after the company was caught intentionally violating food safety regulations. Hutchinson represented a company based in the United Arab Emirates that shipped tools manufactured in the United States to Libya in violation of federal sanctions.

Hutchinson peddled his influence in courtrooms to defend people that threatened the safety and local communities, charging $660 an hour for legal work even though he voted against increasing the minimum wage multiple times and opposed letting Arkansans vote to raise their own state's minimum wage -- though Hutchinson tries to cover up his record on the issue. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 07/30/10)

"Just take the minimum wage issue. He was against, he was for it, he's against it, and now he's for it again. Congressman Hutchinson, I would contend that NASCAR drivers can't circle back that fast," said Ross during the debate. "In Arkansas, we have a saying that we do what we say and we say what we do and yet Congressman Hutchinson, he's got a record of saying one thing in Arkansas and doing the other in Washington DC. In Arkansas, where I come from, we do what we say and we say what we do."

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