The Best And Worst Of Times (Editorial)

The best thing about Monday, Nov. 3, 2014 — the official date of this issue of Arkansas Business — is that it is the day before the midterm election that has been an eternity in coming.

The worst thing about Nov. 3, 2014, is that the election isn’t already over.

Count your humble scribes among those for whom this election has seemed especially long and especially tiresome.

With more than two weeks left in the season, The Center for Public Integrity reported that Arkansans had endured some 80,100 political ads costing more than $33 million. The bulk of that — more than $24 million — was spent on the race for U.S. Senate, the one pitting two-term incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor against first-term U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton.

Cotton looks to be a shoo-in — Nate Silver and his team of statisticians at FiveThirtyEight.com put his chance of winning at 90 percent late last week — which is pretty much what conventional wisdom expected when Cotton entered the race. It makes you wonder whether all that money was a total waste, doesn’t it?

Arkansas Business has traditionally not endorsed candidates, and this year is no exception. We do still encourage voters to reject Issue 3 on the statewide ballot, the so-called ethics amendment, which we’ve previously described as a “freakish hybrid.” There’s no doubt that our state government needs more ethics, but voters should not have to buy ethical behavior by giving legislators the potential of more years in office. And Issue 3 would do that — extend the term limits that voters adopted in 1992.

And we do want you to vote. For Arkansas Business readers, that may be an unnecessary exhortation. Of course you will vote. In fact, you probably already have. Even if you had to hold your nose and try hard to forget just how miserable these candidates and their 80,000 ads have made the past few months.