By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — D.C. Morrison of Little Rock admits he has no political experience, isn’t widely known and doesn’t have much money, but he says those shouldn’t be barriers to getting elected to the U.S. Senate — especially in the current political climate.
Morrison, 60, surprised many when he filed earlier this month to run as a Democrat for the Senate, creating a three-way primary race with two-term incumbent Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Morrison has never held any political office and is virtually unknown in political circles.
“The political pundits and the journalists want you to believe that we need people with political experience,” Morrison said in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau. “The people that I talk to, everyday ordinary working Arkansans, tell me they want somebody that, No. 1, is not a lawyer and, No 2., has never held office. They want to sweep everybody out.”
Born and reared in rural Craighead County, Morrison has a bachelor’s degree from Arkansas State University. He has sold agricultural products and run a cotton farm and is now an agricultural loan broker.
He said he decided to run because the U.S. Senate needs new blood, new ideas and a sense of responsibility.
“I don’t see much responsibility running up trillions and trillions of dollars of debt that we’re basically borrowing from the Chinese. It’ll take us several generations to pay this off if we don’t stop now,” Morrison said.
Morrison said he would have voted against the stimulus package and the bailouts for Wall Street and the auto industry.
“They should have let them fail. That’s what the business cycle is all about. Go back as far as you want to in history, there’s boom and bust. When the government props it up, there’s just going to be a bigger failure down the road,” he said.
Morrison also said one of his main reasons for running is “to stop government-run health care.”
“It just won’t work. It hasn’t worked anywhere in the world that it’s been tried,” he said.
Morrison was asked if he favored abolishing existing government-run health care programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and ARKids First.
“No, I do not,” he said. “That’s exactly the point. We need to make sure that those programs are strong.”
Morrison said he opposes cap-and-trade legislation and the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act and would have voted against the jobs bill that passed in the Senate last week. He said he favors extending the estate tax, though he would exempt inheritances of up to $10 million.
Lincoln’s campaign has reported having $5 million on hand, and at least three unions have pledged to raise $1 million each for Halter. Morrison acknowledged that it will be difficult to “take on the big-money political establishment,” but he said he doesn’t need as much money as his opponents do.
“They’re going to be beating each other up, so I won’t have to do that,” he said.
Morrison spoke highly of several Republicans, calling Ronald Reagan his “hero” and saying he voted for presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2008 and volunteered for Asa Hutchinson in his 2006 run for governor.
So why is he running as a Democrat?
“Can you not be a common-sense conservative and be a Democrat?” he asked. “Do you have to be a far-left liberal to be a Democrat?”
By casting their ballot for him in the primary, voters will have a chance to “stop two big-government liberals,” Morrison said.
But will Arkansas Democrats be willing to vote for someone who has supported Ron Paul and Asa Hutchinson?
Former state Democratic Party Chairman Vaughn McQuary said he would never fault anyone for running for office, but that Morrison is unlikely to win over many Democratic voters.
“That type of background, as far as who he’s supported and some of the programs that he is against, will certainly not garner him many of the undecided votes,” McQuary said. “I don’t think there are going to be a lot of undecided between Sen. Lincoln and Bill Halter by the time the election gets here, but I don’t think he’ll be collecting many of those.”
