Warwick Sabin (Arkansas Times)

When the story of the 2006 Arkansas governor’s race is written, the turning point will probably be traced to Aug. 18. That’s the day Democrat Mike Beebe and Republican Asa Hutchinson announced a joint agreement on the terms of their debates. They set a long list of very specific ground rules governing the dates, locations, format — even how the audience would dress. (“Dress will be business or business casual.”) The first of their three debates took place earlier this week in Jonesboro, but you probably didn’t see it. It was broadcast only on the Northeast Arkansas ABC affiliate, KAIT, which didn’t even carry it live. And that’s just one indication that Hutchinson made a serious strategic blunder in signing his name to this arrangement.

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