Add Ann Clemmer’s name to GOP 2nd District speculation

Add a new name to the speculative list of potential Republican candidates for 2nd District Congress, with incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin’s announcement he won’t seek re-election.

It’s that of state Rep. Ann Clemmer of Benton. She’s term-limited and has been planning to run for state Senate.

I’ve sent a note to Clemmer inquiring. She’s a UALR teacher who once styled herself as a Rockefeller Republican. In office, she has voted down the line with current Republican dogma on everything from abridging women’s medical rights to persecution of gay people to soak-the-poor tax policy. She was also one of the named defendants in the successful class action lawsuit over bogus expense claims made by Arkansas legislators such as Clemmer to enhance their pay. Clemmer also got caught wallowing in pork barrel slop, excusing her greedy and dubiously legal grab of money as something that had always been done. Oh. That makes it OK.