ARKANSAS
      Nov. 2, 2010 Governor

Gov.
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 Sen.2
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+Mike Beebe (D) i
 		503,336
 		64.42%
Jim Keet (R)
 		262,784
 		33.63%
Jim Lendall (G)
 14,513
 		1.86%
write-ins
 700
  
 
781,333
  
Plurality: 240,552 votes (30.79 percentage points)
 AR Secretary of State



Notes:  Gov. Mike Beebe (D) easily defeated businessman and former legislator Jim Keet (R) and Jim Lendall (G) to win a second term.

Prior to his election as Governor in 2006, Beebe served one term as Attorney General and five terms in the State Senate; he was first elected in 1982 and eventually served Senate President. 

Keet worked in the hotel and restaurant industry, including opening the first Wendy's in Arkansas in 1975; he also served in the Arkansas House (elected in 1988) and Senate (elected 1992). 

Lendall, who worked as a nurse, served four terms in the Arkansas House as a Democrat and Independent; he also ran for Governor in 2006, obtaining 1.65% of the vote.
 
There was one debate; all three candidates participated in the event, sponsored by the Arkansas Educational Television Network at University of Central Arkansas in Conway on Oct. 12 (>).

Although Keet tried to paint Beebe as "Obama's silent partner," the Governor was a popular figure.  Beebe's campaign vastly outraised the Keet campaign, and he carried all 75 counties en route to a winning margin of more than 30 points.


Campaign Managers:
Mike Beebe:  Zac Wright
Communications director to Gov. Beebe.  Took leave to work on Jay Nixon's 2008 campaign for Governor in Missouri, and, starting in June 2007, as South Carolina communications director on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.  Served as spokesman on Beebe's 2006 gubernatorial campaign.  Communications director for U.S. Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN) through July 2005.  Press secretary for the Tennessee Democratic Party.  Bachelor's degree in journalism from University of Tennessee at Knoxville, 2003.  Deputy press secretary on U.S. Rep. Bob Clements' 2002 campaign for U.S. Senate in Tennessee; worked on the Gore-Leiberman press team in 2000.

Jim Keet:  Spokesman Richard Atkinson



See also:
Sarah D. Wire.  "Beebe's election funding bests 2."  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Oct. 24, 2010.

Seth Blomeley and Sarah D. Wire.  "GOP's Keet: Let tax issue go."  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sept. 2, 2010.

The City Wire Staff.  "Keet: Gov. Beebe is Obama's 'silent partner' (Corrected)."  Talk Business & Politics, Aug. 26, 2010.

John Brummett.  "Seeking attention, Keet gets some."  Arkansas Times, July 15, 2010.

--. "Ark. governor shows not all incumbents are toxic." Associated Press, Apr. 2, 2010.



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