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Hello again everyone.

Thanks very much for joining us.

Will get an Arkansas covid update in just a moment.

First to the surprise of no one, if, to the dismay of two other candidates, several Huckabee Sanders has formally entered the race for governor, she joins Lieutenant Governor Tim Griffin, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on the Republican primary ballot.

Though we would note the ticket hasn't closed meantime, the man who will remain governor another two years is dealing with infra party GOP rivalries.

With the legislative session in its earliest days, so to kick it all around, Andrew Demillo Capital Bureau chief of The Associated Press, former Republican State Representative John Burris and Art Monroe, a Democratic activist who has worked with four Democratic governors.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming aboard Andrew Warner.

We start with you, or really anybody but Andrew with the in the news business, and for that matter, the political business.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dominated the week.

Yeah, that that's correct, Steve.

This was widely expected that she was going to run for governor.

It was just a matter of when, not if she was going to announce her candidacy.

She did so on Monday with a nearly eight minute video.

That kind of gave you an idea of where this campaign is going to go, and probably what where this primary is going to go.

This video where she embraced former President Trump an as in his rhetoric in a lot of ways to.

By talking about protecting Arkansas from the radical left, kind of going through the laundry list of targets that the president has had you, including Alexandria, Ocasio Cortez, the media, the Green New Deal Socialists, and this is all wall he's facing an impeachment trial for for inciting the deadly riot at the US capital Ann.

Kind of gives you an idea of how much she is.

She is going to lean on him in this race.

And we saw that even hours after she announced her candidacy, he he endorsed.

He endorsed her and other Trump figures have also endorsed her too.

So this really kind of sets the stage for what's going to be highly nationalized.

Race, probably unlike anything Arkansas as seen before.

Yeah, Andrew, as our other John, as Andrew noted, the suspense here had become bearable.

It had an an.

It's a small state.

It's a small state of Republicans and and so I think you know most people in this circle.

You know, expected Sarah to announce and it's going to be interesting and tiresome at times.

I mean, I think all three candidates that are announced.

Have their own niche and I think in a way that's good because oftentimes primaries or elections in general just become pretty boring.

This one is not going to be boring.

You know.

Sarah has a national profile.

I think those that know are numbers as a nice person, easy to work with.

Over the years I've worked with their son, Lieutenant governor.

Griffin is been a thought leader and policy leader in the state for a long time on things like income tax and others.

And then, you know, Leslie Rutledge is the incumbent attorney General.

I think she's got a good reputation of working with the legislature.

Tires great people done a good job running the office and that matters when you're asking for a promotion and then, as you alluded to, there's other candidates like you know, Senator Hendron is talking about it and he he's been in state government along time and a lot of times state government is more about nuts and bolts and boards and commissions and agencies and things like that.

And no doubt Senator Hendron has experience there, so I think they're all going to talk about their own uniqueness and they all have qualifications and it's going to be a very long expensive.

Primary for Republicans in Arkansas.

Johnny it took Mr Griffin.

I think a matter of minute, well hours if not minutes to send a Barb.

Miss Sanders way.

So you termed it interesting.

It could be a little bit more than just merely interesting, could it not to be, but it took a minute and that's about 30 seconds longer than I thought it would take.

I mean it, they were already for what's gonna happen, and you know, and I I think that's going to be the theme and and I and look, I mean in a lot of ways.

I think elections are fine to contrast.

No one likes negative.

No one likes false attacks.

Contrast is different.

That's fair.

I think all these candidates have things that are positives and they're going to spend time talking about what they consider to be weaknesses of their opponents, and I think that's why it's going to be a long primary.

Alright Art Monroe from the center from the center left your take.

Like this, this race count is shaping up like an old race back in 1970 when Winter Brachfeld was trying to seek a third term and there's a full Democratic field from seven or eight candidates running for Governor and Dale.

Bumpers emerged from that pack in a run off with Orval Faubus and in a way oral.

Fabolous was trying to run the race that he had run back in the 50s and here you have.

John said it exactly right.

You rarely see a race in Arkansas where it's national issues now.

We did back when civil rights or the main issue of the day, and several tried to grab ahold of that issue and follow us was the one that was most successful, which you had.

Others that tried to use that mantle.

You know, one thing that's interesting about Sarah Sanders.

Opening statement.

Was this talk about the radical left?

And I've been around Democratic politics along time, and I think you could put the radical left in a small room at the state Capitol, and it would probably look like a closet there, just not many.

There are not many folks that that would wear wear that emblem around and.

You can run against that all day long, but I don't think it's going to turn the tide, although it's it's an issue that certainly has has traction and will have traction among Arkansas voters will let me ask all three, you know there has, as has been mentioned, a lot of discussion about the gentleman from Siloam, Mr Senator Sanders, Senator Hendron, possibly getting in as maybe even as an independent and appealing for Democratic crossover votes.

How realistic is that?

Is there room in a GOP primary is even in the general election for candidates such as Senator Hendron, particularly one who has seemed to move more toward the middle in a state that President Trump carried very handily, Andrew will start with you.

It's it's going to be.

It's going to be a challenge and center.

Hendron has said that he is case kind of moved up.

His timeline for decision and plans to make one within within the next three weeks.

He certainly has been presenting himself as as a centrist.

He's been a lot more willing to criticize President Trump than other than other Republicans in the state has been taking taking on issues like the hate crimes bill which is facing resistance from from fellow Republicans.

And so the idea seems to be that he's trying to find some kind of coalition of centrist Republicans, an maybe Democrats who might possibly be willing to crossover and vote in a Republican primary.

It definitely definitely be a challenge I have.

We haven't seen something like that, at least in the past.

You know, past recent elections, but it's definitely something where he's seen trend trying to test out if there is that coalition there.

But if he, if he does announce an aims for that coalition, it's going to be challenging in a very red state like Arkansas.

Yeah, John Burris.

Is that workable?

Look, you know Senator Henderson's a smart guy think then he knows.

It's probably an uphill battle as a Republican who's been a little bit conflicted over the years with with President Trump and the style.

I think a lot of people are ready to move on.

I think Trumpism is more about a tone that is a policy.

And so when you talk about center or not center to me it's more about tone, an approach an I think even those who supported or worked with President Trump.

You know, deep down or inside know that that it's time to move on from how we approach conservative ideas and how we talk about them.

And so I would think if Senator Hendron pulls the trigger, that's probably what it's a lot about.

You know how, as Conservatives, we we send out our message, and so it's hard to run without a party affiliation?

That's common sense.

And so I think if he makes the decision to do so, it's going to be because.

He thinks he can present a different tone.

You know, more than distinguished himself on any any search.

Policy that let's a little bit of conjecture, but that's how I view that the debate.

Well, let me let me throw this out there.

And with all due respect to every other candidate, it's we have all been hearing.

I haven't seen any hard numbers.

But four weeks we've been hearing about surveys.

All of us have which indicate this race.

This primary is Miss Sanders.

To lose John Bersia concur with that.

You'd have to think so, just it's a name ID.

It's a, you know it's a name ID thing at this point.

Not to mention she's going to be able to raise millions.

I just think that she's the clubhouse leader out of the gate.

I don't think anybody would dispute that.

It is a long primary.

I think the national dynamic of how Republicans move on from the president and how the president handles being moved on from really affect the perception of the electorate at large and.

And you know we're talking a race.

It's over a year away.

And so a lot can change.

No doubt today she's coming at it.

The strongest out of those that are talking about it or already in yeah, Art Monroe, you and I can remember when $1,000,000 was real money.

American Dale Bumpers thought he had $50,000 he was he was.

He was the strongest candidate in the field.

I think her money advantage is going to be huge.

Her or relationship with with Trump is going to be and a big deal here.

He still sells in Arkansas and we can't deny that.

One of the things though that I. I think about talking about Senator Hendron and I don't want to say too much in his favor, or he probably flinched because of relationship.

Being a Democrat, I don't want to hurt him more than help him, but he has grown in the job more than anybody.

I have seen a recently I worked with him when he was in the house and I worked with him in the Senate and he has done an outstanding job.

He could get into a crowded field and it's gonna take more than just him.

It's gonna take.

I think you're gonna go back to this race in 1970 where you have separate people in there and over a long haul is John was pointing out.

Sometimes the more reasonable the tone of the candidacy can emerge, that's clearly what happened to Dale Bumpers, and it was the tone and started out that hails that kind of haze mcclurkin's to to win back then.

I don't wanna sound like I'm 1000 years old, but these are names that were important in those races change and it can be very fluid.

And again when followers jumped in that race in 1970, everybody thought he was his to his to lose.

Now, I'm not saying Sarah Huckabee Sanders is Orval Faubus, but I think it's it's who's the leader out of the gate does not necessarily end up being the leader at the end of the day.

OK, got a few minutes remaining and I want to go back to the to the incumbent administration anyway.

Andrew demillo.

It's been a frustrating week for the incumbent governor in terms of of getting his staff paid.

Yeah, that's that's correct.

Relatively minor spent as spending bill for legislative liaison for for the Governors office got hung up in the state Senate for that for a few days.

An this really kind of seems to be kind of a either a warning shot or kind of kind of sign of what's to come in this session.

If he's having trouble with getting this through, what's going to happen when we get the more controversial measures through?

You know he has a hate crimes measure either he supports.

Some tax cuts that are part of his agenda and also Medicaid expansion, which every single year has has a chance of blowing up into a big fight.

So I think this was kind of the early warning sign, especially from some some opponents of his on the right in the Senate of where things are going to this session.

Yeah, John Burris.

Although on the starboard side of the Republican caucus in the Senate, well in the General Assembly is old, it Safari.

It's rather more to the right than it used to be.

You were one of the authors of what was then the private option.

Now is Arkansas works.

Are you concerned for for getting 75 up votes in the House and what 27 in the Senate?

Yeah, I'm not concerned, but I don't want to sound flippant either.

I mean, I think that the administration has to get the policy right.

I think that there there's a new wave where that's going to be presented by the by the agency by DHS to legislators, and I think it has to be sold.

I don't think you can take it for granted and and you know that what was passed in 2013 was really the start of of what we all hope to be a process.

You can offer low income coverage or income till I'm sorry.

Coverage to low income Arkansans in an affordable way, but.

Only if you get the policy right and if you keep making progress.

So I think that they've gotta pitch it and I think that if they do that then it can pass again, but so much of what's going on right now is personality conflicts and that always happens.

You know it's not so much say it again.

It's not so much about a policy.

A lot of times it's about.

Other things and you know, I hope that the legislature and the governor can work through it, because there's a lot at stake.

We're Republicans were supposed to be cutting taxes and reforming Medicaid and reforming boards and commissions and things like that.

And and all this other stuff and all the food fights can distract from that.

Art Monroe U lobbied as it were, you served as a legislative part time legislative assistant to four Democratic governors.

So you've got a little bit of experience with the tension between the executive and legislative that can arise.

Well, that's right.

And what happens when you have it back in those days?

It was primarily Democrats that ran the legislated that it didn't have the same margins that the Republicans do today, and that all there's always a faction that's that most.

It's kind of becomes a personality fight within the party, and these are not unusual.

They've happened the year after time after time and so these discourage this week is indicative of some of those.

The trials and in trials and tribulations in the past, one time you know they went again back when Governor Bumpers was governor.

They kicked all his legislators.

Maybe it's Clinton.

They kicked all his legislative liaisons off the floor.

They didn't have any floor privileges and I think it because I think it's Clinton because one of the things is the legislative and lays on.

You could stand behind the legislature and put their put your hand on his shoulder while he was voting, and that sometimes had.

Good effect, sometimes it didn't, but when they did that and that was just they were just.

Mad at Clinton at the time and just wanted to show him who was still boss and this goes on.

I hope it'll doesn't evolve.

Is John Anthony said?

I hope it doesn't evolve into something worse than that because he's as much proponent table right now are some fairly contentious issues, and people have strong opinions about him.

Alright, gentlemen, thanks very much for your contributions.

Thanks for coming and we gotta cut it off because we're out of time.

But come back soon will be right back.

And we are back and now took over to some extent.

The numbers tell the story how many Arkansans infected, how many hospitalized?

How many recoveries?

How many deaths?

But now, how many doses of vaccine or available to whom and when and where that and the outlook we're joined by Colonel Robert Ader detailed from the state Economic Development Agency to oversee vaccine deploy.

Did Arkansas detailed by the Governor and Doctor Jennifer Dillehay, epidemiologist with the Arkansas Department of Health doctor Jennifer, let me begin with you because as of midmorning Friday, there is some breaking news.

Encourageing Jade Johnson and Johnson reports that its vaccine it's one shot vaccine is in its telling 66% effective as far as epidemiologists are concerned.

Is that good enough?

It is good enough, you know.

the FDA had set a lower limit of what they would authorize would be 50% effective, so we're very hopeful that this vaccine will be able to be added to our Arsenal of the vaccines that we can deploy around the state.

We also know that Johnson and Johnson is doing an additional phase three trial to look at two doses to see if that would raise the efficacy overall.

Well, as far as the one dose, this initial burst of good news from J&J.

Any indication that you have doctors to how long it will take that particular vaccine to get on out into the field?

I would say it would be within weeks, just like with the previous vaccines that were authorized, they were able to get the data to the FDA.

the FDA set up a team of people who work 24/7 to analyze data, 'cause they analyzed the data themselves.

They just don't accept what the pharmaceutical companies take, give them and so they will be analyzing the data an I think we could have a decision within February sometime.

Colonel later over to you there has been enormous confusion over the supply chain.

Chain of vaccine?

Who gets it?

Where?

Where it's delivered?

When they can get it?

What age groups whatever can you give us an update as to exactly where that stands now?

Sure, the you know the biggest problem that we have is really the supply because of the supply was so constricted and we were operating in the one a population which is really just, you know the health care workers and first responders.

That it was very very linear problem.

You know, one of the first things we wanted to do is to try and move out into the 1B population to create more opportunity to make sure that we're being efficient with the vaccine that we had.

What we've been working on since then is trying to really 3 lines of effort, the first one being that we wanted to make maximum use of whatever supply we do currently have.

The second one is to increase the supply in any way that we can, and the third one is to get into a predictive model so that we can make sure every Arkansan knows where the vaccine is and they can plan against it.

That will allow us an opportunity to make sure that we can.

Communicate that and so we can give that little light at the end of the tunnel that allows them to know that you know that help is on the way, but at the end of the day, well, it really is.

We have such tight supply that that it's going to take some time to work through, and everyone needs just needs to be patient.

I promise you, we're going to come to you.

Well, at least Kernel has at least the supply line, has it stabilized, or is it more stable than it was a couple of 3-4 weeks ago?

Well, really honestly, we really haven't seen that much of a change in the actual supply.

You know, we've been getting on the order of about 37,000 doses into the state each week, and that really hasn't vacillated, you know, since the program started in December.

Just this week we saw that we had about a 16% increase in the supply coming into the state that we ordered against this week, and so we will see that delivery starting early next week, but that was all in the Moderna vaccine, so a lot of what we're trying to do is get a predictive model out there so we know and the hospitals and pharmacies and the providers that are actually, you know, you know administering the vaccine.

They know what to expect of what they're going to get.

So that they can start scheduling appointments an then also you just communicate with with our population about hey look, here's here's what you can expect and how long it's going to take.

And there was has been concern, Sir, for the delivery of the vaccine into rural Arkansas, can you update us on that?

How does that stand now?

Yes, Sir, that you know when we were coming out of the one a population, you know that that was really, you know, our health care systems and and really if you looked at the state by population of what was vaccinated was really kind of concentrated in Central Arkansas in Northwest Arkansas, and an that makes absolute sense, that's where our major medical systems reside.

When we get into the 1B population, you know, then you start looking around at how we had been dispersing the vaccine and it was a chance for us to be able to try and raise the boat for everybody so.

One of the things we were ever letting demographics lead the discussion about where we need to target, and so we're looking at where the 70 plus populations live.

We're looking at where the educators are an that's that's the target demographic we're working at, but also we're looking at what counties have been under represented by way of vaccine, and we're working to try and remedy that over to Doctor Hill Lane at Doctor Dillehay back to Doctor Delay.

The news about variance.

From Brazil from South Africa especially, it's pretty chilling news.

As an epidemiologist, your reaction to this, your sense of where this thing is headed now.

Well, you know this virus does mutate and there's multiple variants circulating.

Right now.

Most of them have no effect on how the body fights the illness, or how well the vaccine works, but some of them do an.

The ones that were following out of the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa.

Those variants appear to be able to infect people more readily, so they're more transmission aghbal, and they can easily become the dominant variant in a geographic location, so it's going to be really important to control the spread of those variants if at all possible.

We have some evidence now that the variant out of UK may actually increase the death rate.

At first they didn't think that that was the case, but it's now possible.

So it's going to be really important to do whatever we can to prevent the introduction of those strains in Arkansas.

If they're not here already.

We are looking for it and will let people know if it is here.

But the big concern is will the vaccines protect against these variants.

So far it looks good that the Pfizer in the Moderna will still have good protection against them an if they find that the protection is less than we want it to be.

Then it will be possible to adjust those vaccines so that it does better cover these variants and with just a few seconds remaining doctor your colleagues at you AMS their models.

A pretty forbidding they we are not.

We are anything but out of the Woods.

This is very true.

Our rates of cases and deaths are coming down, but.

We are not out of the Woods.

We cannot let up.

At this point.

We still must wear our mass practice, social distancing, avoid crowds, and wash our hands off, and if we can do that.

Plus vaccinate people as quickly and as fully as possible then that will give us a fighting chance to do well this spring and then we can look at what the summer will hold.

Alright.

Doctor Dillehay Colonel later thank you both very much for being part of the broadcast.

Come back soon.

And that's us.

That's it for us for this week.

Thanks for joining us.

See you next week.

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