Arkansas Politics

Some wingnut blew into the office of the Arkansas Democratic Party and shot the State Chairman.

Bill Gwatney, the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, has been murdered.

A man barged into the Arkansas Democratic eadquarters and opened fire Wednesday, fatally shooting the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase.

Police said they don’t know the motive for the 51-year-old suspect, whose name has not been released. However, they said moments after the shooting, he pointed a handgun at the building manager at the nearby the Arkansas Baptist headquarters. He told the manager “I lost my job,” said Dan Jordan, a Baptist convention official.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The 48-year-old former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention later this month as a Hillary Clinton superdelegate.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, issued a statement calling Gwatney “not only a strong chairman of Arkansas’ Democratic Party, but he is also a cherished friend and confidante.”

Dang, but it seems dangerous to be a Clinton supporter in that state.