John Brummett says the Republican candidate for secretary of state, Jim Lagrone, just can’t seem to get any traction against the Democratic incumbent, Charlie Daniels, despite recent election management problems.

Equipment didn’t work and training wasn’t conducted and programmers weren’t available. Pulaski County officials ended up hand-counting at 4 a.m. when they couldn’t raise anybody at the ESS headquarters.

You might think Lagrone could make political hay of that. But you’d be wrong.

“I’m over here waving my arms and nobody will pay any attention to me,” Lagrone told me the other day.

To make matters worse, he was fretting about a TV poll that was going to come out in a matter of hours. He feared it might not go well for him, thus eroding momentum he didn’t have.

His worries were well-founded. He was down more than 20 points.

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