A new poll by Talk Business found that a whopping 79 percent of voters support raising the state minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50, according to Roby Brock just now on KATV. Not surprising that it’s popular although it’s hard to get up to 80 percent on anything.

If the grassroots group Give Arkansas a Raise Now manages to get enough signatures to get the question on the ballot, it sure seems like things will be looking up for a wage hike. This big support helps explain the political value that Democrats see in this issue, particularly in terms of energizing their core constituents, tough for Democrats to do in off-year elections (more importantly, it’s the right thing to do on the merits!). 

Mike Ross has come out in support of the wage hike, as has Sen. Mark Pryor, though Pryor opposes the Senate bill to raise the federal minimum wage.

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I look forward to Asa Hutchinson offering some procedural gobbledygook about how he supposedly supports a wage hike but doesn’t want it to happen by ballot initiative. 

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