Mariah Hatta is a political consultant for HMH Advantages, a broad-based political consultancy based in Little Rock. Here’s an inside look at a typical day.
5:30 a.m. Check my iPhone for texts, emails, messages, relevant Twitter posts and news headlines. My phone is always with me. I have loosened up a little in the past decade — I now turn the ringer off at night. I try to keep my eyes open but usually fall back to sleep.
7 a.m. Check phone again. Forward pertinent stories to clients or others. Fall back to sleep unless I have a morning meeting
7:30 a.m. Wake my two rescue dogs, Streeter and Minnie Pearl, who have learned to sleep in, and give them breakfast. They are 6-year-old terrier mixes who are littermates from Shirley, Arkansas.
8 a.m. Breakfast with a client at Dave and Ray’s on Capitol Avenue. Crystal hooks me up with eggs over easy, bacon, and a biscuit with strawberry jam. Coffee with cream, no sweetener. She knows me well enough by know that she doesn’t need to ask.
9 a.m. When the Legislature is in session, I then head to the Capitol. When it’s not in session and I don’t have an early meeting, I take my laptop and eat breakfast while working through my emails. In my neighborhood I am a big fan of Boulevard Bread. I also just discovered the bagel and lox plate at Mylo’s Coffee in Hillcrest, and it’s divine!
10 a.m. My day working in politics can involve anything, and no two days are ever the same. Typically my morning involves fundraising, organizing and tracking calls to donors asking for money. I also draft and edit press releases, social media posts, newsletters, walk and/or mail pieces used for political candidates. (A walk piece is one that candidates leave at voters’ houses when they walk and knock on doors; mail pieces are mailed to targeted voters.) I post to one of the many social media accounts I manage (I set up, manage, train and advise candidates on how to use social media apps), update timelines, calendars and outlines.
Noon Lunch for me invariably means a meeting — Riviera Maya and South on Main are my go-to options. If I’m on my own, I’ll head to Red Mango on Kavanaugh for a smoothie, juice or Bulletproof coffee. I was a voracious diet Coke drinker for at least 30 years of my life, but in recent years I began to believe the stories that it wasn’t good for me, so I quit drinking it on my 46th birthday and replaced the habit with coffee — supposedly it’s healthier.
2 p.m. My afternoon is usually filled with emails, phone calls and anything that I didn’t manage to do in the morning.
6:30 p.m. On Mondays I head to Arkansas Arts Center for the 6:30 p.m. ceramics hand-building class. Gov. Mike Beebe appointed me to the Arkansas Arts Council in 2014. My love for the arts and arts education is in my genes — my father is a retired art teacher and an active artist. On Wednesdays I may head to Wing Wednesday with friends at Town Pump Tavern. Depending on the season, I like to have a glass of red or white wine or a cold one Lost Forty Brewery or Dugan’s Pub.
8 p.m. I let the dogs out and feed them again. I love coming home to see Streeter staring out the front room window. He waits until I’ve actually unlocked the front door and then he runs into the living room to greet me. Minnie is deaf, so sometimes we let her sleep a little longer so Streeter can have some alone time with me. I had him over two years before Minnie re-entered his life.
10:30 p.m. Catch up on Facebook and projects, watch something online — recent binges include “Grace and Frankie” and “Shameless.” I also color postcards for my niece and nephew — my new pen pals. I have a niece and nephew in Columbus and recently I started coloring postcards for them and sending off little notes about once every other week. It’s relaxing but also is fun because I reflect on little stories about my week that may interest them. They often send me packages of their artwork with some notes in return. I think I may have started a tradition that I hope to continue for years to come.
Plan B:
At different points growing up I wanted to be an actress, a nun (must have had at least one nice teacher in those 12 years of Catholic education), and a judge. My maternal grandfather and great grandfather were attorneys. Even today I think about going to law school but have never actually applied. Maybe in my 50s I’ll take that on!