Category Archives: Independents and third parties

Seeking signatures, not funnel cakes, at Toad Suck Daze

Michael Pakko

Dr. Michael Pakko, right, and Joe Swafford, left, seek signatures at Toad Suck Daze.

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Dr. Michael Pakko doesn’t have a problem getting people’s attention when he stands before Arkansas business leaders to give his annual state economic forecast. Last Saturday was a little harder.

On that day, he was asking voters to sign a petition qualifying his Libertarian Party for next year’s ballot while standing in front of a vendor that was selling funnel cakes and other items at Toad Suck Daze in Conway.

Pakko is chief economist and state economic forecaster at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Arkansas Economic Development Institute.

He’s also the state Libertarian Party chairman, which became harder this year with the passage of Act 164. It increased the number of signatures third parties must collect for ballot access from 10,000 to almost 26,750 in a 90-day period. Continue reading →

Arkansas joins call to amend the Constitution

Arkansans of the Year, Convention of States

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

This past week the Legislature did something either completely irrelevant or extremely significant.

It passed a resolution adding Arkansas to the slowly growing list of states calling for a convention to consider constitutional amendments to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power, and enact term limits.

The U.S. Constitution can be amended two ways under its own Article V: Congress starts the process, or the states do. The states have never succeeded in doing it.

But Arkansas became the 13th of a necessary 34 states to approve this particular resolution. This occurred after the House said yes Wednesday, and then the Senate, which had already approved it, agreed to add the names of House sponsors Thursday. Continue reading →

Why third parties? Because power corrupts

Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Works, Jeremy Hutchinson, Mickey Gates, Jim Hendren, tax cuts, Senate Bill 163By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There is a legal case and a moral case against Senate Bill 163, which would make it harder for third parties to get on the ballot in Arkansas. The legal case may not be as strong as I thought it was, but the moral case ought to be strong enough.

First the background. In Arkansas, parties can appear on the ballot by winning 3 percent of the vote in the previous presidential or gubernatorial election. Failing that, they can collect 10,000 signatures.

Senate Bill 163 by Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, would increase the required number of signatures to 3 percent of the vote in the last gubernatorial election. In 2020, that would be almost 26,750 signatures, which would be a lot to collect.

The Libertarian Party is currently the only viable third party in Arkansas. It advocates for very limited government. It runs to the right of Republicans on economic issues and to the left of Democrats on some social issues, such as the war on drugs.

Libertarians have been inching toward that 3 percent in recent elections. In 2018, their gubernatorial candidate won 2.9 percent.

That’s too close for comfort for Republicans in the Legislature. They want to make sure a Libertarian candidate doesn’t attract enough votes to sway some future close election to the Democrats. Continue reading →

The four words Dr. Pakko forgot

Dr. Michael Pakko

Dr. Michael Pakko, shown in a file photo.

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When Dr. Michael Pakko testified against a bill making it harder for third parties to compete Tuesday, he didn’t use the four words that would have been the most persuasive to lawmakers.

Pakko, the Libertarian Party of Arkansas chairman, spoke against Senate Bill 163 by Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado. Garner’s bill would increase the number of signatures third parties must collect to qualify for the ballot. It’s currently 10,000. Garner’s bill would increase it to 3 percent of the total votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. In 2020, that would be about 26,746.

Under current law, any political party not attaining 3 percent of the vote in a presidential or gubernatorial election is a “new” party and must collect signatures the next time. Pakko’s Libertarians have been inching toward that percentage in recent elections. Last November, their candidate for governor, Mark West, won 2.9 percent of the vote.

On Tuesday, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee met earlier than expected and dispensed with the bill on a voice vote before Pakko arrived.

Given a chance to speak at the meeting’s end, Pakko called it a “clear effort to suppress competition in Arkansas’ political process.” He pointed out that more than half the state legislative candidates in 2018 were unopposed, so it’s not like Arkansans have too many ballot choices.

“The fact that it includes an emergency clause makes it even more evident that it’s intended to stifle competition in the 2020 election to the benefit of current incumbent politicians and their entrenched political parties,” he said.

It also runs afoul of a 2006 case, Green Party of Arkansas v. Daniels. There, a judge ruled that a previous 3 percent limit was unconstitutional and required the state to give the Green Party a spot on the ballot. In fact, that ruling led the Legislature to adopt the 10,000-signature threshold, Pakko said.

And that’s when he didn’t use the four words that would be most effective with lawmakers as the bill moves through the House. Continue reading →

The legislator without a party label

Mark McElroyBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Rep. Mark McElroy of Tillar says he’s “too conservative really to be a Democrat, but I’m too poor to be a Republican.” Earlier this year, he decided he didn’t want either label, and now he’s campaigning to see if his district’s voters will send him back to the Capitol as an independent.

McElroy spent 20 years as Desha County judge before winning election to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2012. He represents District 11 in Arkansas’ southeastern corner along the Mississippi River. He’s always been elected as a Democrat, but he didn’t really fit into either party. He didn’t like the national Democrats’ stand on social issues like abortion, but he believed the Republican Party’s policies favored the top 1 percent. He chafed at morning caucus meetings where he felt he was being told how to vote, regardless of his district’s wishes. He drew a primary opponent from his own party in the last election and did again this year.

Faced with all that, this spring he decided to leave the party and become an independent. He’s the only one in the Legislature.

“I don’t see why you have to fit in,” he said Tuesday after attending a meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees. “I don’t know why you have to be a label to represent your people.” Continue reading →