Category Archives: Politics

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 →

#BetterOffNow, but what about #Later?

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 triillion, #BetterOffNowBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s been good news and bad news lately when it comes to the way Congress spends your money (and your children’s and grandchildren’s). Which do you want first?

Let’s start with the good news.

On Tuesday, the Senate sent to the House an $854 billion bill to fund the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies. The House is expected to approve the bill next week.

How is spending $854 billion good news? Because Congress is actually doing its job in a somewhat orderly fashion by passing budget bills before the fiscal year begins. It’s also doing it in time to avert a government shutdown that would occur next month.

That counts as an improvement. In recent years, Congress has lurched from one manufactured crisis to another, often passing enormous up-or-down “omnibus” packages after the new fiscal year has already begun.  Continue reading →

Who should represent Arkansas for the next 100 years?

Bart Hester

Sen. James Paul Clarke’s statue at the U.S. Capitol, near the entrance.

By Steve Brawner,  © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What two historical Arkansans are most deserving of one of the state’s highest honors and would best represent it before the nation and world?

I’ll give you a second.

You may have said Walmart founder Sam Walton, singer Johnny Cash, civil rights pioneer Daisy Bates, or Sen. Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

You probably didn’t mention Uriah Rose, founder of the Rose Law Firm, or James Paul Clarke, who served one term as Arkansas’ 18th governor from 1895-96 and later two terms in the U.S. Senate. But those are the two figures who have been memorialized in Congress’ National Statuary Hall Collection for about the past 100 years – Rose since 1917, and Clarke since 1921.

That might change. Continue reading →

Lawsuit limits trailing in courts, poll

Lake View, Supreme Court, Issue 1By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s an expression sometimes used in politics: Go big or go home. With Issue 1, the tort reform amendment, the Arkansas Legislature went very big. And at the moment, that amendment is in serious danger of being sent home either by the courts or by the voters.

The wide-ranging measure would make major changes to the state’s legal system. It would limit “non-economic” (pain and suffering) lawsuit awards to $500,000. It would limit punitive damage awards meant to punish and deter wrongdoing to $500,000 or three times compensatory damage awards, whichever is greater. There wouldn’t be a limit if the defendant intentionally caused the harm. The amendment also would limit attorneys’ contingency fees to one-third the net amount awarded their clients. And it would enable the Legislature to override rules made for the state’s courts by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Legislators referred the measure to the ballot during the 2017 session. Powerful groups support it, including the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Hospital Association and the Arkansas Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes. Naturally, the trial lawyers oppose it.

Huge amounts of money are at stake for both sides. Therefore, huge amounts will be spent on this issue both for and against. Continue reading →

How to disagree about the NFL anthem controversy

Jim Hendren Joyce Elliott

Sens. Joyce Elliott and Jim Hendren as he flew her in his plane to Paragould, where they would disagree agreeably about the NFL anthem controversy.

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Jim Hendren and Joyce Elliott come from very different places, which is a big reason why they disagree on many issues including the NFL anthem controversy. But that was OK as they flew together in his small plane to speak about that subject to the Paragould Rotary Club.

How different are their backgrounds? He’s a conservative Republican state senator from Sulphur Springs in Northwest Arkansas. She’s a liberal Democratic state senator from Little Rock. He’s an engineer who owns a plastics company. She’s a retired schoolteacher. He’s the son of a longtime state legislator and nephew of the current governor. She’s the daughter of a single mother who struggled to keep food on the table. He flew F-15 fighter planes, now serves with the Air National Guard, and has deployed several times to the Middle East to fight ISIS. She and her siblings fought their own battle growing up in segregated schools in Willisville in southwestern Arkansas. Soon after forced integration, they were the only black students in an all-white school.

And yet Hendren calls her “one of my best friends in the Senate.” She says, “He’s one of my very best friends as well.” Continue reading →