Category Archives: State government

Bring your IDs to vote on IDs

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo IDBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

One of the issues on which you’ll be voting this election will be the act of voting itself.

Issue 2, referred by the Arkansas Legislature in 2017, would enshrine in the Constitution a requirement for voters to show a photo ID at the ballot box.

Yes, you already did that during the May primary elections. Legislators that year also passed a law that does the same thing and has already gone into effect.

Why both a law and a constitutional amendment? A previous photo ID law unanimously was declared unconstitutional in 2014 by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The majority opinion said it illegally added a new qualification to voters. Another three justices said the Legislature didn’t pass the law by the required two-thirds majority. Justice Courtney Goodson wrote that second, concurring opinion. Opponents have used that against her in her re-election campaign this year.

In response, the Legislature covered its bases.  Continue reading →

That other Supreme Court seat

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, GoodsonBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You’re probably well informed about the Supreme Court seat that’s already been filled, but not so much about the one where you still have a say. Let’s start fixing that.

The one that’s filled will be occupied in Washington, D.C., perhaps for 30 years, by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Regardless of what you think about it, it’s done.

The one you still can influence will be decided Nov. 6. That’s when Arkansans will vote to re-elect Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson, or replace her with her opponent, David Sterling. Continue reading →

Governor wants to clean up his cabinet

Cabinet

Charts provided by Arkansas Governor’s Office.

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

In the middle of the Governor’s Conference Room at the State Capitol is a sturdy wooden table donated by former Governor George Donaghey in 1935. It was constructed from a walnut tree planted by Donaghey’s father, Columbus, in Conway 60 years earlier.

Even if he wanted, Gov. Asa Hutchinson could not possibly fit all his Cabinet officers around it. But if he has his way, in 2020 he or the next governor could, if someone brought in half a dozen extra chairs around the perimeter.

Hutchinson on Wednesday announced a plan to reduce the number of cabinet-level state agencies from a sprawling 42 to a manageable 15. Doing so would make the governor’s cabinet the same size as the president’s. 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 →

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 →