Category Archives: State government

Gov. Sanders not-great, not-terrible night

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas, primaries, Goodson, photo ID, Sarah Huckabee SandersThere is a lot to cover as we review Tuesday’s primary elections. We’ll start with what happened with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and three Republican state Senate races.

Sanders’ political action committee, Team SHS PAC, donated $7,000 each to two candidates who challenged Senate incumbents who had voted against her planned 3,000-bed Franklin County prison. 

The incumbents nevertheless won easily. In District 28, Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, defeated Bobby Ballinger with 60% of the vote. Meanwhile in District 10, Sen. Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne, won with 70% over challenger Trey Bohannan.

Caldwell is seeking to be the next Senate president pro tempore when senators vote in the next couple of months.

Continue reading →

Cole Jester vs. Christian Olson for land commissioner

The Arkansas land commissioner is so low profile that most voters probably don’t know who the current officeholder is or what he does.

The officeholder should be easy: Tommy Land is the current land commissioner. He’s term-limited. 

Running in the Republican primary to replace him are Secretary of State Cole Jester and Christian Olson. No Democrats filed. Continue reading →

If you can’t beat them, go around them?

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It’s hard for many groups to get much done via representative democracy in Arkansas these days, so this election season – and maybe in future ones – they are trying the direct democracy route.

As you may have noticed, there are more proposed ballot initiatives this year than voters can shake a stick at. 

Meanwhile, there are few competitive candidate races. The presidential race is a foreground conclusion at this point. The only statewide race will be a special election for state treasurer, which Republican Secretary of State John Thurston almost certainly will win. Republicans will likely maintain their control of more than 80% of the Legislature. Continue reading →

A quiet fiscal session coming?

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When legislators gather at the Arkansas State Capitol starting April 10 for their every-two-year fiscal session, they’ll be considering the governor’s budget, her plan for increasing state employee salaries, and the state’s growing collection of noisy crypto mines.

But in contrast to those crypto mines, the session itself could be relatively quiet.

Voters created the biennial fiscal session through a constitutional amendment in 2008. It occurs in even-numbered years between the longer regular sessions. Those occur in odd-numbered years.  

Fiscal sessions are supposed to focus on budget matters. Legislators can consider other issues with a two-thirds vote by both the House and Senate, but they generally try to save those discussions for the regular session. The fiscal sessions can last no more than 30 days. Lawmakers can extend them once by no more than 15 days with a three-fourths vote by both chambers. Continue reading →

Dennis Milligan has $400 million. Some might be yours.

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It’s not every day that a man tells you he has $400 million to get rid of, and he needs your help to do it. That happened to me at the State Capitol Feb. 21.

The man was Dennis Milligan, the Arkansas state auditor. The $400 million is the total value of all the unclaimed properties the state is trying to return to its rightful owners through “The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt.” 

One in four Arkansans have property in the state’s possession. The auditor’s office has more than a million properties to dispense. The properties come from a variety of sources – an inheritance, a deserted bank account, a safety deposit box that somebody forgot about, etc. If a final paycheck never made it to somebody, banks are obligated to turn the money over to the auditor’s office. 

One woman got $1.4 million

“I gave a lady $1.4 million in Hot Springs the other day that her dad had left her through stocks that she didn’t even know about,” he said. “And that’s not the norm, but there’s plenty of $80, $150, $200. And again, it comes from old utility deposits. I’ve got Rolex watches. I’ve got war medals in our vault that again were taken out of safety deposit boxes and ultimately ended up in my hands.” Continue reading →