Category Archives: State government

Arkansas gets more of a say for president. Is it worth it?

By Steve Brawner, vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Arkansas primaries, Goodson, photo ID© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Legislators this year permanently moved Arkansas’ presidential primary elections to March, and recently the state starting seeing the maybe-or-not-worth-it results: visits by two mid-tier Democratic presidential candidates.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke both talked guns.

In a press conference Aug. 15, Klobuchar touted universal background checks and barring guns from people convicted of domestic abuse against unmarried partners. As the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s John Moritz reported, she also expressed support for “red flag” laws creating a process for temporarily removing guns from people deemed a threat.

O’Rourke narrowly lost a high-profile Senate race in Texas last year. He entered this campaign with much promise but has yet to catch fire, so he’s trying to create a spark.

He spoke Aug. 17 at the state Democratic Party’s Clinton Dinner, spoke at a gun control rally at the state Capitol, and visited a gun show in Conway. O’Rourke has called for banning military-style assault rifles and instituting a mandatory government buyback program where owners of those weapons who don’t participate would be fined.

O’Rourke formerly represented El Paso, where a mass shooter killed 22 people Aug. 3. Continue reading →

Hendren ‘not telling them no’ in 2022 governor’s race

Jim Hendren, tobacco taxBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Could Jim Hendren be Arkansas’ next governor? He thinks so. I told him it would be an uphill climb.

The state Senate president pro tempore from Gravette in Northwest Arkansas said he’s being encouraged to run in 2022. He said supporters approve of what Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Republican legislators are doing. And he’s not discouraging their interest.

“I am beginning to travel some and to meet with some folks and have those discussions about the challenges that we face and the things that we can bring to the table to be successful,” he said while traveling on business Monday. He later added, “I guess what I’m saying is I’m not telling them no at this point. I’m having those discussions.”

Hendren joked during a recent dinner speech at the National Conference of State Legislatures that he was declaring his candidacy – against his sister, state Rep. Gayla McKenzie, R-Gravette, for her office. When the women in the audience chanted her name, he told them he instead would run against his uncle for president.

That would be Hutchinson, who recently said a White House run is “on the table.”

Hendren’s name has been mentioned often concerning the 2022 governor’s race, but not as the first name on the list. Lt. Governor Tim Griffin is definitely running for governor, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is considered a possible opponent. Continue reading →

After more mass shootings, would red flags help?

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

If we can’t agree about violent video games, or Hollywood’s negative influence, or whether any of this is the president’s fault, can we at least agree that it should be harder for mentally ill people to purchase semi-automatic weapons?

Well, not yet we can’t, unfortunately.

The question arises after another series of American-made mass shootings. On Aug. 3, a 21-year-old killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Early the next morning, a 24-year-old killed nine people, including his own sister, in Dayton, Ohio.

The shootings occurred only days after Drew Grant, 33, died in a traffic accident near Cave City July 27. Grant had changed his name – he was born Andrew Golden – apparently hoping to escape his past. He could not.

At the Westside Middle School near Jonesboro on March 24, 1998, Golden, then 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, pulled a fire alarm and then hid in the woods like snipers while the students and teachers gathered on the playground. Then they murdered fellow students Paige Herring, Stephanie Johnson, Brittney Varner and Natalie Brooks, and teacher Shannon Wright. Continue reading →

If a legislator doesn’t have to pay all his taxes, then why should we?

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

In light of what’s been happening lately at the State Capitol, average citizens might be asking a simple question: If a legislator doesn’t have to pay all of his taxes, then why should we?

I’m referring to the case of Rep. Mickey Gates, R-Hot Springs, who is still in office despite pleading no contest July 29 to charges of failing to pay his taxes in 2012. Gates must now pay the state $74,789 for money owed from 2012-14, and a hearing will determine what he owes for 2015-17 . As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors dropped additional charges related to his failure to file tax returns from 2013-17.

That six-year period is bad enough, but his record of tax evasion actually is much longer. Authorities have said he owed the state almost $260,000 in taxes, interest and penalties after not filing a return from 2003-17. But he was not charged for those earlier years because the statute of limitations had run out.

Even after his no contest plea, he is refusing to resign, despite calls for him to do so by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Speaker of the House Matthew Shepherd and others.

Hutchinson said that if Gates won’t resign, he should be removed from office, which can happen under the Arkansas Constitution with a two-thirds vote of the House of Representatives.

However, the Legislature likely will not meet again until next year. Hutchinson could call it into special session to expel Gates, but his spokesman told me he has no plans to do so. Continue reading →

Levees – time for foresight with the benefit of hindsight

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

July 2, 2019

Hindsight is 20-20, and in hindsight what happened last Thursday probably should have happened sooner.

But hindsight is only useful as a learning tool, so now it’s time for its more valuable cousin, foresight.

On June 27, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced he was creating the Arkansas Levee Task Force to recommend how to maintain and strengthen the state’s levees. Because the levees have been weakened by the recent historic flooding, the task force will have a short timeline to complete its report by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the governor said he will seek quick (and certain) legislative approval to spend $10 million on immediate repairs, particularly for the Holla Bend Levee in Yell County, which dramatically breached, and the Lollie Levee in Faulkner County, which hung on by a thread.

Continue reading →