Passage of amendment could change political climate further
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Nov. 11,2014
While covering a pre-election meeting of the Independence County Democratic Central Committee around 1980, I noticed that everyone there had gray hair or no hair. No young people were in the room.
Looking for a fresh angle to the story, I asked the party chairman what a young person might do to get involved in the political process. “We really don’t need anybody else,” he said adamantly.
Such was the attitude of party leaders in organizing volunteers and appointing poll workers — exclusive rather than inclusive. That was surprising, especially because the 1970s and ‘80s were an age of political involvement among college-age people. Those holding the reins of political “power” feared their participation more than they welcomed it.
I don’t know if the same attitude prevailed elsewhere, but it’s not hard to see that the Democratic Party began running out of good candidates, at least on the state level, by the turn of the century. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Republican Party, which once had consisted of the liberal Winthrop Rockefeller and a few other die-hards, began building an organization from the grassroots level.
Passage of the term limits amendment in 1992 helped the GOP, pushing aside perennial holders of legislative seats and statewide offices. That opened the door to new faces, and some of them won elections.
Until then, winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to election. But real contests began to develop for the general election, and Democrats started producing fewer contests for their primaries.
I voted in the Republican primary this year because the only thing on the Democratic ballot in Craighead County was a meaningless contest for the gubernatorial nomination, whereas the Republicans had several interesting races. Primaries build organization, name recognition and support.
Many circumstances conspired to bring about the Republicans’ sweep last week, but one of those most certainly was that the Democratic Party got old and a bit complacent. The new reality — having an “R” by your name on the ballot — is almost tantamount to election, all the way down to local races.
This new condition of Arkansas politics may not change for some time. One thing I’ve learned from American politics, though, is that nothing is forever. In 1991 President George H.W. Bush appeared so certain to be re-elected by a landslide that I couldn’t see why Bill Clinton would think about running against him in 1992.
We know how that turned out.
One other thing that we the people did last week could greatly affect the Arkansas political scene in elections to come. That was the surprising passage of Issue No. 3, also known as the Arkansas Elected Officials Ethics, Transparency and Financial Reform Amendment of 2014. It became effective Nov. 5.
The reason I thought it wouldn’t pass is that this 7,500-word monster has a lot of bipartisan reform in it. Most of that reform is good, but it could have better been accomplished by statute rather than making our already-long Constitution even longer. This way, making changes won’t be easy.
Consider how it will affect being a state official or legislator:
• Gifts from lobbyists are now prohibited, even so much as a cup of coffee. Having rich friends who are lobbyists has been one of the perks of the lawmaker’s job.
• A retiring legislator will have to wait two years, instead of just one, before taking a job as a lobbyist.
• Legislators can no longer set their own salaries, raises are not automatic, and they will have to depend on an independent citizens commission for recommendations about reimbursement of expenses.
• Candidates cannot accept campaign contributions from corporations or unions. During the past couple of elections certain corporations have contributed heavily to judicial candidates.
The latter could backfire on reformers. Unions and corporations, unable to make limited direct contributions, could instead contribute on an unlimited basis to political action committees, which in turn could aid their candidates of choice and-or oppose the candidates they don’t like.
You may have seen a few PAC ads in the months leading up to the general election. This could bring more, if that’s possible.
These changes could make the job of being a legislator, or a candidate for the Legislature, less attractive.
On the other hand, the provision establishing an independent citizens commission just might — might — reform the awful present system that pays legislators more than state employees for mileage, puts their relatives or a bogus personal consulting company on the state payroll and-or gives them regular payments for maintaining an “office.”
However, the legislators reserved the final decision on such matters to themselves.
Finally, Issue No. 3 eases the severe restrictions of term limits for legislators. Beginning Jan. 1, a person can serve a total of 16 years in either the House or Senate, or both. The two 4-year term limit for senators and three 2-year term limit for representatives is gone.
That means a lot of people who have been barred from office are suddenly eligible to serve longer. For example, Butch Wilkins of Jonesboro, who will be leaving his seat as District 59 representative after reaching his 6-year limit, could run again. And he could serve five more terms. Whether he’d want to is another question.
Nevertheless, we have many more potential candidates which could enliven the 2016 primaries and general election. Democrats would be wiser, though, to build from the grassroots, as the new majority did.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.