Jonesboro gets ‘political plum’ on Highway Commission
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Jan. 20, 2015
Jonesboro was bound to get a prized, long-awaited “political plum,” no matter who won the gubernatorial election of 2014. Each major candidate, Republican Asa Hutchinson and Democrat Mike Ross, promised publicly that he would appoint someone from Jonesboro to the powerful Arkansas Highway Commission.
Thus, Hutchinson fulfilled that pledge by announcing that sometime this month Alec Farmer, a Jonesboro businessman and farmer, will take a seat on the commission.
Farmer, a leader of the Hutchinson transition team, is well prepared. He challenged “good ol’ boy” politics in Jonesboro in 2002, first with a successful Freedom of Information lawsuit, then by winning a place on the City Council. As an alderman he championed reforms on financial accountability and openness in city government, and he lost a hard-fought campaign for mayor in 2008 to the current office-holder, Harold Perrin.
He has also been involved for many years in state government, including service on the State Police Commission and as chairman of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. He has long been interested in highways, helping lay the groundwork for the ongoing 4-lane project on Arkansas 226.
That a 4-lane highway between central Arkansas and Jonesboro has been so long in coming is at the heart of Jonesboro residents’ desire for a home-grown highway commissioner. They’ve watched highway dollars finance 4-lane roads in every other part of Arkansas, while the best state leaders could do for Jonesboro was the “future I-555” (meaning unfinished), linking the city with Interstate 55 near West Memphis.
In a sense the appointment of Alec Farmer will give him a chance to finish the work of his father, Dalton, who was the last true Jonesboro appointee to the Highway Commission.
Dalton Farmer was appointed by then-Gov. Bill Clinton in January 1985 but served only two years, resigning for business reasons. He died June 13, 1988, at age 57.
In her 1994 book, “On the Make: The Rise of Bill Clinton,” Meredith Oakley, longtime associate editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, told an interesting story about Dalton Farmer’s appointment.
The 1st Congressional District had been without representation on the commission for several years, and Clinton got strong support from Northeast Arkansas in retaking the governor’s office in 1982. In return he promised Farmer, one of his most faithful supporters a seat on the Highway Commission.
“... his friends knew he had invested many hours in preparing for the role,” Oakley wrote. “Never one to speak in his own behalf, Farmer had plenty of well-placed friends to do it for him. When, shortly after his third inauguration, it appeared likely that Clinton would renege on the commitment, those friends complained to a few select political reporters.”
Clinton, according to Oakley, wanted to name Maurice Smith of Birdeye, his executive secretary, instead. Controversy raged behind the scenes for about a week, and NEA leaders were boiling about a possible betrayal. “We never made a deal, but between friends, there are some things that are just understood,” state Sen. Jerry Bookout told Oakley.
Eventually, Farmer’s supporters told Clinton that he’d lose Craighead County and much of NEA forever if he didn’t appoint Farmer, the book says. Clinton finally agreed and announced the appointment while trying to salve the feelings of Smith.
That was part of Clinton’s long-running courtship of Northeast Arkansas, which had much to do with his political success. In “Arkansas Politics and Government” (2005) authors Diane D. Blair and Jay Barth quoted sources who said Clinton once told then-Jonesboro legislator Bobby Hogue that he’d “done everything for Jonesboro except move the state Capital up there.”
That’s one way Northeast Arkansas might have had its fair share of road improvements.
Unfortunately, Farmer was only able to serve two years of his 10-year term, and in March 1987 Clinton appointed Rodney Slater to replace him. Slater, originally from Mariana, had been on Clinton’s staff but more recently had resigned to become director of government relations at ASU so technically he qualified as a Jonesboro and 1st District appointee.
The appointment also fulfilled another campaign promise — appointing an African-American to the commission.
Slater didn’t finish the term either, following Clinton to Washington, D.C., as director of the Federal Highway Administration, then secretary of transportation.
That’s where Jonesboro and really the 1st District lost its representative. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker filled the position with James Weldon “Buddy” Benafield of Little Rock, whose only 1st District tie was a home in Newport.
The Farmer term finally expired in 2005, when Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed John Ed Regenold, a Mississippi County farmer, to replace him. On occasion Jonesboro area leaders have chafed at what they felt was Regenold’s lack of attention to needed highway improvements in the hub of NEA.
In fact, the Highway Commission has long had a geographic deficiency. Amendment 42, passed by an overwhelming vote of the people in 1952, created the commission as an independent agency of state government in response to many years of Highway Department inefficiency and political corruption.
The amendment dictates five highway commissioners, provided “that no two commissioners shall be appointed from any single congressional district.”
That worked until 1960 when the federal Census left Arkansas with only four districts, and the amendment has never been changed. One district always has two commissioners, usually the 2nd, which includes Little Rock.
Representation is critical for a growing region.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.