LITTLE ROCK — The Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, Mark Darr, says Arkansas will get four years of the Democratic nominee, Shane Broadway, “saying, ‘Yes, sir’” to Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe if Broadway and Beebe are elected in November.
And that’s “going to be an ineffective and basically a wasted lieutenant governor’s spot,” said Darr of Springdale, an insurance agent who owns Mad Pizza Co. in Rogers and is making his first bid for elected office.
He said he would be a constitutional officer accountable to the people of Arkansas and independent enough to say when Beebe does a great job and when the governor doesn’t do a good job.
For example, he said Beebe wasn’t outspoken against the federal health-care overhaul enacted by President Barack Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress this year. Beebe said he would have voted against the federal legislation, citing a potential cost to the state of up to $200 million a year within several years.
Broadway said he’s “not responding” to Darr, but he and Beebe are “close” from their work together as legislative leaders from 2001-2003 and their common interests in education and economic development issues.
He said he and Beebe sometimes disagree, but talk out their differences to “come to some solution of what’s best for Arkansas.”
Broadway said he would complement the Beebe administration’s work with his own and work cooperatively with the governor, and that’s “an asset to our state.”
“If you have a governor and lieutenant governor working together for the common good of our state, I see nothing but positive coming out of that,” said Broadway of Bryant, who has served in the Legislature since 1997. He is a consultant for Saline County Economic Development Corp. and director of client development for Insight Communications.
Darr, 37, and Broadway, 37, are vying in the Nov. 2 general election to succeed Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Halter of North Little Rock, who lost in the June 8 runoff to U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln for a U.S. Senate nomination.
The lieutenant governor’s salary is $41,896 a year.
His official duties are few. He presides over the state Senate, voting only to break ties, which are rare in the 35-member body. He also acts as governor when the governor is out of the state or unable to serve.
Halter, a former official in President Bill Clinton’s administration, helped persuade nearly 63 percent of voters in 2008 to approve what is now Amendment 87 authorizing the General Assembly to create state lotteries to raise money for college scholarships.
Two of the past three governors moved up from lieutenant governors when governors left office before their terms expired. In 1992, Gov. Bill Clinton left to become president, clearing the way for Jim Guy Tucker. In 1996 Tucker resigned after being convicted in federal court, clearing the way for Mike Huckabee.
Broadway presided over the state House of Representatives as House speaker in 2001 and 2002, and the lieutenant governor presides over the Senate. He said his experience makes him the best prepared to preside over the Senate and, if necessary, lead the state forward as governor.
‘CHECKBOOK’
As lieutenant governor, Darr said, he wants to create an “online checkbook” to show taxpayers where their money is spent.
Last year, the state Department of Finance and Administration estimated that developing and operating such a site could cost several million dollars.
Darr said his proposal shouldn’t cost any more than the state already spends and shouldn’t require more employees.
Broadway noted that the governor’s office already has a website to show where federal economic stimulus dollars have been committed.
He said he would support creation of an “online checkbook.” Then, he added that the General Assembly would have to decide whether to provide funding for it. He believes it would cost some, although there is disagreement about how much.
Darr said he wants to try “to lock in” tuition levels for freshman college students for four years as long as they meet a minimum grade-point average and other requirements.
“It maximizes the benefit of that scholarship lottery and all scholarships that they will receive,” he said.
Broadway said it would be difficult to do what Darr suggests because of Amendment 33 to the Arkansas Constitution, which grants colleges and universities some independence under their boards of trustees. He also said there could be difficulties from “a cost standpoint because costs do rise.”
“We have got to continue to find ways to cut costs and be more efficient ... in terms of buildings and look for ways to reduce energy costs ... to keep tuition low,” he said.
ILLEGAL ALIENS
Darr said the state needs to enforce existing immigration laws and take action to “not be a flagship for illegal immigrants to come to Arkansas and feel like they are safe.”
“We need to protect people’s rights, jobs [and] property against this, and I believe that the Democrat side is silent on this,” he said.
Darr said the Arkansas Generally Assembly needs to enact legislation similar to Arizona’s law aimed at cracking down on illegal aliens. The federal government is challenging the Arizona law in federal court.
Arizona’s law requires police officers enforcing another law to question a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that he is in the country illegally.
Violators face up to six months in jail and $2,500 in fines, in addition to federal deportation.
“If we don’t pass something similar” and some of Arkansas’ surrounding states pass similar laws, “we are going to see even more of an influx of illegal immigrants into the state that is going to make what we pay for their education and for their medical care go up even higher,” Darr said.
Broadway said the Arkansas General Assembly in 2007 enacted legislation requiring contractors with the state to sign a document attesting that they don’t use illegal aliens.
“I think we need to keep our options open,” he said. “I don’t think adopting the [Arizona] bill is going to the fix the problem as everybody thinks it is going to do.”
Under Arizona’s law, “if a police officer pulls somebody over for a reason in order to detain them they still have to call a federal immigration official to come pick that person up,” Broadway said.
“One thing we can ensure is that they obey the laws of the state and that they pay the taxes that are due to the state and that we press forward on Congress to initiate a comprehensive reform package,” he said.
Nobody thinks it is humanely possible or fiscally feasible to send back about 12 million illegal aliens to their home countries, Broadway said.
2004
Darr said that in 2004 Broadway should have informed a legislative committee he was co-chairman of that a consultant working as program director for a $10 million study of Arkansas’ school buildings had pleaded no contest in 2003 in Ohio to two misdemeanor ethics charges regarding golf outings and an overnight stay provided by construction executives.
“We will be pointing out that those are his characteristics of leadership,” he said. “Be completely honest with your fellow legislators and also the people of Arkansas. Don’t hide who you are hiring.”
Broadway said he apologized to the legislative committee in 2004 “for not bringing that forward to them.”
“That was a mistake on my part,” he said.
“We investigated everything that occurred in Ohio. Ironically he was a Republican, and it was Democrats who went after him on those charges,” Broadway said.
“In a sense, we gave him a second chance because ... his work product spoke for itself. But we laid out ground rules on the front end of what he could and could not do to ensure that that situation didn’t occur again and it didn’t,” he said.
OTHER ISSUES
Darr said he opposes abortion except to save the life of a mother or in cases of rape or incest. Broadway opposes abortion except to save the life of a mother.
Darr said he opposes allowing homosexuals and unmarried couples to adopt children. Broadway said hewants a judge to make those decisions in the best interests of the child.
As lieutenant governor, Broadway said, he wants to create a clearinghouse in the office to identify school programs that increase student achievement or save money and wants to figure out if the programs can be replicated in other schools and school districts.
He said he also would like to work on increasing the state’s college completion rate, expanding training for tradesmen such as plumbers and electricians at two-year colleges so they could form their own firms, and helping counties without plans to retain and recruit employers write their own plans.
In addition, Broadway said he wants to encourage the state’s research universities to help small startup companies find new product lines, and work on reducing state government’s energy costs.
Darr has signed a pledge to oppose “all efforts to increase taxes.” Broadway has said it would be irresponsible for Broadway to do that.
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 07/25/2010