Correction: Jake Files, a Republican from Fort Smith, is a state senator. His first name was reported incorrectly in this article.
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Senate on Thursday elected Senate Republican Whip Michael Lamoureux of Russellville as its leader for 2013 and 2014 — two days after Republicans won control of the chamber for the first time since Reconstruction.
Lamoureux recalled that a former Senate leader, Bob Johnson, DBigelow, once told senators that “I love my party, but I love my state more,” and said he hopes that the Senate puts “the political differences behind us and gets to work.”
After Lamoureux’s election as Senate president pro tempore, the Senate’s Joint Budget Committee members elected his pick to be cochairman of that committee — state Sen. Larry Teague, a Democrat from Nashville.
“We have got a lot of work to clean up Sen. [Gilbert] Baker’s mistakes,” Teague joked to senators, referring to the Conway Republican who is the current Senate chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.
In 2011, the Senate voted to designate Teague as its leader in 2013 and 2014. But Teague agreed last year to support Lamoureux to be the Senate’s leader if the Republicans gained control of the chamber.
In Tuesday’s election, the Republicans won 21 of the Senate’s 35 seats and the Democrats garnered the other 14. They will be sworn in on Jan. 14. Since 2011, the Senate has comprised 20 Democrats and 15 Republicans.
Lamoureux told senators that “we have got huge issues facing our state, a Medicaid shortfall, a possible Medicaid expansion, schools, prisons and other issues.
“We are going to work to solve those problems,” he said.
Afterward, Lamoureux said he expects legislative deliberations about resolving the state’s Medicaid program’s projected shortfall of about $350 million in fiscal 2014 and a proposed expansion of the program by 250,000 people to dominate the 2013 session.
He said he’s committed “to look at all the facts and encourage people to participate and find a solution.”
Lamoureux has suggested “a small expansion could happen” as part of a broader agreement to make the program more efficient and possibly require Medicaid recipients to make co-payments.
But Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has advised state officials that there is no flexibility for a smaller expansion of the Medicaid program.
“I have seen speculation ... that this could change as the rules and regulations are fleshed out,” DeCample said. “But to this point, we have no indication from [the centers] that flexibility will be an option.”
Legislative approval of the Medicaid expansion would require 75 votes in the 100-member House and 27 votes in the 35-member Senate.
State Sen.-elect Alan Clark, a Hot Springs Republican, spoke in opposition to the proposed Medicaid expansion during his successful campaign against state Sen. Mike Fletcher, a Democrat from Hot Springs.
Asked if there is any way that he could vote to expand the program, he replied, “Ideologically I am against it. Ideologically my district’s against it. I am going to do what is best for my district.”
Clark said it’s possible that he could favor expanding the Medicaid program if the federal government offered the state block grants for the program.
But DeCample said, “We have not heard of that being considered as an option for states.”
In preparation for the session starting on Jan. 14, senators on Thursday, among other things, selected their committee assignments and chairmen, and seats in the chamber.
Also, from a basket, they each drew a plastic ball with a piece of paper inside to determine whether they will begin serving a two year or fouryear term after they are sworn in on Jan 14. They do so after the election that comes after the redrawing of the legislative district boundaries every 10 years, so that subsequent elections are staggered and all senators aren’t running for office at the same time.
State Sen. Joyce Elliott, DLittle Rock, hugged state Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain, on Thursday morning and congratulated him after learning that Key had decided to lead the Senate Education Committee. Senators select their own committee assignments on the basis of seniority.
Since the Republicans gained control of the Senate, “it means I don’t get to chair education, but that’s OK,” Elliott told Key.
The chairmen of the Senate’s other committees include:
Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers.
Revenue and Taxation Committee, Sen. Jack Files, RFort Smith. Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock. Insurance and Commerce, Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow. State Agencies Committee, Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot. Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs, Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs. City, County and Local Committee, Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View. Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee, Sen. Bruce Holland, RGreenwood. Rules Committee, Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola. Efficiency Committee, Sen. David Wyatt, D-Batesville. Joint Performance Review Committee, Sen.-elect and state Rep. Jane English, RNorth Little Rock. Joint Public Retirement Committee, Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould. Joint Energy Committee, Sen. Linda Chesterfield, DLittle Rock. Joint Children and Youth Committee, Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff.
Joint Auditing Committee, Sen.-elect and Rep. Bryan King, R-Green Forrest.
Legislative Council, Sen. Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro.
As chairman of the Revenue and Taxation Committee, Files said, he wants to review what could be done to increase economic-development opportunities for the state.
As for Beebe’s desire to further cut the state’s 1.5 percent sales tax on groceries, he said, “It wouldn’t be my first pick. But I am open to it.
“I certainly want to work with the governor. I think that’s an important piece of his legacy and his time here. I certainly want to honor that,” Files said. “Any tax cut is a worthwhile thing, but we have got to do that responsibly.”
King decided to serve on the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, becoming the fifth Republican to be on the eight-member committee. In 2011, he sponsored a bill which would’ve required Arkansans to produce a government-issued photo ID before voting in any election.
It passed the House before stalling in that committee — a fate King hopes it will avoid in 2013.
“I think we are going to finally get the reforms in that I have always tried to pass down here. I am ecstatic,” King said.
After Lamoureux called for bipartisanship in the Senate, King drew a plastic ball and got a two-year term, starting Jan. 14. He joked to his colleagues that “I drew a zero. Did Gov. Beebe put that in there?”
King is an outspoken critic of Beebe, a Democrat who has been governor since 2007.
The others who drew a two-year term are Sens.-elect and Reps. Uvalde Lindsey, DFayetteville; Keith Ingram, DWest Memphis; David Sanders, R-Little Rock; and Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch; and Bledsoe, Chesterfield, Ellliott, Files, Holland, Hutchinson, Irvin, Key, Rapert, Sample, Teague, Thompson and Wyatt.
“I can’t stand another twoyear election,” said Wyatt, who survived a challenge Tuesday from state Rep. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas.
Those who drew a fouryear term include state Sens. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy; David Johnson, D-Little Rock; and Burnett, Bookout, Flowers, Williams and Lamoureux. The others were state Sen.-elects Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne; JImmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, and Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs; former Reps. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, and Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs; current Reps. Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan; Jon Woods, RSpringdale; Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, and English; and Clark.
The Senate Republicans also elected Williams as the Senate Republican leader, and Dismang as the Senate Republican whip to succeed Lamoureux, and the Senate Democrats selected Ingram as the Senate Democratic leader and Pierce as the Senate Democratic whip.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/09/2012