Beebe names Robert S. Moore Jr. to Highway Commission

Gov. Mike Beebe on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, names former Arkansas House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr. to the Arkansas Highway Commission.
Gov. Mike Beebe on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, names former Arkansas House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr. to the Arkansas Highway Commission.

— Gov. Mike Beebe on Thursday named former Arkansas House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr. to the Arkansas Highway Commission

Moore, a Democrat from Arkansas City, will replace commission Chairman R. Madison Murphy, whose 10-year term on the panel is expiring.

Moore's appointment expires Jan. 14, 2023.

Moore was introduced as the newest highway commissioner at a news conference Thursday with Beebe.

Moore said his philosophy is bringing good roads to rural areas and more roads to congested areas.

"Everybody should have reasonable access to having good, safe roads to travel on," he said.

In a statement released concurrently with the news conference, Beebe praised Moore as the right man for the job.

"As Speaker of the House of Representatives, Robert was an outspoken and successful advocate for improving Arkansas highways and our State as a whole," Beebe said in a statement. "He will continue that work on the Commission while providing a strong voice to represent South Arkansas."

Moore previously was named as chairman of the Arkansas Transportation Commission in 1977. He also served on the staff of then-Gov. Bill Clinton and two decades as director at Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The governor made the appointment as an idea is being floated in the Legislature to use state general revenue for highway funding, even though Arkansas voters last year approved a 10-year funding package worth $1.8 billion.

Moore, 68, grew up in southeast Arkansas and graduated from Ouachita Baptist University.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.

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