Arkansas guests get up close at State of the Union address

Beebe High School senior Jesse Kloss (left) looks at frescoes in the U.S. Capitol rotunda Monday during a tour led by intern Emily Goldberger. Kloss won an essay contest and a trip to Washington for the State of the Union address, courtesy of U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Little Rock.
Beebe High School senior Jesse Kloss (left) looks at frescoes in the U.S. Capitol rotunda Monday during a tour led by intern Emily Goldberger. Kloss won an essay contest and a trip to Washington for the State of the Union address, courtesy of U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Little Rock.

WASHINGTON - Miranda Luke, whose husband’s death prompted a change to who receives military death benefits, was U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor’s guest at the State of the Union on Tuesday.

The Greenwood woman called the invitation a thrill and a gift.

“Sen. Pryor has done so much for me and my family, I was honored,” she said. She was one of several Arkansans with seats for the annual address.

The six members of the Arkansas congressional delegation selected their guests in very different ways. Some took along family, one held a contest, and one gave his extra ticket to a constituent who happened to be in town.

Luke and other guests of the Arkansas delegation were invited to sit in the House gallery during President Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday.

During a required training weekend at Fort Chaffee in 2010, Miranda’s husband, Capt. Samson Luke, was authorized to spend Saturday night with his family at home. He died that evening.

Because he passed away at home, not on base or at a local hotel, the Army denied the family the $100,000 death gratuity or benefit they would have otherwise received.

Pryor worked to fix the situation for the Lukes and other military families in similar situations by changing federal law to allow the payment of military death benefits when a soldier on active duty or in training dies “in the vicinity of” his base. The law was not applied retroactively, but the U.S. Army reversed its decision and paid the death benefits to the Luke family.

Luke said Pryor’s work to get the benefits is an example of how all politicians should treat those they represent.

“I’m one of his constituent she can point to and show how much he did for us and show his character,” she said. “He really came to the assistance of a widow and her four kids who were in a desperate situation. Nobody else has to go through what I did again because he changed that law.”

Luke said Pryor and his staff have kept track of her family in the four years since her husband died and the two years since the Army granted the benefits.

“His office, they call me regularly and check up on me,” she said.

Luke said she was curious to hear what Obama would say about the military and Iran.

“I’m just excited to be in the room,” she said, hours before the speech. “I’m excited for the whole pomp and circumstance about it.”

While Pryor used his ticket to highlight a legislative success, another congressman used his guest pass to motivate young people.

U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin held an essay contest for high school students to choose his guest.

Beebe High School senior Jesse Kloss said she doesn’t share the president’s political views but was grateful for the chance to be in the room when he gave the State of the Union.

“I don’t care what party he is. You get to see the president,” the 18-year-old Republican said.

Kloss wrote an essay that was selected out of 115 entries from six counties in the 2nd Congressional District.

“Just being in the room with the lawmakers, that’s amazing,” she said.

Using money from his campaign funds, Griffin provided travel and lodging for Kloss and her father, David Kloss. Griffin has announced that he won’t seek re-election this year. Jesse Kloss’ mother, Cindy Kloss, also made the trip.

The Little Rock congressman said in a news release that his office received applications from 30 public and private high schools. Six home-schooled students also applied.

Winning the contest was a “long shot,” Kloss said, but politics and history is “just something I’ve always been into. It didn’t really hit me until I got on the plane. Oh my gosh, this is Washington.”

Kloss and her father toured the U.S. Capitol with an intern from Griffin’s office Monday and spent about an hour chatting with the congressman. The family also planned to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the National Museum of American History and the National Archives before flying home.

Kloss said she plans to attend the University of Arkansas next fall and study political science and music. This summer she wants to intern for a Republican political campaign.

Whether she’ll work, after college, as a political staff member or be a candidate herself is still up in the air, she said.

“I think you have to be the first one before the second one,” she said.

Kloss wasn’t the only member of her family with tickets to the speech.

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford was going to take his wife until their child got the stomach flu. Instead, the Jonesboro Republican offered the seat to Griffin so Kloss’ father could also attend the speech, his staff said.

The other House delegation members said they were taking along family. U.S. Rep. Steve Womack invited his sister Margaret Robinson, who is the principal of Atkins High School.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton reserved a seat for his fiancee, Anna. Cotton’s staff would not provide her last name.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman invited Ben Burris of Fort Smith, a constituent who was visiting Washington with the American Association of Orthodontists.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/29/2014

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