State Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, said Wednesday that he won't challenge Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, to be the Senate's next leader because he can be a more effective senator "by helping bring the Senate together."
The Senate Republican Caucus had been scheduled to vote today on his challenge of Dismang to be Senate president pro tempore. Then, late Wednesday, Stubblefield announced he would drop his challenge.
"This is not because I could not win or was just giving up," Stubblefield said in a written statement. "Quite the contrary, I am doing this to force change and bring about a healing of the rifts at the same time."
Stubblefield announced his challenge of Dismang last week, about 18 months after the Senate unanimously elected Dismang as the president pro tempore-designate.
Stubblefield opposes the private option, which uses federal dollars to purchase private health insurance for poor Arkansans. Dismang helped create the program. Stubblefield's challenge came days after several new private-option opponents were elected to the Legislature to replace Democratic supporters of the program.
On Wednesday, Stubblefield expressed no regrets about his short-lived leadership challenge.
"I believe my actions forced change for the better," he said.
"But I also believe my action [Wednesday] is necessary to ensure the Senate will now function more in line with what the voters want," Stubblefield said. He said his opposition to the state's private option "is no less, [and] my will to fight to keep government out of the citizens' pockets and off their backs is just as strong."
He told reporters that "I think I brought our caucus closer together just by running. You would be amazed how much it changed in four days, the attitudes of the caucus members."
Dismang said in an interview that he "appreciates what [Stubblefield] is doing.
"We had a good conversation and a conversation that probably needed to happen before," he said.
Dismang said he believes that he had enough votes in the 23-member Senate Republican Caucus to win, regardless of what Stubblefield did. The Senate will vote Friday on the Senate president pro tempore for the rest of this year and then for the next two years, he said.
He said Stubblefield neither asked for nor received any concessions.
Last week, Stubblefield said he started considering challenging Dismang a few weeks ago after Dismang hired James Miller, a former staff member under Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, as his aide. As a Beebe staff member, Miller worked to reshape legislative boundaries so they would benefit Democrats, Stubblefield said.
Dismang said Wednesday that Miller will continue to work for him as his aide.
Last week, Dismang said Stubblefield also was unhappy about Dismang's plans for Democratic state Sen. Larry Teague of Nashville to be the Senate's chairman for the Joint Budget Committee again -- a claim Stubblefield declined to address at that time.
Dismang said Wednesday that he still plans for Teague to hold the post. Under the Senate's rules, the budget committee members elect their co-chairman.
Stubblefield said he decided to run for Senate president pro tempore because he thought Dismang was going to have other Democrats serve as committee chairmen, but Dismang denied that. Dismang said Wednesday that there will be Democrats appointed as legislative subcommittee chairmen.
As for the future of the private option, Dismang said it's too early to predict its fate.
The decision on the private option will be a joint one between Republican Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson and the House and the Senate, Dismang said.
In 2013 and 2014, funding for the program narrowly cleared the 100-member House and 35-member Senate with the required three-fourths supermajority.
The current program extends insurance coverage to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 180,000 Arkansans have been enrolled in private health insurance through the program, according to the Department of Human Services.
Federal Medicaid funds pay for 100 percent of the program until fiscal 2017, when the state will pick up 5 percent of the cost. The state's share of the tab will gradually increase up to 10 percent in fiscal 2020.
Metro on 11/13/2014