Colette Honorable, a woman from humble beginnings, was sworn in Friday as the newest member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a courtroom full of dignitaries cheered.
"My mother, Joyce Dodson, or 'Mimi,' is literally the wind beneath my wings," the 44-year-old attorney told a crowd of supporters gathered in her honor in the Special Proceedings courtroom of the Richard Sheppard Arnold United States Courthouse in Little Rock. Then, looking around, she said, "The room in which you sit, I'm sure my mother has cleaned."
Her mother, a longtime and well-liked member of the courthouse janitorial staff who was among numerous smiling family members and friends filling the courtroom, soon will be moving with Honorable from Little Rock to Washington, D.C. The district will be Honorable's home base as she takes her place on the five-member commission to which she was nominated in August by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate three weeks ago.
"It takes a village to do this work, and I don't do it alone," Honorable said after taking the oath of office from fellow Arkansan Lavenski Smith, a judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She added, "I will always cherish what I've learned in Arkansas ... and what we've done together."
Before she took the oath of office to join the independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil, the former assistant attorney general and Public Service Commission chairman listened as the state's top officials sang her praises.
"We are very proud of you, the Honorable Ms. Honorable," U.S. Sen. John Boozman said, generating laughter.
Gov. Mike Beebe joked that when he served as the state's attorney general and "inherited" Honorable, who was hired by his predecessor, Mark Pryor, "It's a good thing I met her in person because if I'd talked to her on the telephone, I was going to ask Mark why he'd hired an 8-year-old girl."
Beebe said Honorable, a consumer attorney, quickly moved up the ranks to become chief of staff while displaying "integrity, wisdom beyond her years and compassion for everyone, regardless of their station in life."
He and Pryor, whose term as the state's other U.S. senator recently came to an end, told the crowd that although Honorable "makes it look so easy," in reality, "it hasn't been easy for her. She is self-made."
Pryor recalled meeting her in 1998 while he campaigned for the attorney general's seat in Pine Bluff. He said "an unknown attorney walked up and said, 'When you win, I want to work for you.' I said, 'Yes, ma'am.'"
Pryor said that once hired, Honorable "took the office by storm," handling every matter assigned to her with "excellence."
Outgoing Attorney General Dustin McDaniel also praised Honorable as "a person who ... has this enormous heart to go along with that sweet, special voice." He called her "an amazing person" who considers the interests of all people when making decisions.
"You will make a difference," Pryor told Honorable, noting that "it wasn't easy" to get her confirmed during the Senate Democrats' last-minute rush to push through as many pending nominations as possible before year's end.
Honorable, a past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, had the support of both Republicans and Democrats as well as industry and consumer groups, and she wasn't considered controversial.
Darrin Williams, an attorney and former high school classmate of Honorable's, recalled that "she's always been a leader," starting with being president of their senior class.
"She is a woman of action," he said. "She gets things done."
Metro on 01/10/2015