An Arkansas Senate committee Tuesday endorsed legislation that would allow a candidate to run for president or vice president of the United States and simultaneously run for the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives.
Afterward, the bill's sponsor, Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton "is the current candidate in Arkansas that we would like to see continue to have the opportunity to move forward."
Hester said he spoke to Cotton after he filed Senate Bill 803 on March 4 to make sure the U.S. senator didn't have any objections; Cotton didn't have any problems with it. Hester said no one asked him to propose the bill.
Cotton, a Dardanelle Republican who was elected to the U.S. Senate in November after his election to the U.S. House in 2012, is up for re-election in 2020 -- a presidential election year. Cotton spokesman Caroline Rabbitt could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon by telephone or email.
In a 5-1 vote, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee recommended the Senate approve SB803.
Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, joined Republican Sens. Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers, Bryan King of Green Forest , Jon Woods of Springdale and Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot in voting for the bill.
Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, voted against it. Democratic Sens. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock and Joyce Elliott of Little Rock abstained.
Hester told the committee that Texas and Wisconsin allowed former U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, respectively, to run for two federal offices at the same time, and "we [should] just afford the people of Arkansas the same opportunity some other states [allow]."
But Burnett wondered "why in the world would you propose a bill like this where a person could run for more than one office simultaneously.
"You would think that a person who wants to run for public office, particularly a federal office, would at least know which office he or she wants to hold and wouldn't have run simultaneously for two [offices]," he said. "It is ludicrous to me. What's the reason for it?"
Hester said "this is certainly not a new idea."
"The Democrats did this for Lyndon B. Johnson in Texas many, many years ago," he said. "I think it is whenever you have a candidate or a public servant that the people believe in, and you would like them to have an opportunity to step up without losing their current position, should they not be fortunate enough to win."
Burnett said a federal officeholder needs to step down if he is going to run for higher office.
Williams said Bill Clinton ran for U.S. president in 1992 while serving as Arkansas governor, and "the principle is the same." Chesterfield noted Clinton didn't run simultaneously for two federal offices.
"If you are in a six-year term as [a U.S.] senator, and two years into it you decide you want to run for president, you are saying you have to step down as a senator," Williams told Burnett.
Burnett asked Hester whether he has a particular person in mind to run simultaneously for two federal offices.
Hester said that "we have a lot of good candidates in Arkansas" who should be given the opportunity to run for two federal offices at the same time.
Metro on 03/11/2015