Primary election bill clears House

Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, speaks to the House Committee on State and Governmental Affairs Thursday.
Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, speaks to the House Committee on State and Governmental Affairs Thursday.

3:45 p.m. update:

The Arkansas House on Thursday gave final approval to a measure that would shift the state’s primaries from May to March after the legislation stalled in committee earlier in the day.

The House voted 67-16 to send Senate Bill 8 to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s desk, which he has said he plans to sign into law.

The new primary date will align Arkansas’s with other Southern state’s primaries.

See Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full coverage.

1:30 p.m. update:

A bill that would shift Arkansas' primary election from March to May to align it with other southern states cleared a House committee Thursday after a vote was delayed earlier in the day.

The House Committee on State and Governmental Affairs voted 12-4 in favor of Senate Bill 8. It was next headed for the full House, which is to convene at 2:30 p.m.

The panel was to vote on SB8 earlier Thursday, but Rep. Camille Bennett, D-Lonoke, asked for a fiscal impact analysis, a move called a stalling tactic by one member. House rules allow a member to seek such an analysis and then have 24 hours before a vote is taken.

But the full House convened a short time after that motion and voted to suspend the fiscal impact rules, which allowed the committee to consider it at the afternoon hearing.

Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena and the chair of the committee, reiterated his "strong objection" to the bill before that vote. He said moving the primary is a major change that deserves further scrutiny before a decision is made.

"We're taking and making a significant change to our state laws and we're doing it on the basis of a bill that you all first saw Thursday, that this committee first got just a few hours ago," he said. "This is not the way we should do this business. This is not the way we should do the people's business. This is a serious business we're engaged in here."

Bell spoke at length on the House floor Wednesday when that chamber passed a similar version of the legislation. But an emergency clause was voted down on the House version, which the bill's sponsor, Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, acknowledged could make implementation "messy."

Davis presented the Senate version to the House committee Thursday, telling Bennett there would be no fiscal impact if it is passed.

EARLIER

A motion to study the fiscal impact of a bill that would shift Arkansas' primary election from May to March delayed a vote on the measure in an Arkansas House committee Thursday.

The House Committee on State and Governmental Affairs was to take up Senate Bill 8 after it passed the full Senate on Wednesday.

But before discussion began, Rep. Camille Bennett, D-Lonoke, asked to review a fiscal impact statement on the bill. The committee's chairman, Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, said House rules allow a member to request such information and have 24 hours to review it before a vote.

"I'm concerned we're moving headlong into this without knowing what it's going to cost," said Bennett.

Bennett and Bell each spoke against a similar House version of the bill when that chamber considered it Wednesday.

Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin, suggested the motion was meant only to delay consideration of the bill so it won't be taken up during the special session.

"I feel like that maybe this is not being done because we truly want to see a fiscal impact," he said. "I feel like we're maybe trying to stall things out."

The full House later reconvened and suspended its rules with regard to fiscal impact statements. The committee was to meet again Thursday afternoon to consider it.

The Arkansas Senate, meanwhile, voted 26-6 Thursday to approve the House version of the bill moving the presidential primary, which cleared the House Wednesday but did so without an emergency clause. Bell contends that legislation, House Bill 1006, would have to be repealed without an emergency clause because it would need to be implemented immediately.

The moved primary date would align Arkansas' election in a so-called SEC Primary with other Southern states.

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