They came from across the country to mark the 40th anniversary of what ultimately proved to be a futile effort.
In a meeting room at Embassy Suites in west Little Rock on a recent Saturday night, delegates and staff members from the 1979-80 constitutional convention gathered to share memories. Joining them were two former governors (David Pryor and Jim Guy Tucker), two former U.S. senators (David Pryor and Mark Pryor) and a former Cabinet member (Rodney Slater).
David Pryor was elected governor in November 1974 and made it clear that the state needed to replace its 1874 constitution. Citing the expense of a full constitutional convention, Pryor said he might instead appoint a commission to come up with a proposed constitution.
"Legislation was enacted to create a 35-member commission to propose limited changes that would be voted on in December 1975," Wes Goodner writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Twenty-seven of the delegates were to be appointed by the governor and eight by the Legislature. The act was challenged in court with the trial court declaring the act unconstitutional. On appeal, the Arkansas Supreme Court concurred in a 4-3 ruling.
"In an August 1977 special session of the Legislature, compromise legislation was enacted calling for a convention and allowing voters to determine the timing of the vote on the document produced by the convention. In the 1978 general election, voters selected 100 delegates to the convention and chose the general election of 1980 as the preferred time to decide the fate of any document produced."
The eighth constitutional convention in Arkansas history met from May until the middle of June 1979, when it recessed to gauge public opinion. The convention reconvened in June 1980.
"A poll suggested that only 7 percent of the public even knew of the existence of the constitutional convention, which did not presage a positive outcome in the election," Goodner writes. "The idea of allowing voters to vote separately on specific items such as interest rate control had been suggested. . . . The convention voted to submit everything to the voters in one document. Despite numerous endorsements of the document, voters defeated the proposed constitution in 1980 by a wide margin."
Almost 63 percent of Arkansas voters opposed the measure.
Tucker tried again after becoming governor, stating in 1995 that "Arkansas shouldn't begin a new century with a Reconstruction-era constitution."
"Hearings by legislators about a convention were poorly attended, but those who did attend were skeptical and vocal," Goodner writes. "As before, the method of delegate selection and convention process became issues with critics. Thirty-five delegates were to be elected (one per Senate district), and 26 lawmakers were to be appointed delegates. Litigation . . . was assigned to Judge Ellen Brantley, who ruled that the election be canceled owing to a faulty legislative emergency clause. A divided Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the trial court ruling in a 4-3 vote."
This proposal failed by an even larger margin than the proposed constitution 15 years earlier. In a December 1995 special election, about 80 percent of Arkansas voters opposed the proposed constitution.
The amazing thing about the 1979-80 delegates is the lives they went on to live. Winston Bryant, who represented Hot Spring County, became lieutenant governor and attorney general. John Dan Kemp, who represented Izard, Sharp and Stone counties, is now the chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. Raymond Abramson, who represented Arkansas and Monroe counties, serves on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Jim Dailey and Patrick Henry Hays became the mayors of Little Rock and North Little Rock, respectively.
Charlie Cole Chaffin, Bobby Glover, Allen Gordon, Kent Ingram and Percy Malone later served in the Legislature. Archie Schaffer III, who represented Franklin, Madison and Sebastian counties, became one of the state's foremost political consultants, lobbyists and business leaders. I could go on. And that's just from the list of those who are still alive.
The list of delegates from 1979-80 who are deceased includes names such as nationally known legal scholar Robert Leflar, jurist P.K. Holmes, outdoors personality George Purvis, renowned political scientist and legislator Cal Ledbetter Jr., newspaper publisher Cone Magie and well-known political figures such as Paul Benham Jr., Jim Brandon and Marion Crank.
Staff members included Slater, who went on to become the U.S. secretary of transportation in the Clinton administration, and author and government scholar Kay Goss.
The introduction to the reunion directory read: "Forty years have passed since the constitutional convention convened in 1979, and 40 surviving delegates will gather to tell our tales. Many of our delegates and staff have gone on to serve our state and nation in important roles and have brought great honor to our group. Although we have not all been wandering in the desert for those 40 years, this reunion may be the first opportunity since the adjournment for many of us to meet again and re-establish those strong bonds of purpose and service formed all those years ago.
"This directory will hopefully encourage and enable the delegates and staff to maintain and strengthen their bonds of friendship and fellowship in the coming years and, most importantly, to proudly remember the dedicated service to our state we collectively rendered. And perhaps this gathering will rekindle our citizens' interest in the need for constitutional reform, and a new effort will be born from the ashes of our 4o-year-old-legacy."
There's no doubt Arkansas needs an updated constitution. I'm not optimistic that it will happen in my lifetime. The state's history is fraught with constitutional missteps.
An effort to re-enfranchise Confederate veterans led to the state's fifth constitutional convention in 1874. The convention lasted 56 days and produced the document that remains in effect to this day.
"In the 1880s, at least two bills to allow convention calls to be submitted to voters failed to pass, and a convention call that was submitted to voters in 1888 failed handily," Goodner writes. "Repeated calls for a convention, and legislation authorizing such, were unsuccessful until 1917. In his Jan. 10, 1917, inaugural address, Gov. Charles Brough proposed a convention, stating that 'Arkansas firmly needs new governmental garments.' Legislation was enacted, calling a convention without submitting the call to voters for approval."
The convention, which ran from November 1917 until July 1918, was a disaster due to a lack of a quorum on most days, excessive heat during the summer and a flu epidemic. Delegate Thomas McRae, who later became governor, said: "There is little demand for a new constitution except by those who have violated the old one."
An Arkansas Gazette story noted: "Despite lacking a quorum, the convention took up the attempt to remove belief in a supreme being as a qualification for being a witness, which caused a delegate to state: 'Yesterday you took away all the liquor, and now you are taking away the God of our fathers. I object.'"
In a December 1918 special election, 61 percent of voters opposed the proposed constitution. A 1969-70 constitutional convention produced a document that was opposed by 57 percent of voters.
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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 10/20/2019