The Arkansas Senate Rules Committee on Monday rejected former Gov. Asa Hutchinson's reappointment of Jammy Turner of Gillett to the Arkansas Agricultural Board and the appointment of Dexter Booth of Little Rock to the Arkansas State Claims Commission.
The Senate committee also recommended the Senate confirm more than 100 of the former Republican governor's nominations of appointees to state boards and commissions.
Most of these appointments were made by Hutchinson between March and August of 2022, but the Senate didn't act on confirming or rejecting the appointments at the end of the Aug. 9-11 special session during which the governor and the Legislature accelerated the implementation of individual income and corporate income tax cuts. The Senate Rules Committee on Monday also considered a dozen appointments made by Hutchinson from the Aug. 11 end of the special session through December.
The appointments the committee recommended the Senate confirm include that of Bill Jones to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Katie Anderson to the Arkansas Public Service Commission, Col. Nathaniel Todd to the University of Arkansas board of trustees, Jeff Wood and Lisa Hunter to the state Board of Education, and Seth Summerside and Charles Metz to the Arkansas Agriculture Board.
The Senate Rules Committee voted Monday to approve a motion by Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne, to reject Hutchinson's nomination of Turner's reappointment to the Arkansas Agricultural Board.
Caldwell said Turner works for Monsanto and that company previously sued the state Plant Board over decisions regarding dicamba, and Turner would be biased serving on the Arkansas Agricultural Board.
Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, noted the Arkansas Agricultural Board is an advisory board.
Afterward, Caldwell, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he wants to have board members who have no bias toward any product that they may make recommendations over.
Afterward, Turner said in a text message to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that "I have not been made aware of any challenges regarding my reappointment to the Arkansas Agriculture Board as of April 2022."
After he was informed that Caldwell made the motion to reject his reappointment, Turner wrote, "I suppose either the Governor's Office or Secretary [Wes] Ward will make me aware of their decision in due time and in the appropriate manner."
In September 2017, Turner resigned from the state Plant Board to take a a seat on the Arkansas Agriculture Board. At that time, he said his resignation had nothing do with with his employment and the controversy over the previous two years concerning the use of dicamba herbicide and Monsanto's genetically engineered crops.
The Plant Board is part of the Department of Agriculture and is in charge of regulating numerous aspects of the agricultural industry, including the registration of herbicides and pesticides.
The Senate Rules Committee on Monday initially voted to recommend the Senate confirm Hutchinson's nomination of Booth to the Arkansas Claims Commission. But the committee later expunged that vote and voted to reject Hutchinson's nomination of Booth to the commission at the behest of Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy.
Dismang said senators didn't know anything about Booth. Sen. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, said he knows a Dexter Booth, but he's not sure whether that is the same Dexter Booth that Hutchinson appointed to the State Claims Commission.
Booth could not be reached for comment by telephone Monday afternoon.
Over the past two decades, the state Senate has rarely rejected a governor's nominees to boards and commissions.
Last week, the Senate Rules Committee initially rejected Hutchinson's nomination of 36 appointees to state boards and commissions, and recommended that the full Senate vote to confirm 14 of Hutchinson's nominations of appointees to state boards and commissions.
The Senate eventually voted to reject 30 of the former governor's appointees to state boards and commissions, and confirm 20 of Hutchinson's appointees to state boards and commissions, after it voted to overturn the Rules Committee's rejection of six appointees.