When Arkansas voters chose Mark Darr as lieutenant governor in 2010, they selected someone completely unqualified to fulfi ll the primary responsibility of the offce, which is to serve in the governor’s stead should he be unable to do so.
Oh, the Arkansas Constitution also makes the lieutenant governor the presiding off cer in the state Senate, but that job is mostly ceremonial. The Senate, historically, runs itself. And because Darr is a Republican and the dwindling majority in the Senate has been Democratic, there wasn’t much for him to do in the 2011 Legislative session.
Things could certainly change in the coming session if Republicans wrest control of the Senate in this fall’s legislative elections.
With a thin fi ve-seat dift erence, that’s possible, maybe even likely.
Still Darr has beenleft with little to do that’s not ceremonial, and anything else he’s done has been merely symbolic.
For example, he put his name to a lawsuit opposing the Obamacare legislation that’s not popular with Arkansas voters, just as he promised he would in the 2010 campaign. But that’s about it.
It’s fair to note Darr has become better acquainted with the issues facing our state and can speak with more authority about them now. He’s learned a lot about being in public life.
What he hasn’t learned is how to respond to bad news.
A story in last week’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed Darr got sued for foreclosure on a rental home he owns in Springdale. Darr’s response was to first blame the bank, then admit he was in arrears but was working on it, then accuse the media of picking on him and then to blame political enemies.
His response reminded us of candidate Darr in 2010: unprepared, inexperienced and shallow.
Look, Darr’s not the first person or the last to run into financial trouble in these tough times. We get it. It happens. Nor is he the first elected off cial to have personal financial trouble make news. Having your personal life exposed to the public is part of being an elected off cial.
It’s Darr’s panicky and disingenuous run for cover that’s got our dander up. He eventually admitted he knew there were problems with his mortgages. And while he may not have known a foreclosure suit had been filed that particular day, he should have had a better answer at hand than the bank screwed up.
As for his implication that the lawyer who fi led the suit, Niki Cung, was somehow motivated by political revenge because Darr had supported someone else in Cung’s unsuccessful run for a nonpartisan judicial offce, give us a break. It’s not the attorney who chooses to file a suit, it’s the plaintift. Cung was just doing her job.
Darr wasn’t ready for primetime when he ran for offce in 2010. Despite some progress, it’s clear he’s still not.
Opinion, Pages 12 on 09/30/2012