Mark Darr Is Northwest Arkansas’ Problem

REGION SENT LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR TO LITTLE ROCK; REGION’S LEADERS MUST BE A PART OF SOLUTION

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Lt. Gov. Mark Darr is Northwest Arkansas’ problem.

He should resign.

Failing that, our region’s lawmakers should take the lead in removing him.

I’ve covered politics up here since 1998. I’ve heard a lot of talk about those so-and-so’s in Little Rock, the state capital. Conservatives griped people ran for state offce just to live oft our taxes. Liberals complained we didn’t get enough attention up here.

There was lots of talk about getting people with “integrity” into public off ce.

Then we got our chance.

The anti-Obama tsunami hit. Suddenly, you could get elected just by winning a GOP primary. And you could win a GOP primary just by being from here.

We picked Mark Darr. In 2010, Darr was a local pizza parlor owner untouched by useful experience for statewide off ce. We knew it. His political virginity, his ZIP code and his party affliation were the only discernible reasons for both his nomination and election.

In all my years, I’ve never seen a race in which being qualified in any way imposed a bigger handicap than in our 2010 race for lieutenant governor. This ensured Darr’s election. I pointedly embarrassed Darr once during that campaign, in a televised candidate debate. I asked him asimple question about state Senate procedure. He didn’t know a thing about it and had to say so. I knew I would be accused of bias - and so I was, though not by Darr. People wondered on Twitter why I wasn’t being fair.

Think about that: I was called out for not being “fair” after making it plain that a candidate for statewide off ce, where he’d be one heartbeat from the governor’s off ce, didn’t have a clue. I should thank Darr. Every time somebody accuses me of bias for doing my job, I can bring his name up.

When you put clean babes to public off ce, you’re a whole lot more likely to get back dirty babes than clean government. You have no basis for knowing if the babe you send will resist the temptations he will face. And that’s exactly what we did.

You have to look at the life. You have to ask, “When and where did this person have the chance to make the wrong choice, and made the right one?” Too often, somebody who’s never made the wrong choice just never had a good chance to try getting away with it. We didn’t ask that question in Darr’s case.

So Darr got into off ce and violated campaign finance and ethics laws.

When auditors and the state Ethics Commission popped him for it, he pleaded ignorance. Why wouldn’t he?

Ignorance is exactly why we elected him.

We can do something about this, and should.

I’m writing this column on Thursday. I hope Darr does the right thing and resigns before this is published. To their immense credit, all five of Arkansas’ Republican members of Congress have asked Darr to step down.

The chairman of the state party, though, is waiting to see if criminal charges are filed. That’s just stalling.

Darr has already agreed to $11,000 in Ethics Commission fi nes.

We should insist Darr resign. If we speak and Darr will not listen to us, then the body closest to the people should act for us.

The Legislature meets in February. It’s strictly a budget session. Bringing up another matter would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber. If Darr has not resigned by then, a Republican from the Northwest delegation should file a bill to consider Darr’s impeachment. Every member of Northwest Arkansas’ delegation should co-sponsor this bill. Then they should vote for it.

In theory, Gov. Mike Beebe could simply add impeachment of Darr to aspecial session, which would coincide with the fi scal session. He should not do that. Somebody would claim the Democratic governor was exploiting the situation.

No one would believe it, but Darr doesn’t deserve even a fig leaf. More important, bringing impeachment is a prerogative of the Legislature for good reason. The governor or any other statewide elected off cial should avoid the process of removing another. That would be a bad precedent. It could lead to all sorts of cut-throatpolitical moves in the future, since statewide off ce holders are often rivals.

If Darr is removed, by whatever fashion, the off ce should be left vacant until the general election in November. Let the winner of that replace Darr. If something happens to the governor before then, President Pro Tempore Mike Lamoureux, R-Russellville, is more than qualified to take over.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 12 on 01/05/2014