NOW THAT the state’s lieutenant governor, Mark Darr, has finally agreed to resign as of the first of February, there comes the question of what to do with him and his office between February 1st (O Happy Day!) and next year, when a new lieutenant governor is to be sworn in.

The best idea yet proposed is: Let it be. As in, let the office be vacant. It’s not likely to be needed overmuch before 2015. Or even after.

The office of lieutenant governor is a part-time job and, as part-time jobs go, it’s very part. The pol now holding (and holding and holding) that office mainly presides over the state Senate on those occasions when it’s actually in session, which is usually and thankfully only a few weeks in even-numbered years plus a few months in odd-numbered ones. For that, the lieutenant governor is paid almost $42,000 a year-more than a lot of folks in Arkansas are paid for full-time jobs. Yes, it’s nice work if you can get it.

Also, it should be well noted, the lieutenant governor acts as governor when the real deal is out of the state. Which can lead to problems. And has indeed led to some.

Mark Darr found himself in the middle of a controversy last year when the real governor and really Honorable Mike Beebe traveled to Washington for a meeting of the country’s Governors Association. Sure enough, once his back was turned, the lite gov signed a bill into law exempting information about concealed carriers (of weapons) from the state’s estimable Freedom of Information Act.

It was a bill the Honorable Mike Beebe had said he wasn’t going to sign. Just to make a point. Instead, he was going to let it become law without his signature. (If there’s a way for Mike Beebe to avoid taking a really clear stand on an issue, you can bet he’ll find it.)

Acting governors do tend to get into trouble. Even when the acting governor isn’t the lieutenant governor. If you’re old enough, you may remember-who can forget?-that time back in ’93 when Jerry Jewell was the state Senate’s president pro tem. While most of Arkansas’ political brass was up in Washington celebrating Bill Clinton’s first inauguration as president, Senator Jewell of beloved or at least colorful memory granted a couple of clemencies. It was a hasty decision that met with general and deserved outrage.

A lieutenant governor is tempted to make damfool decisions like that every time the real governor dares step across the state line. Nobody wants to keep a governor prisoner in his own state, but how avoid that danger? It’s a problem.

And why have a special election, and spend millions of tax dollars, just to fill a part-time job that will be up for election this November anyway? Because the law says so. Or appears to say so. The governor says he’s still researching the matter. So are we.

Here’s that good idea again: Lawmakers from both parties are tossing around a most economical proposal: Change the law to keep the lite guv’s office vacant when it comes open the same calendar year a regular election is held. Eureka! So long as the change is okay with the state’s constitution-our opinion on that question has not yet matured-it’s okay with us.

Two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers might have to agree even to consider legislation this practical in next month’s fiscal-only session. But the votes might be there to pursue it. For all the young people out there, this is called bipartisan unity. Who knew such a thing still existed? Let’s use it to solve this dilemma.

This shouldn’t be too hard to manage. Let’s get it done. And then on to November’s elections. By then both Mark Darr and this tiresome problem (or do we repeat ourselves?) might be safely out of the way.

Strength, y’all.

Editorial, Pages 22 on 01/18/2014