Have the stock markets plummeted?
Did the Arkansas General Assembly's proceedings come to a screeching halt?
What’s The Point?
The state should redesign the office of lieutenant governor or get rid of it. The current role doesn’t not serve Arkansans adequately.
Are Arkansans wandering around like The Walking Dead, aimless in purpose and mindless in reasoning (or was that the opposition to the private option)?
Did someone forget to put on the morning coffee at the State Capitol?
Have any of these things happened as a result of vacancy in the lieutenant governor's office, save perhaps for that last one? We don't think so.
Indeed, life in Arkansas has gone virtually unchanged since Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Darr resigned Feb. 1, a few weeks after the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $11,000 for 11 violations of state ethics and campaign spending laws. The state Senate, over which the lieutenant governor presides, has run about as smoothly as anyone can expect when they're in session. The lieutenant governor's other responsibility -- minimally filling in as governor when the real governor is out of state -- hasn't caused any ripples either.
Indeed, the state House of Representatives decided last week, by a 76-10 vote, to adopt a bill already approved by the Senate that would forego a requirement that the governor call a special election this year to fill Darr's vacancy. Current state law requires the governor to set the special election within 150 of the vacancy. In an election year in which three Republicans and one Democrat are running to be lieutenant governor, a special election was uncalled for. The state can manage a few months without having a warm body in that office.
In doing so, Arkansas will avoid the estimated $1.3 million it would have cost to hold a statewide special election. It doesn't take a lieutenant governor to do the math: Saving the money was the only reasonable choice lawmakers could make.
The other recent good news is that the state will be able to manage just fine without four other warm bodies in that office. When Darr couldn't maintain the ethical and moral authority to remain as lieutenant governor -- goodness, who can't measure up to that standard? -- he left behind a full-time staff of four to do the work of a part-time office that has little to no day-to-day responsibilities within state government.
It took a few weeks for GOP leaders to figure out a kinder, gentler way for the staff to bow out. The four collected paychecks totaling $217,920 annually, and without an officeholder for one of the state's more insignificant roles -- as long as the governor stays healthy -- why in the world would taxpayers need to pay these folks? Thankfully, through negotiations with legislative leaders, we suspect, the four decided to resign effected June 30, the end of Arkansas' fiscal year.
One of these days, perhaps Arkansas political leaders will get around to discussing what value the lieutenant governor's office has and either eliminate it, or change it so that Arkansas taxpayers can feel better about devoting precious tax dollars to support it. Perhaps Arkansans should elect a governor and lieutenant governor on the same ticket. At least then voters will be more likely to see a continuation of the governor's policies if something should prevent him from serving out his term. Perhaps the governor could put the lieutenant governor in charge of certain state functions as a sort of training ground, just in case.
If none of that works, let's try something else. The opportunity with Arkansas' lieutenant governor's office is that it will be extremely easy to improve upon the position's current contributions to state government. After all, the state accomplished that by allowing it to remain vacant for the rest of 2014.
Commentary on 03/06/2014