Eric Harris of Springdale went to bed Tuesday night a former House member from the minority party. He awoke Wednesday morning as a member of the state's dominant party who's now eligible to run for another decade in the Legislature.
"When I left in 2008, we had 28 members in the state House, one out of our six members of Congress and not a single state constitutional office," Harris said Wednesday. Tuesday's election gave Republicans at least 63 of the 100 seats in the House, all six of the state's seats in Congress and all seven state constitutional offices. The legislative seats include four in the House won Tuesday by Republicans in Northwest Arkansas.
Arkansas voters not only swept Republicans into office Tuesday, they gave legislative officeholders many more years to pursue their agendas if re-elected. Voters approved Issue 3, a state constitutional amendment extending term limits from six years in the House or eight in the Senate to 16 years in either chamber or a combination of both.
"The calculus between what you want and what you can accomplish has completely changed," said Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville. House members had to focus on short-term goals they could accomplish in three terms under the state's previous term limit provisions, he said. Collins is chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. He was re-elected Tuesday in what was supposed to be his last term. Now he could, in theory, remain tax chairman for another decade.
Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, was chief Senate sponsor for putting Issue 3 on the ballot. His intention was to put some balance between the House and the Senate, he said.
"Freshman House members were abused and taken advantage of by lobbyists, bureaucrats and other members of the Legislature," Woods said. "They were given the controversial bills to carry."
The combination of longer terms and Republican gains could mean either a long conservative reign or conservative overconfidence and overreach.
Washington County Democratic Chairman Tyler Clark and Republican Rep. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, a longtime conservative advocate, raised that same point in separate interviews.
"It depends on whether we destroy ourselves and how much sense we've got," Della Rosa said." The Republican Party is fractured between those willing to work in a bipartisan manner and the uncompromising ones. There are 35 Democrats in the House. We can't ignore them and succeed."
"Frankly, there are almost three parties now," Della Rosa said. "Two of them just call themselves Republicans."
Clark said the same thing. The "cure" for a Republican majority might be a Republican majority. If the Republicans don't destroy themselves, however, a long-term conservative trend is likely, he said.
"We've got to get out of Fayetteville," Clark said of Northwest Arkansas Democrats. "We need to get into rural areas generally and Springdale specifically."
In Benton County, Democratic House candidate Grimsley Graham's margin of defeat in Rogers "was shocking, but we got good data from that election," Clark said. "You have to know where your people are to start building."
NW News on 11/06/2014