Senate fight brews for leadership post

Days after Republicans made historic gains in Arkansas, a fight for the leadership of the state Senate has begun.

Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, said Friday that he's challenging Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, for Senate president pro tempore, 18 months after the Senate unanimously voted to select Dismang for the post.

Stubblefield opposes the state's private option that uses federal dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans; Dismang is one of the three legislative architects of the program.

He said he informed Dismang on Thursday that he's running.

Stubblefield said he's seeking the votes of Senate Republican caucus members during their meeting Thursday. He wants the caucus to require its members to support the candidate who emerges Thursday with the most votes.

"It will take 12 votes and we are close" to having that many votes among Senate Republicans, said Stubblefield.

The Senate will comprise 23 Republicans and 11 Democrats, after Michael Lamoureux leaves to become Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson's transition director and then his chief of staff. Lamoureux, a Russellville Republican, said he'll submit his resignation Monday.

Dismang said Stubblefield told him Thursday that he was considering running for Senate president pro tempore.

"I feel good about the position that I am in, but I understand if that's a goal or aspiration he has to be pro tempore, then it's not my place to say he shouldn't try," he said.

Stubblefield said he started considering a challenge to Dismang a few weeks ago, after Dismang hired Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's former staff member James Miller as his aide.

He said Miller worked tirelessly to reshape legislative district boundaries so they would benefit Democratic candidates when he worked for Beebe.

Miller started work a month ago as Dismang's assistant to serve through April 1 or the end of the 2015 regular session for a salary equivalent to $90,000 a year. Dismang cited Miller's knowledge of state government when he hired him. Miller also previously worked for then-Democratic Secretary of State Charlie Daniels and then-Democratic state Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher.

Stubblefield said Dismang should have given the high-paying job to a conservative Republican with experience in state government.

Dismang said Friday that he considered several other people to be his aide, "but all of those would have required extensive training and my goal was to have someone here in a part-time position, not someone here that was going to be here for a full two years."

Beebe is defending Miller.

Asked about Miller's role in redrawing lines of legislative boundaries, Beebe said "there was not any lines drawn that weren't the ultimate decision of me and the attorney general [Democrat Dustin McDaniel]" on the state Board of Apportionment. "Certainly, James did a lot of good work. But if somebody wants to blame somebody for their lines, they need to look no further than me and the attorney general because we did that."

Beebe and McDaniel had two of the votes on the three-member board. Republican Secretary of State Mark Martin had the other.

Miller said he didn't "single out" Stubblefield when helping draw legislative boundaries.

Dismang said Stubblefield is unhappy about Dismang's plans to have Democratic Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, serve as the Senate's chairman of the Joint Budget Committee again.

"I gave my word to Teague to do that almost a year ago, at this point, and I am going to honor my commitment," Dismang said.

When the Democrats controlled the Senate, Republicans Dave Bisbee of Rogers, Shawn Womack of Mountain Home and Gilbert Baker of Conway served stints as co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee between 2003 and 2013.

Asked about Dismang's plans for Teague to be co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee again, Stubblefield said, "I am not going to get into that.

"I just didn't want us to go through another two years of division like [Republican Reps.] Terry Rice and Davy Carter," Stubblefield said.

Two years ago, House Democrats and a small band of Republicans elected Carter, a Republican from Cabot, over Rice, a Republican from Waldron, after Republicans won control of the state House for the first time in 138 years.

Rice's defeat led Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, to propose a resolution that calls for the House and Senate Republican caucuses to vote to determine their nominee for House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, respectively, and for each caucus to unanimously support the nominee of their respective caucuses.

King's resolution won the backing of the state Republican Party during its July convention.

Senate Republican leader Eddie Joe Williams of Cabot said the Republican Caucus' practice in recent years has been to vote in the Senate for whomever the caucus votes to support for pro tempore. Last year, the caucus decided to support Dismang over then-state Sen. Johnny Key of Mountain Home for the leadership post, he said.

House Republican leader Ken Bragg of Sheridan said he doesn't expect House Republicans to adopt such a policy.

King said the Senate Republican Caucus also should vote to decide who is going to be the Senate's co-chairmen for the Joint Budget Committee, Joint Legislative Auditing Committee and the Legislative Council. Currently, the members of the committees -- regardless of party affiliation -- select the leaders.

King, who is the Senate's co-chairman of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, said he wouldn't turn down a chance to be co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee because "we need a conservative there."

Dismang said he believes that "a bunch" of the motivation for Stubblefield's challenge "goes back to the private option" that Dismang has championed.

But Stubblefield denied that, saying, "This is not about the private option."

In Tuesday's election, several Republican private-option opponents unseated Democrats who had voted for the program. That led Dismang to declare Wednesday that "in its current form, I don't believe there is any way it survives," adding that he's not sure what the program would look like in the future.

In 2013 and 2014, funding for the program has narrowly cleared the House and Senate with the required three-fourths supermajority of the 100-member state House of Representatives and 35-member Senate.

The current program extends insurance coverage to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 180,000 Arkansans have been enrolled in private health insurance through the program, according to the Department of Human Services.

Federal Medicaid funds pay for 100 percent of the program until fiscal 2017, when the state will pick up 5 percent of the cost. The state's share of the tab will gradually increase up to 10 percent in fiscal 2020.

King said he's supporting Stubblefield to be the Senate's next leader because Stubblefield opposes the private option and Dismang supports the program.

"We need someone in line with the views of the majority of Arkansans and expanding Obamacare in Arkansas is not in line with the views of the majority of Arkansans," King said.

But Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, who opposes the private option, said he'll stick with Dismang.

"Gary Stubblefield is an awesome guy," Hester said. "But Jonathan Dismang will be the pro tempore when we go into session, and I am excited to have him as our leader."

A Section on 11/08/2014