FAYETTEVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas's growth and drive greatly helped boost the state's self-confidence, and that boost is his most important accomplishment in office, departing Gov. Mike Beebe told the Northwest Arkansas' Political Animals Club.
"The thing I'm proudest of is giving this state a little bit of swagger, a belief we can do anything," Beebe said at a noon Friday meeting of the club at Mermaids restaurant in Fayetteville. This was one of his last scheduled appearances in Northwest Arkansas before he leaves office in January.
"Northwest Arkansas changed attitudes a lot," ranking at or near the top of the fastest-growing Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States during his eight years as governor, Beebe said. Support from the region also helped make improvements in education possible, he said. He singled out Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, who contributed to adopting a state health-care expansion plan that has received praise nationwide. The state also weathered a recession without falling into financial difficulty, as 46 of the 50 states did.
"I appreciate all you've done for me over the years, and I'm going to miss you," Beebe told the crowd of 150 in the restaurant's banquet room.
Beebe is ineligible to run for a third four-year term under the provisions of the state constitution. A recent poll by the University of Arkansas found his job approval rating at 67 percent, higher than the last-year rating of any living ex-governor. Beebe carried every county in his re-election bid in 2010.
The governor opened his remarks Friday by addressing his decision to pardon his son, Kyle Beebe, earlier this month. The younger Beebe was arrested by White County Sheriff's Office deputies in 2003 after they found more than an ounce of marijuana at the then-22-year- old's rural Searcy residence.
"I have a record of being very strict and conservative on commutations" of sentences, which lighten penalties still being served, Beebe said. "I also have a very liberal records on pardons of people who've already served their sentences, particularly non-violent types and particularly kids when they've screwed up.
"I've pardoned 700 such cases," Beebe said. "I refuse to treat him any worse than 700 others in the same circumstances."
Prosecuting attorney and Circuit Judge-elect John Threet of Fayetteville said in his introduction of the governor the secret of both Beebe's popularity and success was his willingness to meet with those he disagreed with and arrive at solutions in a respectful, civil manner. Threet was one of a number of prosecuting attorneys who opposed the governor's plans to greatly broaden access to probation as an alternative to imprisonment for some offenses. Beebe said in his remarks that, in hindsight, the probation provisions did go too far and had to be revised.
A member of the audience thanked the governor after the speech for "the absence of hate" during the governor's term.
"This has been the greatest labor of love you can imagine," the governor said during his remarks. Referring to the treatment he and his wife, Ginger, have received from Arkansas residents, he said, "The people of this state have been better to us than you can imagine."
NW News on 11/22/2014