The second most powerful office in our state government just got much more powerful.
As of Wednesday, any freshman entering the House faces banishment to a committee he or she doesn't want if the House speaker so chooses. In theory, such banishment could be used on veteran members. Moving an unwilling, established member off his assigned committee in the next session would be a drastic act. The option will hardly ever be used. It doesn't need to be. The threat alone is enough.
The House speaker will fill committee assignments from now on. Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, supported the change. Gillam says he won't run for speaker again. That shouldn't lessen concern, but heighten it. Gillam's not known for being heavy-handed. But will his successor abuse the big stick the House just handed out? Some successor someday will.
All this happened after House Democrats, a very small minority, used the old system to pack a majority onto the vital House Revenue and Taxation Committee. That happened in November, before the legislative session began.
The old system let lawmakers pick their committee based on seniority. The few surviving Democrats in the House still have a disproportionate amount of seniority. Hardy survivors of a bygone era often do. The Democrats' coup didn't last long, however. A couple of House members, including the tax committee chairmen, switched sides.
So when Gillam announced the changes he wanted, Democrats saw retaliation. The changes sailed through the speaker's hand-picked Rules Committee then passed the full House on Wednesday 75-23 despite two hours of debate.
Perhaps the change was a reaction to the short-lived coup. I suspect the change was an action rather than a reaction, a part of the counter-coup. Purely hypothetical on my part, but I suspect telling a chairman he could lose his seat next session on his committee -- much less the chairmanship -- under changes that are about to get pushed forward by the speaker might be a persuasive argument for changing his party affiliation.
Just because Gillam is not widely known for openly using a big stick doesn't mean he can't wield one. Big sticks work best when used as levers rather than clubs.
The state House speaker race is the most important Arkansas election in which the voters play no direct role. Only House members get to vote in that one. A speaker's power used to be very great but quite brief. That was during the age of "three terms and you're out" House term limits. Someone could only be speaker for one session, but he held enormous sway in a chamber where a third of the membership was in their last terms. When you're at bat with two strikes already against you, so to speak, you don't want the umpire to be an enemy.
Then voters greatly extended term limits. Gillam was the first speaker in a more than a decade to be re-elected to the job. But his power wasn't as great because the membership wasn't under time pressure any more either.
Now the speaker can be long-lived and far reaching. Someone who knows how to use such power will know how to gain it and keep it. Such power will greatly help him keep it.
Chances to see the fiercely Republican Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, break ranks in a largely party line vote don't come often. Famously free-thinking GOP Reps. Kim Hendren of Gravette and Jana Della Rosa of Rogers, who were also among the GOP's dissenters, do go maverick sometimes. The fact Lundstrum revolted too, however, should be seen for what it is. Not only did people like her balk at a chance to strike a blow that's supposedly aimed right at Democrats. They joined the largely Democratic minority in voting against a measure that was clearly going to pass anyway. When that happens, the measure goes too far. There's no other explanation.
Also among those few last-standers were two men opposite in almost every aspect but age and vitality: Hendren and John Walker, D-Little Rock. Aged 78 and 79, these two both have a long view -- from sharply different vantage points. Hendren is from the Hutchinson-Hendren clan, which has been Republican so long and was so Northwestern, they were practically a GOP toehold in Arkansas for decades. Walker is a famous Little Rock civil rights lawyer. Both men -- from different mountaintops -- saw the same thing with this change. Neither one liked it.
Commentary on 01/14/2017