So far, so good.
There is evidence that the Arkansas Senate can -- and will -- hold a member to account under its code of ethics.
Never mind that the Senate code has been around since the late 1990s. Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, is the first senator ever to face suspension under the ethics rules.
How long Clark's loss of seniority holds will be up to the senators seated in 2023, who will determine whether it continues through the next two years or ends with the current term of the Legislature.
It might be best to wait to see how long-lasting Clark's punishment is before evaluating whether state senators really want to hold him to account.
The senator currently represents District 13, which includes parts of Garland and Grant counties and all of Hot Spring County. He was elected to the Senate in 2012 and began serving in 2013. He's been in the Senate ever since and is running unopposed this year for the reapportioned Senate District 7.
He will be back next year, free to cause more disruption, although that could be only from the 35th most senior seat in the 35-member Senate.
What the long-serving Clark did to get himself suspended from his Senate duties and dropped to the lowest seniority in the chamber is a tangled story.
It might appear to outsiders to have begun when Clark questioned another senator's receipt of per diem and mileage payments for attending meetings via Zoom.
Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, later reimbursed the nearly $3,000 she received to the Senate, acknowledging what she and others considered a clerical error that led to the improper reimbursements during the 2021 regular session.
Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, was also incorrectly reimbursed for meetings attended by Zoom, but repaid the Senate and did not face an ethics complaint, as Flowers did.
Ultimately, the Arkansas Senate voted that Flowers did not violate the Senate's ethics rules, despite Sen. Clark's complaint that she had.
More significantly, the Senate's Ethics Committee also found that Clark's charges of ethics violations against Flowers were "spurious, frivolous and retaliatory" and recommended he be suspended for the rest of this year and stripped of seniority for the rest of this year and the next two years.
What you really must know is that Sen. Clark got into trouble ethically before the incident over his charges against Flowers. It is that part of the story that explains why his actions against Flowers were deemed "spurious, frivolous and retaliatory."
Back in June, Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, lodged ethics complaints against both Sen. Clark and Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale.
At Clark's request, Johnson had signed Clark's name on the sign-in sheet for reimbursement at a June 3 Senate committee meeting that Clark did not actually attend.
The Ethics Committee concluded that both violated the Senate's ethics rules and the full Senate agreed, accepting recommended punishments for Clark and Johnson.
Back then, the Senate stripped Clark of his committee chairman and vice chairman posts. It also blocked his eligibility for per diem and mileage reimbursement for the rest of this year. He was reprimanded by the Senate and future Senate presidents pro tempore are not to consider Clark for appointment to serve on certain committees.
That was pretty stiff punishment, but Clark certainly seemed to try later on to take his revenge for that upbraiding out on Sen. Flowers, who had to give up her seat on the Ethics Committee while the complaint was pending.
The Senate responded appropriately last week by dismissing the complaint against her and doubling down on Clark's punishment for ethics violations.
Late Monday, Clark was to have turned in his Senate license plates, keys to his Senate office and Capitol Hill apartment near the state Capitol, keycards to the state Capitol and the apartment and any Senate-issued electronic devices.
Nor will he get reimbursement for conference registration fees or for in-state or out-of-state travel or attendance at legislative committee meetings or meetings of the Senate, except for organizational or orientation meetings of the next Legislature.
That sounds like a full suspension for the rest of this term. We'll learn in November whether the reorganizing 2023 Senate follows up with another two years for the ethically challenged Clark at the bottom of the chamber's seniority list.
That vote is supposed to come as the new Senate's first order of business when it meets in November to organize for the next term.