EDITORIAL
EYE ON ARKANSAS
Only one?
T
Aim higher, Waltons
he well-to-do Walton family from Bentonville is not enamored of religious freedom either, especially as it relates to education. Vouchers are proven failures at improving education, yet the Waltons pour money into voucher plans that benefit private schools, almost all of them religious, and threaten the existence of the public schools on which most Americans depend. Public education advocate Diane Ravitch writes: “The Walton Family Foundation spends nearly $200 million every year to undermine public education. It gives to groups that open charter schools and promote vouchers. It throws a few thou to the Bentonville Public Schools, but the big money is available only to those who want to bust unions and privatize public education.” 6
FEBRUARY 6, 2014
ARKANSAS TIMES
BRIAN CHILSON
S
ome Arkansans were surprised to hear that only one cross was found displayed on public property in Searcy, so identified the city has become with Republican right-wing politics. A longtime Searcy Democrat once told us that Searcy has been voting Republican in presidential races since the Dwight Eisenhower years, mid-20th century, while most of the rest of the state remained reliably Democratic until quite recently. The influence of the conservative Harding University has grown, and the town is fairly comfortable and virtually all-white. It’s a combination conducive to cross-bearing and flag-waving. The cross in question is outside the police chief’s office, a site perhaps strategically chosen to impress any ACLU agitators who roll into town promoting separation of church and state. Standing next to his pet cross, the chief might say “Well, Mr. Bill of Rights, let me introduce you to Mr. Billy Club.” The City Council might plant a cross outside the fire chief’s door, emboldening him to turn the hoses on any freedom-of-religion agitators. (A group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation, of Madison, Wis., is seeking to have the cross removed.) But Searcy has not been completely lost to the Tea Party. Even as it veered to the right, Searcy produced a progressive, problem-solving senator who proved to be what was needed in the governor’s office as well. The Mike Beebe administration will be well regarded by historians. Former Sen. and Rep. John Paul Capps managed to serve longer in the state legislature than almost anyone else, despite being a thoughtful moderate. Our own hope is that there’s a Harding professor, a heretofore secret Constitutionalist, who’ll step forward and say the cross should be removed from the police chief’s yard, and the prof will be followed by some of his best students, possibly energized by their discovery that the Bisons’ star quarterback is a Muslim. It would be a good made-for-TV movie wouldn’t it? Our own price for rights to the story would be shockingly modest.
WHERE IN ARKANSAS?: Know where this slice of life in Arkansas is? Send along the answer to Times photographer Brian Chilson. Write to brianchilson@arktimes.com to guess this week’s photo or for more information.
The staff to nobody
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t. Gov. Mark Darr slunk out of town last week after delivering a one-sentence resignation letter to Secretary of State Mark Martin. He petulantly refused to resign to the governor, whose job it is to declare the vacancy. Good riddance to bad rubbish as the saying goes. But business remains — and not only the question of whether Darr could face criminal prosecution for using campaign and taxpayer money for personal expenses. First is the question of whether Gov. Mike Beebe will call a special election to fill the job for the rest of the year. Republicans in the legislature favor a law change to avoid the necessity. They don’t want Democrat John Burkhalter to win a special election and get a leg up in November for the permanent job. Their main candidates, state Reps. Charlie Collins and Andy Mayberry, can’t run for a state office during the term of their legislative seats this year. Second is the question of Darr’s staff. He was overstaffed to begin with for a job that has essentially no duties except to act as governor when the governor is out of state and ceremonially preside over the Senate. He employed longtime perennial Republican patronage job-filler Bruce Campbell for $75,132 as chief of staff. Amber Pool gets paid $57,564 to be communications director. Josh Miller, a Republican JP in Saline County, does something or other for $51,564. Raeanne Gardner gets paid $33,660 to answer the occasional phone call. That’s $217,920 in salaries and the state must spend another $48,000 for employee insurance, retirement and other costs. But what now? There are no constituents for an empty office. There were scant duties to begin with. There are none now. Should taxpayers pay $22,160 a month for a four-person staff to no one? But these are Republican patronage jobs. Republican legislators, to date, have said they want to keep their cronies on the payroll. Campbell is father-in-law
of powerful Republican Rep. Duncan Baird, who’s running for state treasurer. Miller has worked for the Republican Party. Nobody in the GOP majority wants to throw their friends out in the cold. MAX If only Republicans weren’t BRANTLEY so cold about people they don’t maxbrantley@arktimes.com know. This is the same party fighting an increase in Arkansas’s $6.25 an hour minimum wage, which is paid to people who really toil. Darr’s staff makes from $16 to $36 an hour, including on holidays and vacations, for filing their nails. Extended unemployment compensation? Republicans are fighting it. Welfare for Darr’s Gang? Another matter. The Republican Party hopes to win another round of state elections by demonizing Obamacare, which extends government-aided health insurance to more of the working poor. Darr’s Gang of Four gets the state’s heavily subsidized health insurance, with its friendly rates and coverage. Republican reluctance to pare this expense is another example of the cloistered world of the Capitol. Those under the dome are all pretty comfortable. It’s easy in that bubble to believe that the rest of the world lives the same way — good pay, good vacation and holiday time, good health insurance, good free parking, work days that end at the stroke of 4:30, legislators (if you’re in the right party) who look after you. The working people of Arkansas aren’t so lucky. Republicans in the legislature should urge Darr’s staff to move on — with some brief severance (they’ve already had six weeks’ worth). At most, they could justify a one-person, low-pay skeleton staff to answer whatever phone or mail might arrive. If the welfare checks continue, Republicans lawmakers will have put, as Darr once put it, a stake in the ground about their position on government waste. For!