by Karl Kurtz
After adjourning its 2012 fiscal session on Friday last week, the Arkansas House of Representatives met and designated Rep. Darrin Williams (D) as the next speaker of the House for the 2013-14 biennium. If the Democrats maintain the majority after the 2012 elections, Williams will become the first African American speaker in Arkansas, as reported in The Thicket last week.
But the "if" clause in the preceding session is an important one. As the Arkansas News reports,
If Republicans win a majority in the House in November, they could block Williams from being installed and instead seat a Republican speaker. Williams told reporters he believes lawmakers would be making a mistake to “change horses in midstream,” saying he will start planning for the next session right away.
“It costs us about $30,000 a day to be here. If we wait to start planning after November, then that’s just more money we’re going to cost the state and that’s more days we’re going to be here,” he said.
[Rep. Terry] Rice [the Republican who ran against Williams for speaker designate] has said there will be “two people maybe getting ready” to lead the House.
Current House Minority Leader John Burris of Harrison predicted today that if Republicans win a majority, they will seat Rice, not Williams, as speaker. In doing so they would be following the wishes of voters, he said.
The Arkansas Senate selected Sen. Larry Ferguson to be the president pro tem designate a year ago at the end of the 2011 session.
This turn of events caused us to review how and why Arkansas chooses its leaders so far in advance. Among the fifteen states that have term limits, Arkansas is one of three that have the most stringent limts: six years in the House and eight in the Senate. Before term limits took effect, Arkansas had a tradition of rotating speakers every two years based on seniority. The most senior member who had not yet served as speaker would become the top leader in the next session. Committee chairmanships were also based on seniority.
A caucus of the entire House meets on the second Tuesday in March during each regular session to choose the speaker-designate. Because House rules prohibit the candidates from circulating petitions seeking pledge signatures, they make personal contact with individual members and ask for their support. On the day of the election, each candidate can address the House for 15 minutes before a secret vote is taken. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority vote of the House membership, or 51 votes. If no candidate receives a majority vote, a run-off election is held between the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes. Assuming the speaker designate is re-elected, it is expected he or she will be elected speaker of the House when the following General Assembly convenes in January of the next odd numbered year.
That system lasted through the 2007-08 biennium (the last biennial session of the Arkansas General Assembly), although there was some variation in when the speaker designate was chosen. After voters approved annual sessions beginning with the 2009-10 biennium, the House chose its speaker designate on the adjournment of the even-numbered year fiscal session rather than the odd-year regular session.
Before term limits, the Arkansas Senate also had rotating leadership based on seniority. Because term limits took effect in the Senate later than in the House, the Senate waited until 2007 to adopt a process of choosing a president pro tem designate at the end of the biennial session in a manner similar to the House. After annual sessions were instituted, the Senate chose to continue to select their next leader at the end of the regular (odd-numbered year) session, rather than at the end of the fiscal session.
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