Republican legislative choices: Productive or Partisan?

Dr. Jay Barth says the possibility exists that Republican “mavericks” newly elected to the Arkansas House and Senate hold the potential to undo the election gains the Republican Party made in the Arkansas Legislature.

Republicans picked up all seven contested Arkansas Senate races and added 16 new Republican House seats to their totals. The end result is that the 35-member Senate will have 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats. The 100-member House will have 56 Democrats and 44 Republicans.

The talk of the political town, so to speak, is the new dynamic and how it will play out in the weeks to come as Legislators gather to prepare for the 88th Arkansas General Assembly. Specifically, the primary questions are: Will there be a more partisan tone in the Legislature, or will the relatively conservative nature of Arkansas Democrats and the governing skills of Gov. Mike Beebe diminish the potential for partisan fights?

The answers are, “Yes,” and “It depends.” Which are answers one would expect from a political question coming so soon after a transformative election cycle.

Barth, a political science professor at Hendrix College, said the Republican gains will certainly demand a new approach by Democrats because the Republicans will have enough votes to block major legislation — including budget bills.

But if blocking is all the Republicans do, they jeopardize the recently acquired political gains, Barth said.

“I think they want to be careful … they don’t want to become obstructionists. I don’t think that will wear well with the voting public,” Barth said.

State Senator-elect Jake Files, a Republican representing Fort Smith in the Senate District 13 seat, is not likely to be among the mavericks.

“I’m going to use any leadership skills I have to build coalitions across party lines. That may sound like campaign rhetoric, … but I do think the Republicans have a choice to make. And those choices could lead to the creation of a real two-party system,” Files said.

The choices, Files believes, come down to a party that wants to be productive or a party that creates partisan divides.

“If people see us as a party of ‘No,’ that turns a lot of voters off. To me, voters are not looking for a bunch of obstructionists, they are looking for leaders with solutions to the problems we are facing. We need to remember that people back home, they want production and not partisan rhetoric,” Files said, adding that Arkansas Republicans should “work to be statesmen and not politicians.”

Barth isn’t sure about all Republicans being coalition-builders. He said there are several new Republican legislators who did not get much help from the Arkansas Republican Party.

“You will have some mavericks in the mix. The party didn’t help them and they will not be interested in holding to a party line. … It’s going to be a pretty difficult crew to corral  because they don’t think of themselves as Republicans. They think of themselves as conservatives,” Barth explained.

Files also said a component of Republican legislative gains in 2012 is the opinion Arkansans will have of national Republican leaders — a factor outside the control of Arkansas GOP leaders.

“A lot of our gains in our party in Arkansas were, in my opinion, a reflection of Barack Obama’s policies. … If the national Republicans do not honor the pledge of turning that (Obama agenda) back, it will be very difficult for Republicans in Arkansas to make those gains (in 2012),” Files said.

And then there is the matter of working or not working with a popular governor.

By capturing more than 65% of the vote in the gubernatorial race, Barth and Files said Beebe has proven that his popularity and political skills are not something to challenge just for the sake of challenging.

“He (Beebe) knew this (Republican legislative gains) was coming, and that’s why he didn’t get involved in the legislative races. He wants to work with us, and we’d be smart to recognize that as an opportunity,” Files said.