Support Growing for Darrs Resignation

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mark Darr of Springdale is facing an uphill battle to keep his job, according to a report published Friday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Three candidates running for statewide office said Thursday they believe Darr should resign in the wake of an ethics scandal.

Lieutenant governor candidates Andy Mayberry, an East End Republican, and John Burkhalter, a Little Rock Democrat, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Hobbs of Rogers said Thursday that Darr should tender his resignation.

Earlier this week, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe suggested to Darr in a telephone call that he should resign. The six members of the state’s congressional delegation, as well as two other candidates running for governor have also called publicly for Darr’s resignation, according to the report.

Darr, a Republican and one-time candidate for U.S. Congress, has said through representatives he has no plans to resign, though Friday’s Democrat-Gazette report said Darr is weighing his options, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, a Russellville Republican who said he spoke on the phone Thursday morning with the lieutenant governor.

“He’s basically going to take some time to digest the situation and what he should do and let us know what that is,” Lamoureux told the newspaper. “Hopefully, it will resolve itself.”

Some lawmakers may try to impeach Darr is he does not resign, according to the report.

Darr agreed to a settlement with the Arkansas Ethics Commission on Monday, agreeing to pay $11,000 in fines, $1,000 for each of 11 violations of misspending campaign funds and failing to keep complete records.

On Aug. 29, Darr dropped out of the race for U.S. Congress after reports surfaced of his campaign expenditures.

The campaign exit came just 17 days after Darr announced he would move from Springdale to his hometown of Mena to fulfill the residential requirement of running for the Republican nomination to represent the 4th Congressional District.

Also on Thursday, the Arkansas News Bureau reported Darr did not attend any training sessions on campaign finance laws offered by the state Ethics Commission. The sessions are not mandatory.

Darr, in his first run for public office of any kind, was narrowly elected the state’s lieutenant governor in November 2010. He owned a local pizza business before that.

In something of an ironic twist, Darr, according to Friday’s report, will be acting governor this weekend while Gov. Beebe is out of the state.

Beebe, an Arkansas State University graduate, is planning a trip to Alabama to attend the school’s bowl game Sunday in Mobile.

“You can’t just be a prisoner in your own state,” Beebe told the Democrat-Gazette. “I am going Saturday to a bowl game and be gone Saturday and Sunday and come back Sunday night. And he’s going to be the acting governor, and that’s just the way it is. I am not going to be a prisoner in my own office.”