By David J. Sanders
It’s the kind of recognition Republican lawmakers would rather avoid. On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Beebe touted the tax increase he signed into law back during the legislative session in a speech in Northwest Arkansas.
During his remarks, the Democrat asked a couple of Republican state lawmakers who were in the audience to stand.
The governor trained his admiration on state Sen. Kim Hendren and state Rep. Tim Summers. Hendren, as most people now know, is the former conservative Democrat turned moderate Republican who suffers from the unenviable disorder where his foot is permanently attached to his mouth. Hendren tanked his feckless U.S. Senate candidacy earlier this spring after the media picked up on comments he’d made referring to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer as “that Jew.”
Summers, like Hendren, is a former Democrat turned Republican, although his conversion was more recent. He only recently was elected to the state House. He won for two reasons: Because of the Arkansas presidential primary in February 2008, his Democratic friends were free to cross over to vote in last May’s Republican Primary, and he convinced enough Republicans that he meant what he said we he told them that, if elected, he would be a reliable vote against tax increases.
Hendren and Summers both stood at the governor’s behest. “If it wasn’t for these two guys and a few others like Cecile Bledsoe and Uvalde Lindsey, you wouldn’t have a medical school opening up here,” Beebe said, linking his 56-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase to the expansion of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences into Northwest Arkansas.
Hendren and state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, whose husband is a doctor, both voted for the tax increase after it passed the state House of Representatives by one vote.
But with 28 Republicans, 71 Democrats and one Green serving in the House and the state’s constitution requiring 75 affirmative votes to pass any tax other than a sales tax, the governor had some work to do. The governor had all the Democrats on board and so he only needed three Republicans to break rank and vote with the Democrats. Summers, of course, provided the crucial vote in the House.
There is something worth pointing out.
Not once during the entire tax debate was the funding for the UAMS campus in Northwest Arkansas ever in doubt. The governor had already made a commitment to fund the project if folks up in that part of the state could help raise some money to support it, which they did. Even if his tobacco tax had died a less-than-glorious death, the UAMS expansion would have moved ahead according to plan.
In response to Beebe’s praise, Summers responded in equal measure. “I was glad to be in support of it,” Summers said. “It’s important not just to Northwest Arkansas but to the entire state.”
Though Summers appears to be proud of his tax-hiking vote, Northwest Arkansas Republicans aren’t as enthusiastic. They know that had he kept his word and done what he told them he was going to do, the tax increase would not have passed.
Hendren’s political career is basically over, thanks to his own actions, and there’s little opportunity for payback. But Summers, even though he’s not a young buck, is just getting started, which has many Northwest Arkansas Republicans ready to exact revenge.
There is little doubt that Summers will face a primary opponent next May. In fact, several Republicans are eyeing the race now. When all is said and done, Summers will probably wish he could take back his tax vote.
He may learn that receiving praise from a grateful governor isn’t always a good thing.
——-
David J. Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is the host of Arkansas Education Television Network’s “Unconventional Wisdom.” His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.
