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Disenfranchised Arkansas District 83?
January 7, 2011
If you have ambitions of being a playwright I hope you are taking notes on the political happenings here in Arkansas. You could have a best-selling drama.
Remember the story of Tom Fite and Leslee Post from district 83? Mr. Fite was found ineligible to be an Arkansas Representative by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Collins Kilgore because he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor bribery charge more than 26 years ago. (Read more here)
Yesterday afternoon members of the 2011 Arkansas House of Representatives voted to seat Leslee Milam Post (D-Ozark) who received only 41% of the vote.
Rep. John Burris (R-Harrison), the Minority Leader, made a motion to delay the seating of District 83 (Post’s seat) asking that the Claims Commission be able to review the case just as they had for Rep. Elect Fred Smith just days prior. Burris explained that the wished of the people in district 83 need to be taken into account and their votes counted.”
His motion failed, 60-28.
Then there was a motion to seat Ms. Post to which Rep. Nate Bell (R-Mena) made a statement pointing out that the ruling to disqualify Tom Fite clearly usurped the Arkansas State Constitution and a ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court case in 2002, Magnus v Carr.
Here is a note from Rep. Bell explaining~
Today I spoke against the seating of Leslee Post in District 83. My opposition was based on the need to preserve the constitutional separation of powers outlined in the Arkansas Constitution Article 4 sections 1 and 2 and Article 5 section 11 and was not intended to address the merits of the Post/Fite case which is pending before the Arkansas Supreme Court. The Pulaski Circuit Court ruled in October that the ballots cast for Tom Fite were not be counted. My argument today was based on the Arkansas Constitution as interpreted by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Magnus v Carr and numerous precedent cases. The court held that the judicial branch does not have jurisdiction in election cases involving the legislative branch of government due to the separation of powers. The court has repeatedly held that allowing the judicial branch to intervene in matters related to legislative elections would allow the judges to essentially choose members of another branch of government. My viewpoint was defeated today 61-29. I will always stand for constitutional principles even when it is politically unpopular. 6 Republicans voted with the Democrats to allow the judge to usurp the constitutional authority of the legislature.
The citizens of District 83 deserve to have their votes counted. The votes would have been counted and Fite would have been declared the winner had the judge not intervened. The House would then have determined Fite’s eligibility as outlined in Arkansas law. If he was deemed ineligible then a vacancy in election would have been declared and a special election held. Instead, the house today voted to seat the person who lost the election garnering less than 42% of the votes cast. We allowed a circuit judge to elect a person to the legislature who received less than a majority of the votes cast. I believe we set a very dangerous precedent today.
Here’s a link to the case I cited:
The legislature voted 61-29 for Ms. Post to be sworn in and seated on Monday.
Anyone else see a problem here? The way I understand it ( and if I am wrong please let me know) according to the Arkansas Constitution and a case that was decided just 9yrs ago by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge Kilgore circumvented the Constitution of our state, ignored precedence, and did a huge disservice to the voters of Dist. 83.
The voters clearly voted for the more conservative candidate, as did the majority of voters in the state, and nation for that matter, and were smacked down. Was this a case of over-reaching judge. Isn’t that the story?
P.S
THANK YOU!! to our 29 Arkansas State Representatives that held the line. Thank you to Representatives John Burris and Nate Bell for attempting to stop the circumvention of our Constitution. I look forward to working with these men and women to bring to Arkansas fiscal responsibility, limited government, and Constitutional soundness.
I am Tom Fite’s daughter and I just want to thank the author for having the guts to write this, and the publication for having the guts to print it. Winston Churchill said “it always looks so easy to solve problems by taking the path of least resistance,” which is in fact what 61 Arkansas House of Representatives did in this case. I commend the brave, the ones who demonstrated guts of their own and took a stand for the people of Arkansas in this case. Thank you to those 29 who only wanted to see that the voters have their votes counted!
Laurie, I just discovered the article concerning my husband Tom. Thank you, thank you. I have tears in my eyes as I’m typing this. It seems very few people have understood what happened to my husband in the election. This area of the law evidently has just recently been discovered by a few attorneys and now any elected official is subject to having his/her records searched, then anybody with the money to pay a “concerned citizen” to file suit can take the misdemeanor to a judge and have him or her declare that the misdemeanor meets the criteria for an “infamous crime” and throw that person off the ballot or out of office. What is especially concerning in my husband’s case is that this was done AFTER early voting began!! We found out about the lawsuit from the media–were never served with a summons–and were given exactly two business days to have our case prepared, while our opponent had been planning this for months.
Thank you so much for defending us. I look forward to meeting you one day.
Burris’ motion was irrelevant to Fite’s case. Burris cites a case in which a sitting legislator is wrongfully removed by a judge. Fite was not a sitting legislator, he was an Arkansas citizen running for office. And he should have read the Arkansas State Constitution before he ran. A bribery charge makes him ineligible for office. Votes cast for an ineligible candidate are not counted. Why so many people voted for him is a mystery, unless, of course, they thought he could be bribed.
Instead of crying foul, admit that it was fair, and take it like an American. Rules apply to everyone and no one likes a whiner. This is not an area of law ‘recently discovered’. Or doesn’t anybody read the AS Constitution any more?
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