Arkansas Politics and Government, Second Edition

8. The Power and Politics of the Executive Branch

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [156], (1) Lines: 0 to ——— 7.5pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TE [156], (1) chapter eight The Power and Politics of the Executive Branch In fact, the Arkansas Constitution may so severely limit the governor that the likelihood of one of them having a significant impact on history and events is greatly reduced. Cal Ledbetter Jr. and C. Fred Williams, “Arkansas Governors in the Twentieth Century,” 1982 “If the governor would just pick up the phone . . .” Statement by frustrated constituents frequently heard by Governor’s Office staffers The Arkansas governorship has been alternately described as an office of feeble incapacity and of towering strength. Since the framers of the 1874 constitution were not only antigovernmental but fiercely antigubernatorial, they deliberately designed a governorship of strictly limited powers: a twoyear term; a meager salary specified in the constitution itself; executive power divided between the governor and other separately elected executives; and a veto that could be overridden by a simple majority of the legislature. The two-year term became a four-year term beginning with the 1986 elections . Since the brief term was frequently identified as the most debilitating feature of the Arkansas governorship, the extension represents the single greatest enhancement of formal gubernatorial power. Still, the four-year term also applies to the other elected executives (who have increased from four to six since 1874), and the term limits provision put in place in 1992 means that any governor begins a second term as a “lame duck.” Moreover, although now changeable by ordinary statute rather than constitutional amendment, the Arkansas governor’s salary remains the second lowest in the United The Power and Politics of the Executive Branch 157 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [157], (2) Lines: 68 to 74 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [157], (2) States, and the veto override majority remains unchanged. These and other factors have made the governorship a special object of constitutional reformers . They have also led to Arkansas’s relatively low rankings in comparative studies of formal gubernatorial powers, which have dropped in the past four decades as the power of most states’ governors formal powers have been enhanced.l Yet, as political scientists often acknowledge, and as anyArkansas citizen could substantiate, there is a great gap between formal power and actual influence. The governor is the central figure in the state’s political system. Certainly he (all Arkansas governors have been male, and the defeat of the first female gubernatorial nominee, Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher, in 2002 means that will remain the case) is by far the most visible figure on the state’s political scene. National pollsters have repeatedly demonstrated that over 90 percentofastate’scitizenscancorrectlyidentifytheirgovernor(ascompared with 60 percent who can name one of their U.S. senators and even smaller percentages who can identify their member of Congress). Beyond simple name recognition many citizens have a tendency to identify state government wholly with the incumbent governor. This point was confirmed by the results of a “consciousness-raising” quiz one of the authors administered for more than a decade to thousands of beginning state-and-local-government students. All students, always, were able correctly to supply the governor’s name, but beyond that most fundamental fact, there was absolute ignorance. No more than 5 percent were ever able to identify correctly the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, or any of the other elected executive officials, much less to describe their duties. No more than 10 percent could name their own state senators or representatives. Only a handful of students— who attended a state university, drove automobiles licensed by the state over state-built roads, picnicked in state parks, and ingeniously evaded state liquor laws—were ever able to specify three functions of Arkansas’s state government. Their working knowledge of state government was almost exclusively limited to the identity of the governor, about whom many had strong evaluative sentiments.2 As will be emphasized, this singular visibility makes the governor both extremely influential and...