The Arkansas Senate Rules Committee approved nearly all of Gov. Sarah Sanders’ commission and board appointments today, including the appointment of former state senator Jason Rapert to the State Library Board. The committee voted 7-2 to advance Rapert’s appointment.
The committee’s approval was immediately confirmed by the full Senate, meaning Rapert is officially in.
But Rapert doesn’t even like libraries?
This story will be updated.
UPDATE:
It took only a couple minutes of discussion in the Senate Rules Committee today about Governor Sarah Sanders’ appointments to various state boards and commissions before former state Sen. Jason Rapert’s name was invoked. It took even less time, once Rapert’s name was put to a vote, for the committee to approve him and forward his nomination to the full Senate for approval.
Rapert was the elephant in the packed committee room, but his nomination wound up being saved until the final item of business. Committee Chairman Clint Penzo (R-Springdale) first informed the lawmakers that the governor’s appointments to the state Towing & Recovery Board were being pulled from the batch of nominees due to some “objections in northwest Arkansas” where “some mayors” asked that the nominations be held “until [the Joint Performance Review] committee can look at it.”
Sen. Stephanie Flowers (D-Pine Bluff) then asked, “Is the Library Board being pulled out?” Penzo confirmed that Rapert was being pulled out “for a separate vote,” and that Rapert was the only nominee for whom a separate vote had been requested.
Once that was cleared up, the committee unanimously approved the other nominees before moving to the vote on Rapert. Sen. Frederick Love (D-Little Rock) joined Flowers as the only “no” votes for Rapert. The seven other senators on the committee – all white men – voted to approve Rapert’s nomination.
As soon as the committee finished their vote on Rapert, the meeting was adjourned, and all of the nominees (other than the Towing & Recovery Board) were forwarded to the full Senate for a vote.
The senate approved the batch of other nominees unanimously without discussion, before voting on Rapert separately. Again, no discussion was held before the senators cast their votes. The final tally was 22 for, 10 against. The Republican senators who voted no include Breanne Davis of Russellville, Jane English of North Little Rock, Jimmy Hickey of Texarkana and Bryan King of Green Forest.
Jason Rapert – noted hater of libraries, who claimed that Jesus would have burned books – is now on your State Library Board.
Also of note: prior to voting on the governor’s appointments, the Rules Committee spent some time discussing procedural matters. Flowers asked whether the committee “ever gets background or resumes on the nominees” and was told that they do not.
“We could request those, as an individual or a committee,” from the Governor’s Office, Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Searcy) said. The committee should not do that for all nominees because “I don’t want a bunch of resumes to read,” Dismang added.
“If you don’t want to read them, you don’t have to,” Flowers retorted. She then made a motion that the committee ask for background information and resumes for nominees in the future.
Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R-Branch) said that when he was appointed to a state board in the 1990s, “They did background checks on all of us.” As for why he was in favor of getting background information on nominees, Stubblefield said that he didn’t “want someone who is a convicted felon” to serve on a board.
Penzo acknowledged that he would like information on any nominees in his district before they are appointed. Flowers countered that she was “not just concerned about my district,” and wanted information on all nominees.
Ultimately, the committee decided to have Penzo and Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) to talk to the Governor’s Office about what background and application information was available for the nominees. The committee will meet next month to discuss the issue further after Penzo and Hester speak to the Governor’s Office.
