LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (TB&P) — A Senate panel on Tuesday (Jan. 29) rejected a proposal to replace two relatively obscure statues at the nation’s capitol with similar monuments for Little Rock civil rights activist Daisy L. Gaston Bates and Kingsland’s rock-and-roll, country music icon Johnny Cash.
At the same time, the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs gave a “do pass” recommendation to a bill that would enhance the petition requirement for new or previously unqualified political parties to appear on the ballot in Arkansas from a standard 10,000 signatures to 3% of the last gubernatorial vote.
Both bills were part of a nearly two-hour-long meeting at the State Capitol where the eight-person Senate committee continued the momentous task of reviewing thousands of pages of legislation on every detail of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s omnibus government transformation package.
But Senate Bill 75 by Sen. Dave Wallace, R-Leachville, did not make it out of that same committee after he reintroduced a measure to replace statues of deceased Arkansans U.M. Rose and James P. Clarke at the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. Wallace tabled his bill a week ago when fellow Republican Sens. Bill Sample of Hot Springs and Jimmy Hickey of Texarkana asked him to consider Walmart founder Sam Walton instead of Cash.
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