House speaker addresses club

Convictions of lawmakers ‘a stain,’ Shepherd declares

Newly minted House Speaker Matthew Shepherd made his debut before the Political Animals Club — a gathering of current and former politicians, lobbyists and others with a general interest in the state’s political scene — at Little Rock’s Union Station on Thursday.

Shepherd, a 42-year-old Republican from El Dorado, was sworn in as speaker last week after his predecessor, Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, resigned to take a job with the University of Central Arkansas.

A taciturn speaker who has made few headlines for his public remarks, Shepherd said he wanted to fill the audience in on his background, including his early years in El Dorado.

“I know that sometimes people think I’m a little rigid as chair of the House Judiciary Committee,” Shepherd joked. “I can’t help it, that’s the product of growing up with a judge as a father.”

Shepherd’s father, Bobby Shepherd, is a judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, having been appointed by President George W. Bush.

After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University, Matthew Shepherd studied at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville School of Law. He said his profession has helped him appreciate the value of hearing both sides of issues in the Legislature.

Referring to the recent convictions of several former lawmakers in an ongoing federal corruption probe, Shepherd addressed bluntly the allegations that some representatives and senators received kickbacks for their distribution of excess state funds, which he called “disgusting and disturbing.”

“There is a stain, I think, that is on the General Assembly,” Shepherd said. “But that just means we need to be working all the more to restore, make sure the public trusts the General Assembly.”

The Senate this week approved revised ethics rules in response to the corruption scandal. Shepherd said a similar move could be taken by the House, though he did not offer specifics.

Shepherd said he was also excited to focus in the 2019 regular legislative session on an effort being led by the governor to find inefficiencies in state government and to save money by consolidating agencies.

Perhaps of the greatest interest to the politicos in the room, Shepherd offered a partial snapshot of the next General Assembly, even before the November elections.

Of the 100 seats in the House, he said, 53 races were settled in the spring primaries.

Shepherd, a four-term incumbent, is one of those without opposition in November. He also did not have an opponent in the primary.

The next House will have at least 18 freshmen, Shepherd said, as a result of departing incumbents.

Of the districts that have already been settled, 14 will be represented by women, and another eight incumbent women are competing in November, Shepherd said, making it likely the chamber will have more women next year. There are now 18 women in the House.