Justin Harris

State Rep. Justin Harris has mercifully announced his decision to not seek re-election. Thank you, sir. The announcement is long overdue, but not as long overdue as the announcement that should have been made already – the announcement of his resignation from the state House.

Harris gave his adopted daughters to a man who later admitted to sexually assaulting one of them and two other children. Harris says he gave the girls away because he perceived the 5- and 3-year-olds as a threat to his biological children. His actions led to two pieces of legislation aimed at preventing foster parents in Arkansas from re-homing the children in their care and custody. His poor judgment and refusal to resign dominated headlines for much of the recent Legislative session and the following special session.

Harris got crossways with the state Department of Human Services – first accusing the agency of trying to block his adoptions of the girls and then later when he decided he didn't want the children, said DHS prevented him from returning them to state custody. He did, after some scrutiny, step down in mid-March as vice chairman of the House Aging, Children, Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs Committee as well as a position on the legislative Joint Performance Review Committee. Both of those committees have oversight of DHS.

The problem is that he stopped there. He should have resigned. Period.

Harris was absent for all three days of the special legislative session that was held in May. He told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he stayed away, in part, because of an ongoing Arkansas State Police investigation.

“I felt that was important and I was taking care of some family matters,” Harris said, adding that he planned to finish his term strong and not miss any more legislative sessions.

A state police investigation is important and family matters should come first. Unfortunately for Harris – and more so for the people of his district and the state, he doesn't see that his actions combined with all of the local, state and national attention have resulted in him being ineffective and a distraction to the legislative process.

Sadly, Harris doesn't feel a moral obligation to do the right thing in the glaring spotlight of his wrongdoing.