Sen. Alan Clark loses his case over ‘ethics’ filings

We can’t write the final notes on State Senator Alan Clark of Lonsdale, even after the full state Senate voted 26-4 to strip him of his seniority, virtually expel him from the Upper House for the remainder of 2022 and place him at the bottom of committee assignments for the next legislative session.

You see, Clark recently won re-election to the state Senate, despite all these ethics problems mostly brought about by his own temper, demeanor and ill-will towards others in the state Senate.

Back home, in rural Arkansas, Clark may be seen as a ‘hero’ kicking against the rules of the state Senate.

He should be seen for what two dozen of his colleagues apparently saw in him — a bully, a rule-breaker and a fool.

Perhaps state Senator Missy Irwin of Mountain View, no shrinking violet of the legislature, said it best when hanging the “L” word on Clark.

No, she didn’t call him a “liberal.”

As a member of the Ethics Committee that brought the charges against Clark to the full senate, Irwin noted Clark had two separate opportunities to withdraw his ethics complaint and refused to do so.

“The fact of the matter is,” Irwin told the state’s largest newspaper a week ago, “Senator Clark lied to us.”

Being a liar is a serious offense in the legislature.

And Irwin didn’t mince her words. Nor should she after all the controversy and bullying Alan Clark did and tried to continue doing in this ethics hearing matter.

But he is a coward. Hiding behind a family trip to an unknown location, Clark failed to show when the final committee proffer to the full state Senate came forward.

Clark is not, for the history books, the most despicable state senator of all time. There have been others who were expelled forever, but the wise counsel of the ethics committee did see fit to give Clark some very harsh punishment for his tirade against the members of the ethics committee and others.

A 26-4 vote in the 35 member Arkansas State Senate is indeed a mandate.

Both Democrats and Republicans chose to give Clark harsh penalties for his behaviors.

A quartet of his colleagues, however, State Senators Bob Ballenger of Hindsville (who lost his re-election bid to the senate), Trent Garner of El Dorado, who did not seek re-election (and had his own ethical problems this past session), Charles Beckam of McNeil and Mark Johnson of Maumelle (who was also sanctioned in the same per diem controversy that caused Clark to lash out at others), voted in Clark’s favor — not to finding him guilty or have sanctions imposed on his tenure at a state senator.

As is his custom, Clark, at the final hour of meeting with the ethics committee before last week’s final session, tried to raise the issue that over the weekends during a session, that senators are paid per diem and are usually not at the state capitol.

Again, here is a grown man, an elected official, caught in an embarrassing attempt to violate ethical standards, rules and regulations, trying to cover his own sins with another rule he doesn’t like and doesn’t think should be on the books.

He is unashamedly accusing all of those in the Upper Chamber as violators of the per diem rule in accepting these payments of per diem.

Clark says this weekend per diem is “a million dollars” of tax payer taxes wasted. He also made the prophecy that the weekend per diem would not be allowed in future sessions because he called the practice out as wrong.

We will still have Clark around in 2023 and, sadly, for the next four years. His legislative record is tainted.

His district will suffer because of his behavior and all the time he has wasted on trying to right a wrong he committed instead of serving his district.

That’s a crime voters should have corrected at the polls, if they only would have watched him and his record in the state Senate.