LITTLE ROCK — Mike Beebe said Wednesday he will support a ethics reform initiative if it qualifies for the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
Supporters of the proposed Campaign Finance and Lobbying Reform Act of 2012 have until July 6 to gather 62,507 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify the measure for the ballot.
Beebe said he does not plan to campaign for the proposed initiated act, but that he will speak for it if asked.
“We’ve got a lot of people out there doing the heavy lifting on it, but to the extent that people ask me a question and I get an opportunity to say something about it, I guess that’s campaigning for it,” the governor said.
Beebe’s comments Wednesday came as leaders of the Better Ethics Now Committee, one of two groups backing the ethics proposal, announced two high-profile additions to the coalition of influential political and business leaders — former Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and Lisenne Rockefeller, widow of the late Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The proposal would ban lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators. Currently, they can give up to $100 in gifts, food or other items to individual lawmakers.
It also would double the one-year “cooling off” period that a lawmaker must wait after leaving office before becoming a lobbyist, and it would prohibit direct corporate and union contributions to candidates for public office.
Halter, who as lieutenant governor led a successful drive for a constitutional amendment to authorize a state lottery, said he was optimistic that the ethics proposal would make the general election ballot.
“I support it, it’s the right thing to do,” he said during a news conference announcing the new members of the Better Ethics Now group.
Jim Keet, a former state senator and GOP candidate for governor who also is a member of the group, if the measure does not make the general election ballot he will advocate for ethics reform during the 2013 legislative session.