Alan Clark (Arkansas politician)

Byron Alan Clark (born 1960) is a businessman from Hot Springs in Garland County, Arkansas, who is a Republican member of the Arkansas State Senate from District 13. He represents Hot Spring County and parts of Garland, Grant, and Saline counties.^[1][2]

Background

Clark was born to Alfred Eugene Clark (born 1938) and Mildred I. Clark (born 1940), natives of Arkansas County near Stuttgart in eastern Arkansas, who relocated to Hot Springs in 1960. Alfred and Mildred taught school, farmed, and pastored several Christian churches, two of the Church of the Nazarene denomination. In 1973, they launched Clarks Building & Decorating Center, a lumberyard and flooring center. Alan Clark transferred in the eleventh grade to Cutter–Morning Star High School, from which he graduated c. 1978. There he met his future wife, Jana Lynn Pruitt (born 1961). He is heavily involved in his church, including a role as associate pastor and youth pastor, but his website does not give the name or denomination of the church.^[3]

Clark is the vice president and chief operation officer of the family-owned, Clarks Building & Decorating Center in Hot Springs. Clark served on Ace Hardware's PACE Computer 12 member Technology Board from 1992 to 1996. He was a member and served as Chairman of the Central Arkansas Ace Team (CAAT) an Ace dealer group. Clark served on the board of directors of the Mid Americal Lumberman's Association (MLA). He served as President in 2008. Afterwards he was elected as their representative for several years to the National Lumber and Building Material Dealer Associaton (NLBMDA) board. He stepped down from that board after being elected to the Arkansas State Senate. In 2011, Clark was named Associate of the Year by the Hot Springs Home Builders Association.^[2] The Clarks reside in Lonsdale in Garland County. They have a son, Andrew N. "Drew" Clark, and a daughter, Shay S. Clark.^[1]

Political life

From 1992 to 1996, Clark served on the Garland County Quorum Court,^[1] the equivalent of county commission in most other states. On November 6, 2012, he was elected to the state Senate. With 15,768 votes, he defeated the Democrat Mike Fletcher, who polled 13,288 ballots. Another 1,013 votes was polled by the Libertarian Frank Gilbert. Though Fletcher was an incumbent senator shifted to another district, the geographic area of the 13th District had been numbered as the 27th district until redisticting in 2010. This district had been held by Democrats for over 140 years since Reconstruction. Clark is the first Republican to be elected to this seat since that time and was part of the first Republican majority in the Arkansas Senate in over 140 years.

Clark serves on these Senate committees: (1) Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development, of which he is vice chair. (2) Budget, (3) Education, (4) Joint Performance Review which he chairs, (5) Legislative Council and, (6) Alternate on Legislative Joint Auditing.^[1] He is also Senate Chair of the Education Caucus, Senate Chair of the ALC Policy Making Subcommittee, and serves on the ALC State Police and Game and Fish Commission subcommittee. Clark serves on several other Education and Council subcommittees and the education committees of multiple national legislative groups. In 2015, Clark was appointed to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Legislative Advisory Panel.

Clark opposes abortion, having voted to ban the practice after twenty weeks of gestation or whenever fetal heartbeat is determined.^[4] Clark has supported all Second Amendment strengthening legislation during his term.

In 2013, He was one of the chief proponents of public school choice. He voted successfully to override Democratic Governor Mike Beebe's veto of a bill to require photo identification when one casts a ballot in Arkansas. He opposed legislation to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan. He voted to allow handguns to be carried on church properties and to forbid the release of information on the holders of concealed carry permits. He voted to allow university staff to carry concealed weapons. He voted for a bill to permit the sale of unpasteurized whole milk within the state. Clark opposed legislation requiring a racial impact statement regarding crime bills.^[4]

In 2015, Clark sponsored the public school choice act, and numerous other successful education bills.

Clark has endorsed former U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson for governor in 2014. Clark expressed the view that if elected Hutchinson, who lost the 2006 contest to Beebe, would be a "conservative governor."^[5]

References