David J. Sanders

David James Sanders (born January 21, 1975) is a member of the Arkansas State Senate. His District 15 encompasses Conway County and parts of Faulkner, Perry, Pulaski, and Van Buren counties.^[1] From 2011 to 2013, he served a term in the Arkansas House of Representatives from Pulaski County.

Background

A native Arkansan, Sanders graduated in 1993 from Walnut Ridge High School. In 1997, he received a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Mass Communications from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia in Clark County, Arkansas. He and his wife, Rebecca, a high school choral director, have five children.^[1]

He is the director of institutional advancement for the Arkansas Baptist Schools, a Christian college preparatory school in Little Rock. From 2000 until 2009, Sanders wrote a column published by Stephens Media Group and carried in some two dozen newspapers statewide. He hosted and produced the program Unconventional Wisdom for the Arkansas Educational Television Network. He has contributed to the network's long standing weekly public affairs program Arkansas Week. Sanders' work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and World Magazine.^[2][3]

In 2002, Arkansas Business named Sanders one its prestigious "40 Under 40", which recognizes 40 notable Arkansans under the age of 40. Sanders, who at the time was pursuing a career in both business and media claimed that he once wanted to run for office, but enjoyed business and "writing about politicians".^[4]

Political life

In his 2010 election to the state House in District 31, Sanders defeated the Democrat Debbie Murphy, 9,729 (62.6 percent) to 5,825 (37.4 percent).^[5] The position opened when the Republican incumbent Daniel Greenberg, a Little Rock lawyer, ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in District 22 against Jeremy Hutchinson, who in 2013 was switched to District 35.

Still in his first term in the House, Sanders in 2012 won the Republican nomination in Senate District 15 over Ed Garner. He then triumphed in the general election held on November 6, 2012, having defeated the Democrat Johnny Hoyt, 17,759 (54.7 percent) to 14,700 (45.3 percent). The seat opened when the Democratic incumbent David Burnett of Osceola was shifted to District 22 through redistricting. Sanders' term extends until 2016.^[6]

Committee work

Committee Chairmanships:

• Arkansas Legislative (ALC) Review
• Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace Legislative Oversight Committee
• Legislative Joint Auditing Medicaid Subcommittee.

Committee Membership:

• Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC)
• Legislative Joint Audit
• Senate Revenue and Taxation
• Senate Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development
• Senate Efficiency
• Joint Performance Review Committee
• ALC-Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions

ALC Peer Review Committee ^[7] While serving in the House, Sanders was a founding member of the Fayetteville Shale Caucus, now known as the Legislative Oil and Natural Gas Caucus.^[1]

Senate duties

In the 2013, Sanders passed legislation cracking down waste, fraud and abuse in the state’s Medicaid program—including in the creation of the state’s Office of Medicaid Inspector General (Acts 1436, 1499 and 1504). In addition, Sanders has to his credit sweeping laws that corrected years of structural problems with Arkansas’ parole system (Acts 435, 1029 and 1030). He passed the first reduction in the state’s income tax rates (Act 1459) and reformed the state’s worker’s compensation laws for motor carriers (Act 1166).

Sanders is one of the architects of Arkansas’ Private Option, the conservative alternative to President Barack Obama’s Medicaid expansion contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Poorer Arkansans are now able to purchase private insurance with the help of premium assistance, instead of being relegated to the state’s Medicaid rolls. Republican governors in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Utah and Indiana have proposed plans similar to Arkansas’ innovative model.

Currently Sanders is working with members of a bipartisan task force to reform the Arkansas’ State Employees and School Employees Health Insurance Plan.

Awards and Recognitions in the 89th General Assembly

• "Legislator of the Year," Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police
• “Business Matters Legislative Leadership Award," Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Arkansas Associated Industries^[8]
• "Advocate for Justice," Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association^[9]
• "Legislative Leader for Children," Arkansas Kids Count Coalition
• "ACU Conservative," American Conservative Union ^[10]

Other Honors

Top 10 Lawmakers, “Talk Business Arkansas’” “Senator David Sanders (R-Little Rock) – Like Sen. Dismang and Rep. John Burris, Sanders was a workhorse this session, especially on the private option. Insiders say Sanders saved the day on the last-minute negotiations on the plan just as patience was wearing out. He also spearheaded a number of other successful efforts to reform the existing Medicaid program. Sanders was deeply involved in the tax cut debate and he successfully passed legislation tied to prison, (parole) and sentencing reforms and economic development.” ^[11]

Visionary Arkansan, “Arkansas Times’” List of 25 of the Arkansas’ Creative Thinkers: “David Sanders, Parole reformer: Two great issues emerged in the 2013 Arkansas legislature — health care and crime — and Sen. David Sanders of Little Rock, a 38-year-old policy wonk, was in the big fat middle of both of them…” ^[12]

Arkansas House of Representatives

As a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Sanders, wrote the Athlete Agent Reform Act of 2011, which has been recognized by the NCAA as the nation’s strongest legislation targeting illegal activities of sports agents.^[13] He also sponsored the state's first ethics law targeting Arkansas’ banking, insurance, securities and utility, regulators.^[14]

Sanders has voted to lower the sales tax on food, to reduce taxes on the purchase of used vehicles and to reduces taxation of manufacturers’ utility bills. As a state representative, Sanders received the Advocate for Justice Award from the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association for his work on behalf of crime victims.^[1]

References