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Jay Bradford

Jay Bradford won't be back at the state capital again, at least not as a state representative. The White Hall Democrat has hit the term limits wall, so to speak, and is done.

The special session was his last hurrah.

After serving in the state legislature for decades, Bradford went out with a bang, as the co-sponsor of the successful clean air act — the one that banned smoking in most public places as well as inside private cars if children are present in child safety seats.

That move caught some national criticism of Gov. Mike Huckabee, but more on that later.

It wasn't the first time that Bradford fought smoking; he was the lead on the ban to end smoking on hospital campuses.

Not just in the building, but on the entire grounds.

That may explain why you see little groups of people huddled on the freeway overpasses and near the streets that run beside hospitals around Arkansas.

But when asked what he thought his legacy would be, it wasn't the smoking ban.

"If I had to pick, I'd pick the tobacco settlement," Bradford said of the legislation that put millions and millions of dollars back into Arkansas healthcare. "I'm just as proud of the clean air act but the tobacco settlement has done so much good around the state. And it is locked in for the future; it will last a long time."

According to Bradford, Arkansas has a unique distinction around the country.

"We are the last surviving state that put all the settlement money back into healthcare," he said. "When the settlement came down from the courts, the state legislature put together a group of medical advisors, one of which was UAMS … a broad-based group of healthcare providers. … Gov. Huckabee jumped all over it and took [the idea] to the people and with this group of healthcare advisors, and sold it to the people."

That was in a 1998 special session for those who can't remember, but it wasn't just that the money went into healthcare; "[The tobacco settlement] can't be changed without an extraordinary vote of the legislature … and that has really saved the day and other states have taken that money and put it into highways and other things."

As for Bradford who served as chairman of the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, he knows what he wants to do next.

"I have a plan. My project now is to elect Mike Beebe governor," Bradford said of the current attorney general who is running as a Democrat. "Once he's governor, I think the state will be in great hands."



The Fallout

Not everyone is pleased with the smoking ban.

Some are angry over the exemptions given to the dog and horse racing tracks in West Memphis and Hot Springs and others are upset over the somewhat confusing loopholes for bars that serve food.

Some of the bar owners are angry over the same thing, but for a different reason — namely, they think that they would lose business.

In published news reports, at least one bar in Fayetteville is headed to Rogers over the smoking ban.

And if that isn't enough, Gov. Huckabee is catching heat from the Club for Growth, a conservative organization that is criticizing him over a number of things, including this item from their writer Andrew Roth: " … Huckabee recently signed a bill that banned smoking in public places like restaurants and bars. Now he supports a bill that would ban smoking in a person's own car if children are present.

"What's next, Governor? Ban smoking in people's homes?"

Huckabee, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, needs all the positive press that he can muster. His 110-pound weight loss, his "how I did it" book, and his appearances on national television have gotten mostly good marks around the country.

On the strength of those factors, the smoking ban and other initiatives, Huckabee has earned some street cred as someone who knows healthcare.

As they say on TV, stay tuned.



Next stop: November

The Arkansas primaries have come and gone and some of the healthcare candidates are now moving on to the general elections in November.

The only physician in the primary, Dr. Gene Shelby, won his Democratic primary battle in Garland County and will now face Sharon Noble.

But Shelby won't be the only physician running in November. Dr. Vic Snyder will run against Andy Mayberry in the Second District congressional race. Snyder is the Democratic incumbent and Mayberry beat Tom Formicola, the executive with Medtronic, in the Republican primary.

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