Huckabee says turbulent start shaped governorship
Last updated Saturday, December 30, 2006 9:28 PM CST in News
By Andrew DeMillo
The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK -- Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, about to step down after more than a decade in office, said the turbulent start of his tenure gave him an unexpected swell of public support in a Democratic-leaning state.
While Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was reluctant to relinquish power on July 15, 1996, after his Whitewater conviction, Arkansans were ready to pass it along to their new governor, regardless of his political affiliation, Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"People knew I was thrust into this office unexpectedly. They knew I was put in here under some challenging circumstances," Huckabee said in a parlor at the governor's mansion. "I think I came in with a really strong sentiment of good will from people in the state who wanted me to do well and wanted me to succeed and wished me the very best."
And as Huckabee exits office Jan. 9 -- ineligible for another four years because of term limits -- the governor said his legacy is leaving Arkansas' schools, health-care system and economic development prospects in better shape than on the day he was sworn in.
"I'd like to think that a child growing up in Arkansas has a much better future and opportunity than ever before," Huckabee said.
At staff meetings, Huckabee, said, he had a simple measuring stick when assessing policies.
"I'd say if it's not improving the life of a 7-year-old in Dermott today, then it probably isn't worth it," Huckabee said. "We never forgot that's what we were trying to do."
Huckabee said he's proudest of changes in the state's public school system -- higher standards and test scores among the state's 450,000 students. Throughout 2006, education officials announced marked improvement by Arkansas students on standardized tests, including Benchmark exams and college-entrance tests.
The governor said too much attention has been paid to the consolidation of smaller school districts -- he often was in conflict with legislators and superintendents from small towns.
"Consolidation ... is a byproduct of standards," Huckabee said. "That's not the goal. That's the net result of when you raise the academic expectations and it really was a matter of economic necessity."
With attention in recent years on his 110-pound weight loss after being diagnosed with diabetes, Huckabee also leaves office being able to point to achievements he's made on the health front starting with a 1997 law to establish a program for uninsured children.
The law, which he signed in crayon, established the ARKids First program and expanded coverage to thousands of Arkansas children.
A study released in early 2006 said Arkansas saw the greatest percentage drop -- nearly 60 percent -- in the number of uninsured children from 1997 to 2004 of any state and the District of Columbia.
Huckabee also advocated for a series of initiatives to promote more healthy behavior among the state, including an effort to track obesity among schoolchildren, and a workplace smoking ban he pushed through the Legislature in a special session earlier this year.
"I tried to govern with a view toward the long and not the short term, knowing full well that a lot of the things we were doing were platforms of progress that would be seen long after I left office," Huckabee said. "I'm quite content with that being the case."
Huckabee has also presided over his share of dust-ups and controversies as governor, including his role in the parole of castrated rapist Wayne DuMond.
DuMond initially was sentenced to life plus 20 years, but Tucker reduced the sentence to 39 1/2 years, making DuMond parole-eligible. Shortly after taking office, Huckabee announced in September 1996 he intended to grant clemency to DuMond, who was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction in the 1984 rape of a Forrest City teenager.
The governor said publicly at the time he doubted DuMond's guilt and DuMond had served long enough, considering he had been castrated while awaiting trial. DuMond said masked men attacked him at his home, but no one was ever charged. Huckabee ultimately denied DuMond clemency the same day the Post Prison Transfer Board voted to grant parole.
The vote came just months after the board had voted to deny parole, and after Huckabee, according to some board members, discussed DuMond's case privately with the board.
DuMond was released in 1999 and moved to a Kansas City, Mo., suburb. He was later convicted of killing a woman in her apartment, then died in prison of cancer in 2005.
Huckabee acknowledges that, should he seek the presidency in 2008, the name will likely resurface from his opponents.
"The DuMond case is one that is certainly going to be scrutinized but if someone runs the whole history of that case, I think there's a whole lot more my predecessors would have to answer for than I would," Huckabee said. "You can hardly say I've been soft on crime. I've carried out more executions than any other governor in the history of the state."
Huckabee also has faced scrutiny over gifts and financial disclosures, with the state's Ethics Commission admonishing him for violations five times in his 14-year political career.
Another program that faced sharp criticism is one Huckabee lists as one of his greatest achievements, the implementation of the state's computerized accounting system.
The system, known as AASIS, went online in July 2001 and Gov. Mike Huckabee and several legislators have been at odds over its performance ever since. Huckabee said the system was needed as an update to an antiquated cash accounting system used by state agencies before its implementation.
Huckabee acknowledges two problems with the startup but said the glitches were overblown.
"We should never have implemented it during an election year. That was a mistake," Huckabee said. "In the early days, when we trained employees on how to use it, we never certified their training. ... What we found out later was that if you didn't test on what you trained, you were asking for trouble."
A Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee's off-the-cuff comments and jokes -- the governor rarely speaks with prepared text -- became a hallmark of his tenure and at times worked against him.
When a GOP state senator put forth legislation to ban state services for illegal immigrants, the governor said the senator drank a different "Jesus juice" than him. He also jokingly attributed his weight loss to a "concentration camp" diet and once called his state a "banana republic."
Huckabee's thinner physique has led to a larger public profile, as the governor has taken on personal fitness and health as a focus of his governorship. Huckabee, who became an avid runner and marathoner, wrote a book chronicling his dramatic weight loss.
"It certainly made me aware that health, not health care, is perhaps the most important issue that we face domestically today," Huckabee said. "It's literally just chewing up our economy and our competitiveness and our productivity."
Huckabee said he will walk away from the office satisfied Arkansans had a leader who put the state's long-term needs first.
"I hope that they had a governor who woke up every day caring about how the people of Arkansas not only were going to live that day but were going to live 10 and 20 years later," Huckabee said.
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