10 years ago, Capitol in uproar as Tucker wavers on resigning
Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/160562/
July 15, 1996, was only supposed to be Jim Guy Tucker’s last day as governor. It turned out to be his worst.
Arkansas experienced a brief constitutional crisis 10 years ago as Tucker, who had been convicted of two felonies, made a last grasp at staying in power.
He had promised to resign. But when the time came, he changed his mind, first declaring himself to be in a state of disability, then backing away from that, and finally reversing himself again and surrendering the office.
He wrote his resignation letter while taking refuge at the state Democratic Party headquarters two blocks from the state Capitol.
In the Capitol, Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee’s inauguration as governor was delayed four hours by Tucker’s maneuvers. Huckabee stood firm, saying he’d call a special session to impeach Tucker unless Tucker stepped down.
Tucker blames himself.
He said he made poor decisions. Given the circumstances, he believes Huckabee did everything he had to do.
“The position I had taken was untenable,” Tucker said in an interview last week with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “If I had to do it over again, I certainly would not have. I’m very sorry.”
But Tucker added that he hopes Arkansans can understand what he faced at the time as he dealt not only with the pressure of the Whitewater special counsel investigation that had led to his conviction but also the stress of a serious liver ailment.
“I was very upset in the context of things,” Tucker said.
For Huckabee, it was a supposed to be a day of celebration of a transition from a Democratic to a Republican administration.
But he ended up gaining extra respect for his conduct, which contrasted with Tucker’s vacillation.
In a recent interview, Huckabee called the day “surreal.”
Here’s how it unfolded:
He was scheduled to be sworn in at 2 p. m.
Minutes before that moment, the phone rang. It was Tucker.
Standing outside Huckabee’s office door was the delegation from the Legislature to escort him to the House chamber for his swearing-in.
“I was locked and loaded,” Huckabee said. “But I was on the phone with Jim Guy Tucker, and he’s saying, ‘I’ve changed my mind.’
“ I’ve almost got the exact words,” Huckabee said. “He said, ‘There’s a very good chance I’m going to win on appeal, and the people have elected me governor.’”
Things got real interesting after that, said Rachel O’Neal Chaney, former state Capitol bureau chief for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette who wrote the lead story about the events that day.
“I was waiting outside the governor’s [office ] door, and I saw Sharon [Priest, secretary of state ] and something was obviously wrong with Sharon,” Chaney said. “I asked her what was wrong, and it became obvious something horrible was going on. We were waiting and waiting and waiting, and finally Sharon came out and told us what was going on. Jim Guy finally came out, and we interviewed him, and he didn’t really have a good answer. Then he had a press conference. It was all very weird.”
THE HISTORY Tucker was convicted May 28, 1996, of mail fraud and conspiracy. His sentencing was set for Aug. 16, 1996. Three hours after the verdict, Tucker announced he would resign by July 15. “Although I know I am innocent of all charges made, I must accept the verdict of the jury while I appeal,” Tucker said. “But I cannot, and should not, allow our people or our state to bear any part of that burden.” Tucker, 52 at the time, had already served as Pulaski County prosecuting attorney, attorney general and congressman before losing in a 1978 race for the U. S. Senate. In 1982, he failed in a race for governor.
He won the office of lieutenant governor in 1990, and was elevated to governor after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. Tucker was elected governor in his own right in 1994 with 60 percent of the vote.
Huckabee, a former president of the Arkansas State Baptist Convention who had run unsuccessfully for the U. S. Senate in 1992, had planned to run for the U. S. Senate again in 1996. Though favored to win, Huckabee abandoned that campaign after Tucker’s conviction, deciding instead that he would be governor.
During June 1996, Tucker and Huckabee worked together on the transition. Tucker prepared documents for Huckabee evaluating the status of each state agency and Huckabee gathered his own information by sending out teams of volunteers to interview department heads. Huckabee said he received “extraordinary cooperation” from Tucker.
Tucker also was spending time trying to get his conviction thrown out, an effort that ultimately proved unsuccessful.
During his last weeks in office, Tucker made dozens of appointments to state boards and commissions, noting that “a lot of activist Republicans” have “their taste buds” set for appointment by Huckabee.
On July 1, he gave the first hint at what would come when he said he “absolutely” would renege on resigning if his federal court motions were successful.
‘SURREAL’ DAY On the day of Huckabee’s swearing-in, Tucker’s first last-ditch attempt to hold on to power came at 1: 55 p. m. when he made the telephone call to Huckabee. Huckabee recalled Tucker saying 417, 000 Arkansans voted to make Tucker governor. “He had the exact figure down to the last digit, and [he said ] ‘They want me to be governor. I’ve decided I’m going to simply declare a disability. You can serve [as acting governor ], but I will not be stepping down.’ “ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got people who have resigned their positions and moved to Little Rock and some who have bought houses, and you’ve got people who have resigned.’
“ He said, ‘Well, I’m sorry about that.’
“ I said ‘I’ve got kids to enroll in school.’
“ His whole attitude was, ‘Well, that’s unfortunate.’
“ I was blown away. I just couldn’t see through the fog.”
Last week, Tucker said he mostly agreed with Huckabee’s version of the call.
“I don’t think I can recall the exact vote I got in any election, but I do recall I got 60 percent,” he said. “I do remember [Huckabee’s ] concerns about his family, how they would move and have to move again. When President Clinton was elected, he resigned but stayed in the mansion for well until the inauguration, and it had to be cleaned and remodeled. So I spent two months as governor living in my home rather than in the Governor’s Mansion. I guess the argument of personal inconvenience was not a factor I [put much stock in ].”
Minutes after his phone call with Huckabee, Tucker sent the first of three letters that afternoon. Copies of each were sent to House Speaker Bobby Hogue, D-Jonesboro, Senate President Pro Tempore Stanley Russ, D-Conway, and Priest, the secretary of state.
The 2 p. m. letter repeated many of the things Tucker told Huckabee in the phone conversation. He said he had moved out of the Governor’s Mansion and wouldn’t accept his salary.
“If the verdict is set aside, it eliminates the reason for my decision to resign,” Tucker wrote.
Priest recalled Tucker handing her the letter.
“I looked at the letter and I thought, ‘Oh no, I’ m not believing this, ’” said Priest, now director of the Little Rock Downtown Partnership. “I was speechless. I wish... at the time I don’t think it would have done any good... I wish I had said, ‘ Governor, this is not the right thing. ’”
He gave a brief news conference, and later he and his wife Betty left the Capitol as a crowd of Huckabee supporters and Tucker critics booed, hissed and screamed at him, calling him a “liar” and a “disgrace to the whole state.”
IMPEACH OR NOT Huckabee said he tried to keep his staff calm and called Russ and Hogue into the lieutenant governor’s office. “ I said, ‘ Guys, this is going to hurt you a lot more than it