Legislators take dim view of Huckabee gift registry
Posted on Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The reactions at the state Capitol weren’t favorable Monday to news that Gov. Mike Huckabee and first lady Janet Huckabee have gift registries at Target and Dillard’s for a “housewarming” party for their recently purchased half-million-dollar home.
“I don’t think it would play too good in the country,” said House Speaker-designate Benny Petrus, a Democrat from Stuttgart.
“Seems to me, if it’s your personal home, you should [furnish ] it yourself,” said Rep. Phil Jackson of Berryville, a Republican. “Maybe I should do [a registry ] for a car.”
“The reaction I’ve encountered is that it’s unbecoming,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Argue, D-Little Rock.
The items requested on the Target registry total $ 2, 282 and the total on the Dillard’s registry amounts to $ 4, 635.
Huckabee didn’t respond to a request at his office for a comment.
His spokesman, Alice Stewart said, “This is a private situation with friends of the first lady. It was their idea to throw her a housewarming. It’s a private matter between the first lady and her friends. I don’t understand all the attention that is given to it.”
Stewart wouldn’t name the friends and wouldn’t say whether the Huckabees tried to stop the registry, why the registries are listed under weddings, whether the Huckabees have registries at other stores, or why the Huckabees couldn’t buy the items for their house themselves.
The governor’s salary is about $ 80, 000 a year and he has had few living expenses in his decade as governor since the state pays for his food, provides a vehicle, and lets him live for free at the Governor’s Mansion.
In July, the Huckabees bought a house in North Little Rock at 1134 Silverwood Trail for $ 525, 000. Royalties from the governor’s book, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork, released in May 2005, allowed the Huckabees to make a down payment and get a bank loan to buy a house of that size, he said at the time.
The Dillard’s and Target Web sites have registries for either babies or weddings. A “housewarming” option doesn’t appear.
There is an exemption to the state’s gift rules for wedding gifts. It was added after a state representative got married in the late 1990 s, said Graham Sloan, executive director of the state Ethics Commission.
The Huckabees got married in 1974. They changed their marriage to a covenant marriage during a covenant marriage celebration at Alltel Arena on Valentine’s Day 2005.
“There is no specific time limit [on giving a wedding gift after a wedding ] but I think most wedding presents are conferred contemporaneous with the wedding,” Sloan said.
Rep. Jay Bradford, D-White Hall, quipped that the Huckabees “must be going to get another covenant marriage.”
Most of the Dillard’s registry is devoted to holiday plates, saucers and cups, enough to serve 24 people.
Also listed are two king-size bedskirts for $ 99 each and a Jack Lalanne juicer for $ 100.
The Target registry has a variety of items. It includes a 12-piece cookware set for $ 249, a “DeLonghi retro 4-slice toaster” for $ 39. 99 (someone has already bought that one ), napkins, kitchen towels, two king-sized pillows for $ 29. 99 each, a “Fieldcrest luxury Jacquard scroll duvet” for $ 129. 99, lots of bath towels, a rug, and a clock.
The Ethics Commission considers a gift to be something valued at more than $ 100. Gifts are banned if they are meant to reward a public official for his job performance.
There were no such items on the Dillard’s registry, however Stephens Media reported Saturday that at that time there was a $ 300 mixer. There are three items costing more than $ 100 on the Target registry.
Huckabee, a Republican, has been governor since 1996. He was term-limited from seeking re-election. Attorney General Mike Beebe, a Democrat, won the election for governor this year and will be sworn in Jan. 9.
If there are gift violations, Sloan said the commission can investigate public servants after they leave office.
Beebe spokesman Zac Wright said Beebe had no comment about Huckabee’s registry. Wright said the Beebes won’t set up registries to help furnish the mansion. Beebe in August said that gifts over $ 100 should be banned.
“He would not accept personal gifts,” Wright said in an e-mail. “But gifts to the Mansion Commission (for the people of the state ) are acceptable.”
Former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker said Monday he didn’t set up a registry to furnish his new home when he left the governor’s office.
In 2001, there were reports that former President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, set up a gift registry for their five-bedroom house in Chappaqua, N. Y., and another fivebedroom home in Washington’s Embassy Row area. Steven Spielberg and his actress wife Kate Capshaw sent china worth $ 4, 920.
Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, has received thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts during his tenure. In 1999 alone, he reported $ 110, 000 in gifts, including $ 53, 000 from Little Rock businessman Jennings Osborne, who gave him $ 23, 000 in clothing, among other things.
A 1998 lawsuit alleged that Huckabee misused the expense account of the Governor’s Mansion and illegally accepted as a gift about $ 70, 000 worth of furniture.
Huckabee agreed to policy changes regarding the $ 60, 000 mansion account and the claim of misused funds later was dropped. The claim of illegal gifts was dropped after Huckabee said the furniture belonged to the state, not to him. The giver of the furniture said he intended it for the state.
In 2002 when the Ethics Commission was investigating him for possible gift violations, Huckabee sued the commission. His lawsuit wanted gifts to be banned only in cases of bribery, in which a gift can be directly linked to an action by the recipient benefiting the gift-giver.
The following year, the commission fined him $ 250 and issued him a letter of warning for accepting a $ 500 canoe from Coca-Cola in 2001, finding that the gift illegally rewarded Huckabee for doing his job as governor. In addition, the commission issued a letter of caution to him for not initially reporting acceptance of a $ 200 stadium blanket in 2001.
Huckabee appealed the sanctions to Pulaski County Circuit Court. Circuit Judge Tim Fox in 2004 upheld the part of the commission ruling that found that Huckabee had violated state law by failing to report the stadium blanket as a gift.
Fox threw out the $ 250 fine, finding that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to show that the canoe, painted with the words “Coke, Arkansas and You,” illegally rewarded Huckabee for doing his job as governor.
An unscientific Internet poll Monday by KTHV, Channel 11, Little Rock said 700 respondents found the Huckabees’ registry “tacky” while 65 termed it a “good idea.”
Petrus said Huckabee should have waited until after leaving office to receive more gifts.
“I think you’re mixing politics and personal life together,” Petrus said. “His conscience has got to be his guide.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
