| Subject: The revered future President. |
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bm
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Date Posted: 22:07:53 01/12/08 Sat
In reply to:
bm
's message, "Jonh (McC) the Baptist for President." on 20:58:35 01/12/08 Sat
Republican Presidential candidate Former Baptist Minister & Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee background.
Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) was the governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007.[2] He officially announced his candidacy for the 2008 United States presidential election on January 28, 2007.
Huckabee is the author of several books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, a public speaker, and a musician, playing bass guitar in his rock band, Capitol Offense. He is well known for having lost 110 pounds (50 kg) in a very short time and then advocating a healthy lifestyle.[3] He and his wife, Janet, have three grown children: John Mark, David, and Sarah.
Early life and education
Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas, to Mae Elder (1925-1999) and Dorsey Wiles Huckabee (1923-1996), both natives of Hope. His surname is of English origin.[4] His father worked as a fireman and mechanic and his mother worked as a clerk in a gas company.[5] He has one sister who is a middle school teacher.[6] Huckabee's first job, at 14, was working at a radio station where he would read the news and weather.[7] He was elected Governor of Arkansas Boys State in 1972 and is a Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Alumnus. He was president of Hope High School in 1973.[8]
He married his wife Janet McCain on May 25, 1974.[6] He graduated magna cum laude from Ouachita Baptist University, completing his bachelor's degree in Religion in 2½ years before attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, where he dropped out after one year.[9][10] [11] He has two honorary doctoral degrees: a Doctor of Humane Letters, received from John Brown University in 1991, and a Doctor of Laws from Ouachita Baptist University in 1992.[12] [13]
Pastoral career
At 23, Huckabee was a staffer for James Robison, a television evangelist.[8] Robison commented, "His convictions shape his character and his character will shape his policies. His whole life has been shaped by moral absolutes."[8] Huckabee has stated, "Politics are totally directed by worldview. That's why when people say, 'We ought to separate politics from religion,' I say to separate the two is absolutely impossible".[14] Huckabee believes in Biblical inerrancy.[8] Prior to his political career, Huckabee was pastor of several Southern Baptist churches in Arkadelphia, Texarkana, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He encouraged the all-white Immanuel Baptist Church to accept black members in the mid 1980s.[8][15] He served as president of a religion-oriented television station. In 1989 Huckabee ran against the Rev. Dr. Ronnie Floyd of Springdale for the presidency of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.[16] Huckabee won and served as president from 1989 to 1991.
Early political career
In 1992, in Huckabee's first political race, he lost to incumbent U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers (D), receiving 40 percent of the vote in the general election.[17] That same election saw Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton ascend to the Presidency, making Lieutenant Governor Jim Guy Tucker the new Governor. Huckabee narrowly won a special election for lieutenant governor on July 27, 1993. He defeated Nate Coulter, who had been Bumpers' campaign manager the previous year.[18] Huckabee became only the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve as Arkansas lieutenant governor, the first being Maurice L. Britt from 1967 to 1971.
Dick Morris, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his race in 1993, and again in 1994 when Huckabee ran for re-election.[19] Huckabee commented that Morris was a "personal friend".[19] A newspaper article reported on Huckabee's 1993 win: "Morris said the mistake Republicans always make is that they are too much of a country club set. What we wanted to do was run a progressive campaign that would appeal to all Arkansans.'"[19] Morris elaborated, "So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans."[19]
In April 1994, Huckabee withdrew from a speaking engagement before the Council of Conservative Citizens. Huckabee commented, "I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting racism and anti-Semitism."[20]
In 1994, Huckabee was re-elected to a full term as lieutenant governor, beating Democrat Charlie Cole Chaffin with nearly 59% of the vote.[21] While Lieutenant Governor, Huckabee accepted $71,500 in speaking fees and traveling expenses from a nonprofit group, Action America. R. J. Reynolds was the group's largest contributor. [15]
In December 1995, Huckabee opposed then-Governor Tucker's plan for a constitutional convention.[22] The plan was defeated by voters 20%-80% in a special election. In January 1996, Huckabee campaigned in televised ads paid for by the Republican National Committee and the Arkansas Republican Party against a highway referendum. Tucker supported the referendum, which included tax increases and a bond program, to improve 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of highway.[23] On the referendum, the bond question, which included a sales tax increase and a gas tax increase, lost 13%-87%. A second question, a 5 cent increase on diesel tax, lost 14%-86%.[23][24] Huckabee also opposed Tucker's plan for school consolidation.[24]
In 1996, Huckabee ran for U.S. Senate again, winning the Republican nomination unopposed[25]. But in May 1996 he announced he would quit the race and would instead fill the unexpired term of Tucker. Tucker had announced that he would resign in July while appealing a federal conviction in the Whitewater scandal.[25]
Governor of Arkansas
Mike Huckabee speaking at a Southern California engagement in October 2007Tucker rescinded his resignation as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in, but within a few hours reinstated his resignation after Huckabee threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Tucker.[8] Huckabee was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas on July 15, 1996. In November 1998, Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term by defeating retired Colonel Gene McVay in the primary and Jonesboro attorney Bill Bristow in the general election, becoming the state's third elected Republican Governor since Reconstruction. In November 2002, Huckabee was reelected to his second four-year term by defeating State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, garnering 53 percent of the vote. By the end of his term, Huckabee owned the third-longest tenure of any Arkansas Governor. Only Democrats Orval Faubus, who served six consecutive two-year terms (1955–1967), and Bill Clinton, who served eleven years, eleven months (1979–1981; 1983–1992), had longer tenures.
The first years
In late 1996, Huckabee campaigned for ballot Amendment 1, a plan to adjust property tax rules to make school funding more equal across the state, and Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment dedicating one eighth of each cent of the state sales tax to improve the state's park system and natural resources.[26][27]As part of the campaign, Huckabee traveled the entire length of the Arkansas River within Arkansas by boat.[28] Amendment 1 passed 52%-48% and Amendment 2 passed 51%-49%. [29]
Huckabee proclaimed 1997 as a year of racial reconciliation by saying "Let every one of us make it our priority to bring reconciliation, not so much that we can force it or legislate it, because we cannot, but that we begin in each of our own lives to purpose in our hearts that we will not harbor anger, hostility, prejudice, bigotry and racism toward any person."[8][30]
Huckabee signed legislation to create a health insurance program which extended coverage to children of lower income families, to be funded in part by Medicaid, SCHIP, and a tobacco industry lawsuit settlement.[31] The program, ARKids First, cut the number of uninsured children from 12% nationally to 9% in 2003, comparatively.[32]
Huckabee signed the Child Welfare Agency Licensing Act in 1997. This bill has provisions which allow religious groups to contract for social services with the state without having to compromise their principles. An excerpt reads,
"Provided that the health, safety and welfare of children in the care of a child welfare agency is not endangered, nothing in this act shall be construed to permit the Board to promulgate or enforce any rule that has the effect of: (A) interfering with the religious teaching or instruction offered by a child welfare agency; (B) infringing upon the religious beliefs of the holder(s) of a child welfare agency license; (C) infringing upon the right of an agency operated by a religious organization to consider creed in any decision or action relating to admitting or declining to admit a child or family for services; (D) infringing upon the parents' right to consent to a child's participating in prayer or other religious practices while in the care of the child welfare agency; (E) prohibiting the use of corporal discipline." [33]
Huckabee made sure that state agencies were compliant with charitable choice.[34] Huckabee's administration issued guidelines in October 2000, which allow religious groups to offer voluntary religious programs and to leave their religious artifacts on the walls as long as welfare clients are not pressured to convert and tax money doesn't directly underwrite them. Religious groups are allowed to reject a job candidate on religious grounds. The guidelines also guarantee that any client can receive alternative placement if the client objects to a religious provider.[35]
In a February 1998 presidential straw poll of 65 Christian Coalition leaders, Huckabee came in second to John Ashcroft and ahead of Steve Forbes, JC Watts and George W. Bush.[36]
On May 22, 1998, the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined Huckabee US$1,000 for failing to report campaign payments made to Huckabee and his wife.[37] In October, 1998 the Arkansas Times suggested Huckabee used a fund set up for the maintenance of the Governor's Mansion for his own personal use.[38][39] The Times later reported Huckabee was listed as the recipient of furniture given to the Governor's Mansion and not the Mansion itself.[40] Tom Mars, Huckabee's attorney, denied
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