- Jim Guy Tucker
Infobox Governor
name= Jim Guy Tucker
caption=
order= 43rd
office= Governor of Arkansas
term_start=December 12 ,1992
term_end=July 15 ,1996
lieutenant=Mike Huckabee (1993 - 1996)
predecessor=Bill Clinton
successor=Mike Huckabee
order2=Member
title2=of the U.S. House of Representatives fromArkansas 's 2nd district
term_start2=January 3 ,1977
term_end2=January 3 ,1979
predecessor2=Wilbur Mills
successor2=Ed Bethune
birth_date= birth date and age|1943|6|13
birth_place=Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
death_date=
death_place=
spouse=Betty Tucker
profession=attorney
party= Democrat
footnotes=James "Jim" Guy Tucker, Jr. (born
June 13 1943 ) is a former governor,lieutenant governor ,attorney general , and a member of theUnited States House of Representatives fromArkansas .Tucker resigned the governorship on
July 16 ,1996 , after hisconviction forfraud during theWhitewater scandal although the conviction was not directly related to that investigation of Bill andHillary Clinton 'sreal estate and related business dealings.Early life
Tucker was born in Oklahoma City. He attended public schools in Little Rock. He received a
bachelor of arts degree fromHarvard University inCambridge, Massachusetts , in 1963.Early adulthood
Tucker served in the
United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1964, but was discharged for medical reasons (chroniculcers ) after finishing at the top of the first phase of his officer candidate training class at Camp Upshur,Quantico, Virginia . In early 1965, Tucker found passage to southeast Asia bytramp steamer fromSan Francisco and enteredSouth Vietnam as an accredited freelancewar correspondent . With one brief sojourn home, he remained in the war zone through 1967, personally participating in a number of engagements. Late that year, he published "Arkansas Men at War", a compendium of interviews with troops from the state he had followed into combat. The book received generally favorable reviews.Following a brief stint as an assistant
professor of U.S.history at the American University inBeirut ,Lebanon , Tucker returned to theUniversity of Arkansas Law School in 1968 as a second year student, graduated, and was admitted to the bar that same year.Law career
Tucker practiced as a junior associate with the
Rose Law Firm , from which he ran for Prosecuting Attorney in 1970. He served asprosecutor for the Sixth Judicial District of Arkansas 1971–1972. In that office, he oversaw the prosecution of more than 1,000 backloggedfelony cases inherited from previous administrations. He won convictions in a several cases considered by local wags as "impossible" successfully to prosecute, including one kidnapping. Twelve "guest" judges were temporarily reassigned from other circuits by thestate supreme court at Tucker's request to clear the arrearages. He was appointed by the Governor to the Arkansas Criminal Code Revision Commission and served 1973–1975, during which time he was credited with spearheading the group's broad revision of the state's criminal laws. An investigation intopolice corruption he began was stymied by a countygrand jury appointed by a circuitjudge who was a political ally of thechief of police . However, the following year a federal grand jury, building on Tucker's work, issued a scathing report which led to a shake-up of the department and the resignation of the chief, senior detectives and complicitous city officials.Political career
Tucker was elected Arkansas
attorney general in November 1972. He easily defeated the Republican nomineeEdwin Bethune , then of Searcy in White County, and later Tucker's successor asU.S. representative from the Little Rock-based Second Congressional District. Tucker served two two-year terms as attorney general, 1973–1977. He was a delegate to the 1972Democratic National Convention . Running from his post as attorney general, Tucker was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-fifth Congress and served one term,3 January 1977 –3 January 1979 . He relinquished the seat to wage an unsuccessful campaign for theUnited States Senate in 1978. He was defeated by the sitting governor,David Pryor . In the same election,Bill Clinton , who had replaced Tucker in 1977 as attorney general, was elected governor, thus eclipsing Tucker as the state's political "fair haired boy".Tucker resumed the practice of law. A consistent intra-party rival of Clinton's, he was defeated by Clinton when both sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1982 following Clinton's defeat by Republican
Frank White in 1980. Eight years later, Tucker announced his intention to run for the governor's office again against Clinton, who was seeking a fifth term. However, he withdrew from the gubernatorial primary and ran instead for the post of lieutenant governor. He recognized that Clinton had his eyes on the presidency and might not serve a full term. He succeeded to the governorship upon Clinton's resignation on12 December 1992 .Conviction
Tucker won election in 1994 against the Republican
Sheffield Nelson but was convicted of one count of conspiracy and one count ofmail fraud in 1996 as part ofKenneth Starr 's investigation of theWhitewater scandal . Tucker was tried with fellow defendantsJames B. McDougal and his wifeSusan McDougal , the prosecution conducted primarily by OIC prosecutor Ray Jahn. Tucker chose not to testify in his own defense upon the advice of his attorney.Marriage
Tucker has been married to Betty Allen since 1975.
Resignation
Arkansas law prohibits convicted felons from serving as governor and, as a consequence, Tucker announced his pending resignation. As Lieutenant Governor,
Mike Huckabee , a Republican, was preparing to be sworn in, Tucker rescinded his resignation [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=my_son_the_legislator&ns=PaulGreenberg&dt=01/12/2007&page=2] on several grounds, including his appeal because a juror on his trial was married to a man whose cocaine possession conviction Tucker had twice refused to commute. Furthermore, this juror was the niece of local activistRobert "Say" McIntosh , who had demonstrated against Tucker during the trial. He also contended, and an appellate court later agreed, that one of the statutes he allegedly violated was no longer operable. Arguing that his conviction was thus tainted, and that the Arkansas constitution was vague about his status as a convicted felon until his appeals had been exhausted, Tucker initially reversed his decision to resign, but at the very last minute followed through with it under the threat ofimpeachment by the legislature which had convened to witness Huckabee's swearing in.Health problems
Tucker, whose
liver problems were seriously debilitating him and threatened his life (he had nearly died from gastro-intestinal bleeding in 1994, and had steadily worsened since), received a lenient sentence of four years' probation and house detention in part because of his poor health. In 1997, Tucker received a liver transplant at theMayo Clinic inRochester, Minnesota .References and external links
* [http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/gen/resources/infocus/whitewater/ak.roots.html CNN]
* [http://www.oldstatehouse.com/exhibits/virtual/governors/the_new_south/tucker.asp Old State House]
* [http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/government/whitewater/tucker.html Court TV]
* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000400 Congress Bio]
* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/whitewater/may96/the_verdict_5-29.html PBS]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/timeline2.htm Washington Post]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/stories/wwtr960820.htm Washington Post]
*Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry: [http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=124 Jim Guy Tucker]References
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