Ed Bethune

Infobox Officeholder
name = Edwin Ruthvin Bethune, Jr.


image_size =
caption = Ed Bethune
birth_date = birth date and age|1935|12|19
birth_place = Pocahontas, Randolph County, Arkansas, USA
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Attorney; former FBI agent
office=U.S. Representative from Second District of Arkansas
term_start=1979
term_end=1985
preceded=James Guy Tucker, Jr.
succeeded=Tommy F. Robinson
office2=Arkansas Republican State Chairman
term_start2=1986
term_end2=1988
preceded2=Len E. Blaylock
succeeded2=Kenneth Lloyd "Ken" Coon, Jr.
party= Republican; nominee for attorney general, 1972, and United State Senate, 1984
residence=flagicon|USA West River, Maryland
religion=Methodist
spouse= Lana Bethune
children=Two children
footnotes=Bethune, considered a successful U.S. Representative at the time, was unable to ride the Ronald W. Reagan Republican sweep of 1984 in his effort to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator David Pryor.

(2) A devotee of what is called supply-side economics, Bethune opposed tax hikes throughout his congressional career.

(3) Out of office, Bethune once represented Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay on ethics allegations.

(4) In his later years, Bethune became a highly successful lobbyist.

Edwin Ruthvin "Ed" Bethune, Jr. (born December 19, 1935), is a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, D.C., who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas from 1979-1985. His last campaign was an unsuccessful challenge in 1984 to the second-term reelection of Democratic U.S. Senator David Hampton Pryor.

Early years, education, military, legal practice

Bethune was born to Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Bethune, Sr., in Pocahontas in Randolph County in far northeastern Arkansas. He graduated from Pocahontas High School in 1953 . He was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps from 1954-1957, with service in South Korea.

After military service, Bethune obtained his bachelor of arts degree in 1961 from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He received the Juris Doctor degree from the UA Law School in 1963 and was admitted to the Arkansas bar that same year. He began his practice in Pocahontas. In 1972, while he was living in Searcy in White County north of Little Rock, he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Immediately after admission to the bar, Bethune was a deputy prosecuting attorney in Randolph County from 1963-1964. He was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1964-1968. He was a prosecuting attorney for the First Judicial District of Arkansas from 1970-1971. He was chairman of the Ninth District Federal Home Loan Bank Board from 1973-1976.

The campaign for attorney general, 1972

In 1972, Bethune was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Arkansas attorney general against the Democrat James Guy Tucker, Jr., who would thereafter become a member of the U.S. House, lieutenant governor, and governor. Bethune attempted to depict Tucker as "weak" on the issue of crime in contrast to his own tough record as an FBI agent. "Tucker doesn't believe that stiff punishment can deter the drug traffic," said Bethune, who alleged that his opponent, as the Pulaski County prosecutor, had failed to pursue drug cases. Bethune pinned the liberal label on Tucker, who was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He denounced the ACLU as "an ultraliberal organization that is soft on criminals, drugs, and sex offenders."

Bethune's campaign manager for attorney general was James "Jim" Burnett (born 1948), a young Clinton, Arkansas (Van Buren County), lawyer who in 1982 was appointed by U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan as director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Despite the overwhelming reelection margin for President Richard M. Nixon, the Arkansas GOP ticket, which also included Len E. Blaylock for governor, Ken Coon for lieutenant governor, and Jerry Climer for secretary of state, fared poorly. Tucker defeated Bethune, 370,647 (60 percent) to 247,404 (40 percent). Bethune carried only three of the seventy-five counties, his home county of White, Pulaski, and Searcy counties. (Searcy County should not to be confused with the city of Searcy in White County.) Bethune polled more than 48 percent in Garland County (Hot Springs) and at least 40 percent in fourteen other counties. It was his showing in populous Pulaski County, also the home of Tucker, which would convince GOP leaders six years later to endorse Bethune as the Republican congressional nominee in an open-seat election. Ironically, the man vacating the seat was the unsuccessful senatorial candidate that year, Jim Guy Tucker.

Election to the U.S. House, 1978

In his 1978 campaign for the U.S. House seat from the Second District in central Arkansas, based about Little Rock, Bethune endorsed the "supply-side" tax reduction plan offered by then U.S. Representative Jack French Kemp, Jr., of New York and U.S. Senator William V. Roth of Delaware. Bethune defeated the Democrat Douglas Brandon, the owner of a chain of Little Rock furniture stores. In the primary, Brandon had turned aside the more liberal choice, state Representative Cecil Alexander. Bethune received 65,288 votes (51.2 percent) to Brandon's 62,140 (48.8 percent). He won only three of the nine counties in the district, but his margins in Pulaski, White, and Cleburne counties were sufficient to provide a 3,148-vote plurality over Brandon. Allegations persisted that some Tucker supporters would not work for Brandon, a more conservative Democrat than Tucker, because Tucker might have sought a comeback in 1980 -- he did not, as it turned out -- and would prefer to have faced Bethune, rather than Brandon.

Once in the House, Bethune named Jerry Climer, his defeated ticket-mate from 1972, as his chief of staff. Climer remained with Bethune during the entire congressional tenure. Bethune made federal taxes and spending his chief concern. He became a close associate of Jack Kemp. A survey revealed that in 1981 and 1982, Bethune had supported the Reagan administration 82 percent of the time. However, he had demonstrated independence. In 1982, he supported the 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the renewal of the federal legal services program, which involves itself in both criminal and civil matters, to the consternation of many conservatves.

Bethune broke with his Arkansas GOP to support the reappointment of Democratic U.S. Marshal Charles H. Gray (1922-2003), a cousin of U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers, who had headed the gubernatorial ticket opposite Bethune in the latter's race for attorney general in 1972. Republican Governor Frank D. White wanted to return Len Blaylock to the marshal's position which Blaylock had held in the Gerald R. Ford administration. However, Bethune said that Gray was "one of the top marshals in the country" and should remain in place. Republican State Chairman Harlan H. "Bo" Holleman of Wynne in Cross County in eastern Arkansas, said that the reappointment "doesn't help to build a party. My business is building the party, and building strength and patronage is one of the ways to do it." Nevertheless, Bethune prevailed, and Gray remained in place.

Bethune opposed Reagan's proposal, against the advice of Israel, to sell AWACS fighter planes to Saudi Arabia. Bethune also joined Senators Bumpers and Pryor to strike down a proposal to override Arkansas' 10 percent interest ceiling for retail loans. Bethune opposed the establishment of the Congressional Sunbelt Caucus, as proposed by a Democratic colleague, Beryl Anthony of El Dorado in south Arkansas. He claimed that such caucuses are divisive and pit regional interests against one another. However, the Sunbelt Caucus was established with members from both parties representing states from California to Florida.

Bethune gained favorable attention from being chosen in 1979 as the president of the U.S. House Republican freshman class. He was reelected with ease in 1980 -- he polled 159,148 votes (78.9 percent) to 42,278 (21 percent) for his Democratic opponent, Jacksonville Mayor James G. Reid.

The election of 1982

In 1982 , a nationally Democratic year, Bethune had a harder race. He did not begin campaigning until the final three weeks of the contest, for he had been so confident of winning a third term. His opponent was the Democratic former state Senator Charles Lindbergh George, Sr. (born ca. 1929), from Cabot in Lonoke County. George was not the Democrats' first choice; party leaders failed to persuade Little Rock attorney Sandy Sidney McMath (born ca. 1942), the son of the former governor, Sidney Sanders McMath, to challenge Bethune.

George proved to be a good campaigner: he predicted, incorrectly as it turned out, that "unless the economy improves between now [summer 1982] and the election, which I don't expect, [Bethune] 's going to get himself beat." George opposed increased defense spending. In his folksy way, he claimed that if the United States and the then Soviet Union "don't watch it, they're going to both {sic} spend themselves into bankruptcy by building all these weapons." George supported delaying the 25 percent across-the-board Reagan tax cuts and declined to commit himself to support a proposed constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. He alleged that the Reagan program was designed primarily "to aid the wealthy."

In August 1982, supply-sider Bethune broke with the Reagan administration to oppose a series of tax increases billed as "loophole closings." Bethune warned that the tax increases, some $99 billion, would delay, not hasten economic recovery, which began in the spring of 1983 . Bethune's Republican colleague, John Paul Hammerschmidt of Harrison from the adjoining Third Congressional District, joined in opposing the tax increases. Bethune, who was a member of the House Budget and Banking Committee, also charged that the 1982 tax hikes were of questionable constitutionality because they originated in the Senate Finance Committee, under then chairman Robert J. Dole of Kansas, rather than in the House, as required by the United States Constitution.

The "Arkansas Gazette", in a series of editorials, claimed that Bethune "wants to have it both ways, taking credit for tax reduction but no responsibility for deficits." In its endorsement of George, the "Gazette" described the candidate as "a staunch Democrat who has defined with unmistakable clarity the leading economic and fiscal issues." The newspaper also criticized Bethune for his "pro-Pentagon" position and hostility to government social programs, which it insisted were essential to the well-being of Arkansans.

Bethune survived the challenge: 96,775 (53.9 percent) to George's 82,913 (46.1 percent). It was, however, Bethune's last election victory. His next campaign would exceed his grasp.

Running for the U.S. Senate, 1984

Bethune did not seek a fourth term in 1984; he instead ran on the Reagan-Bush ticket against Senator Pryor. He was decisively defeated even though Reagan easily topped Walter F. Mondale in Arkansas. Pryor received 502,341 votes (57.3 percent) to Bethune's 373,615 (42.7 percent). Pryor's easy victory -- it was the fifth time he had been on a statewide ballot -- in a largely Republican year convinced the Arkansas GOP not to oppose him in 1990.

Bethune's House seat reverted to the Democrats, as Sheriff Tommy F. Robinson defeated Republican State Representative Judy Petty in her second bid for the same House seat. Robinson later switched to the Republican Party, but the seat returned to the Democrats with the 1990 election, and no Republican has held it since.

After leaving Congress, Bethune served from 1986-1988 as the Arkansas Republican Party state chairman.

In 1981, while he was still in the U.S. House, Bethune outlined his vision for the Arkansas Republican future: "I think it's essential to the life of our party that we attract diverse groups. . . . When [Winthrop] Rockefeller headed the party in Arkansas, we had a broader reach across the economic, social, and political spectrum than we have now, and we attracted blacks to our cause in greater numbers than we have today. I think we had a more balanced Republican Party then, and I think it's essential to the life of a party that it include diverse groups."

Law and lobbying

Bethune resumed the practice of law with Bracewell and Patterson in Washington. He represented former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay after each became involved in ethics allegations. Taped recordings of his work for Gingrich circulated widely in the late 1990s. Bethune represents diverse clients, including Marriott International, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and the defense contractor Raytheon. He is a member of the exclusive Republican Chowder and Marching Society.

Bethune and his wife, Lana, reside in West River, Maryland. They are the parents of two grown children. They are Methodist. In 1990, Lana and Ed Bethune were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters some two hundred miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The couple had withstood rough seas for some thirty-six hours in their convert|30|ft|m|sing=on yacht "Salute" before being located by authorities.

ee also

References

*CongBio|B000422 Retrieved on 2008-04-01
*"Arkansas Gazette", November 5, 1972; October 23, 1981; November 29, 1981; March 31, 1982; May 9, 1982; July 31, 1982; August 1, 1982; October 24, 1982
*"Arkansas Democrat", August 10, 18, 20, 1982
*"Arkansas Outlook", Republican Party newspaper, September 1972; July 1978
*John C. Topping, Jr., ed., "1978 Election Preview"', "Ripon Forum", September/October 1978, p. 11
*"Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report", February 15, 1978, p. 424; February 27, 1982, p. 362; October 14, 1978, p. 2804
*http://www.nndb.com/people/311/000053152/
*http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firmsum.asp?txtname=Ed+Bethune+%26+Assoc&year=1999
*http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firmsum.asp?txtname=Ed+Bethune+%26+Assoc&year=1998
*http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/10tran.html
*http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/01/10/gingrich.ethics/excerpts.shtml
*http://wired-vig.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/01/1397
*http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/10/09/delay_assails_panel_accusers/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+National+News
*"Election Statistics", 1972, 1978, 1980, 1982, and 1984, Little Rock: Secretary of State
*http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi