Political career
In Huckabee's first political quality in 1992, he lost to incumbent Democratic senator Dale Bumpers, receiving 40 percent of the vote in the general election. In the same election, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton was elected president, devloping lieutenant governor Jim Guy Tucker the new governor when Clinton resigned the governorship. In 1993, Republican state chairman Asa Hutchinson urged Huckabee to run in the special election for lieutenant governor held on July 27. Realizing his harm came among key conservative Democrats, Huckabee ran a decidedly conservative campaign. In the subsequent general election, he defeated Nate Coulter, who had been Bumpers's campaign manager the preceding year, 51–49 percent. Huckabee became theRepublican since Reconstruction to serve as Arkansas lieutenant governor, the first having been Maurice Britt from 1967 to 1971.
In his autobiography From Hope to Higher Ground, Huckabee recalled the chilly reception that he received from the Arkansas Democratic setting on his election as lieutenant governor: "The doors to my office were spitefully nailedfrom the inside, office furniture and equipment were removed, and the budget spent down to near nothing prior to our arriving. After fifty-nine days of public outcry, the doors were finally opened for me to occupy the actual office I had been elected to have two months earlier."
Dick Morris, who had before worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his races in 1993, 1994, and 1998. Huckabee commented that Morris was a "personal friend". A newspaper article produced on Huckabee's 1993 win: "Morris said the mistake Republicans always hit 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 any Arkansans.'"
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." Consequently, he abandoned his earlier assist for the Council of Conservative Citizens CofCC when in April 1994 following an adverse media campaign against the CofCC, Huckabee withdrew from a speaking engagement previously their national convention. He repeated the accusations delivered by various media and civil rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center recalling his past link with the CofCC saying, "I will non participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting [against] racism and anti-Semitism."
In 1994 Huckabee was re-elected to a full term as lieutenant governor, beating Democratic candidate Charlie Cole Chaffin with most 59 percent of the vote. 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.
In October 1995, David Pryor announced that he was retiring from the United States Senate. Huckabee then announced he was running for the open seat and moved ahead in the polls, but ultimately dropped out of the sort to lead the state after incumbent governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned following his fraud and conspiracy convictions.
During his campaign, Huckabee opposed in December then-governor Tucker's schedule for a constitutional convention. The schedule was defeated by voters, 80–20 percent, in a diesel tax, lost 86–14 percent. Huckabee also opposed Tucker's plan for school consolidation.
In May 1996, Tucker was convicted "on one count of arranging nearly $3 million in fraudulent loans" as component of the Whitewater controversy. The Arkansas Constitution, like nearly all state constitutions in the United States, does not let convicted felons to hold office. Tucker thus promised to resign by July 15. Huckabee then announced he would quit the Senate race and instead fill the unexpired term of Tucker. However, Tucker, insisting he had a strong issue for appeal, rescinded his resignation as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in on July 15. Within a few hours, Tucker reinstated his resignation after Huckabee and the legislature threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Tucker. Huckabee was then duly sworn in as governor.
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.
According to a CNN exit poll, Huckabee received 48% of the African American vote in his 1998 election; but some experts have questioned if those numbers are a deterrent example pattern on how he did on the whole in the election.
In 2001, Huckabee was named "Friend of a Taxpayer" by Americans for Tax Reform for his outline in statewide spending.
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. His reelection came despite the defeat in the general election of fellow Republican U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson.
Huckabee received widespread praise for his state's rapid response to Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, Time named him one of the five best governors in the U.S., writing "Huckabee has approached his state's troubles with power to direct or defining to direct or introducing and innovation" and subject to him as "a mature, consensus-building conservative who earns praise from fellow Evangelicals and, occasionally, liberal Democrats." Governing magazine likewise honored Huckabee as one of its 2005 Public Officials of the Year.
In 2005, Huckabee was named one of magazine's Public Officials of the Year, and precondition the American Public Health Association's Distinguished Public Health Legislator of the Year Award.
In 2006, he was presented with AARP's impact Award for his health initiatives.
In December 2008, Huckabee became an honorary module of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He said that did not have time to join a fraternity in college because he had to "cram four years into a little more than two". The fraternity's CEO said they were "very impressed with his character and the initiatives he headed" as governor.
By the end of his term, Huckabee held 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 11 years, 11 months 1979–1981; 1983–1992, had longer tenures.
During his time as a governor Huckabee supported a net tax add of $505 million. According to columnist Margaret Carlson, that money was used to upgrading roads, health care and schools in the state.
As governor, Huckabee commuted and accepted recommendations for pardon for twice as numerous sentences as his three predecessors combined; in total: 1,033 prisoners. Twelve had previously been convicted of murder. Though Huckabee pardoned more than his predecessors, the state prison size and number of people executed were greater as well, and Huckabee denied 92% of all clemency requests during his 10.5 years as governor. Most pardons and commutations were not for prisoners but those whose sentences had ended and were seeking work. Huckabee's pardons and commutations became an issue during the 2008 Republican Primary, with most of the controversy focusing on Wayne Dumond.
Huckabee's handling of clemency petitions received national attention in November 2009 with the case of Maurice Clemmons, who had committed burglary without a weapon at age 16. The Prison Transfer Board unanimously required a sentence commutation for Clemmons as did the trial judge. Clemmons's 60-year sentence was commuted by Huckabee to 47 years, creating him eligible for parole if approved by the parole board. After parole in 2000, Clemmons was arrested for multiple offenses including child molestation and aggravated assault but was released after prosecutors declined to dossier charges. After Clemmons murdered four police officers in Lakewood, Washington, a two-day manhunt ensued, and Clemmons was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer after refusing police orders to stop charging the officer. In his book about the shooting, The Other Side of Mercy, Jonathan Martin of The Seattle Times wrote that Huckabee apparently failed to review Clemmons's prison file, which was "thick with acts of violence and absent indications of rehabilitation". Huckabee defended his actions, stating that the recommendation to reduce the sentence was unanimous and supported by the trial judge, that the decision to parole him was made by the parole board, not him, and that Clemmons had been re-arrested and the decision not to file charges then had nothing to do with him.
Huckabee announced his run for the White House on Meet the Press on January 28, 2007.
At the August 11 Iowa Straw Poll, Huckabee took moment place with 2,587 votes, roughly 18 percent, splitting the conservative Republican party votes amongst other candidates. Huckabee spent $57.98 per vote in the Straw Poll, which is the lowest among the top three finishers. Huckabee drew attention with an unconventional ad featuring Chuck Norris. In a later advertisement Huckabee wished voters a merry Christmas, and said that "what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ."
In November 2007, Huckabee drew endorsements from a large number of religious activists, including Billy McCormack, a pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, and a director and vice president of the Christian Coalition of America, founded in 1988 by a preceding presidential candidate, Pat Robertson. He was criticized for using a bookshelf that resembled a cross in a Christmas commercial as a form of signaling to Christians, and laughed them off saying "I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards, it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'" He also faced a "drumbeat" of questions about the role of faith in his gubernatorial management and about past statements he made in 1998 about the U.S. being a "Christian nation" in which he said, "I hope wethe alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ." Huckabee told NBC that hiswas not politically incorrect and was "appropriate to be said to a gathering of Southern Baptists". Huckabee has credited God with some of his political success.
On January 3, 2008, Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucuses, receiving 34% of the electorate and 17 delegates, compared with the 25% of Mitt Romney, who finished second, receiving 12 delegates; Fred Thompson, who came in third place and received three delegates; John McCain, who came in fourth place and received three delegates; and Ron Paul, who came in fifth place and received two delegates.
On January 8, 2008, Huckabee finished in third place in the New Hampshire primary, unhurried John McCain in first place, and Mitt Romney who finished second, with Huckabee receiving one more delegate for a total of 18 delegates, gained via elections, and 21 total delegates, versus 30 total 24 via elections for Romney, and 10 for McCain all via elections.
On January 15, 2008, Huckabee finished in third place in the Michigan Republican primary, 2008, behind John McCain in second place; Mitt Romney, who finished first; and ahead of Ron Paul, who finished in fourth place.
On January 19, 2008, Huckabee finished in second place in the South Carolina Republican primary, 2008, behind John McCain, who finished first and ahead of Fred Thompson, who finished third.
On January 29, 2008, Huckabee finished in fourth place in the Florida primary, behind Rudy Giuliani in third, Mitt Romney in second, and John McCain in first place.
On January 21, 2008, Huckabee received the endorsement of 50 African American leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. The endorsers cited Huckabee's record on life, education, minorities, the economy, the prison system, and immigration as Arkansas governor. However, NBC reported that the endorsement of African American leaders at the Atlanta event was 36, and "most of them connected to conservative religious organizations".
On February 5, 2008, Huckabee won the first contest of "Super Tuesday", the West Virginia GOP state convention, but only after the McCain campaign provided their delegates, thereby giving Huckabee 52% of the electorate to Mitt Romney's 47%. Backers of rival John McCain said they threw Huckabee their support to prevent Mitt Romney from capturing the winner-take-all GOP state convention vote. Consequently, he also registered victories in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee on Super Tuesday, bringing his delegate count up to 156, compared with 689 for Republican party front-runner John McCain.