Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008 - (Page 32)

Along with a dramatic rise in the polls has come a surge in media interest—a blessing or a curse, depending on how Huckabee handles the scrutiny. bullet-pointed lists of helpful advice such as “eliminate fried foods from your diet” and “don’t use profanity.” This is politicking strained through the confessional culture of women’s magazines and late-afternoon talk shows, and it’s a formula he used to rise through the ranks of state politics in Arkansas. Huckabee entered his ﬁrst political ﬁght in a senatorial election against Democrat Dale Bumpers in 1992. Everyone expected him to lose, and he did. When Arkansas governor and Hope native Bill Clinton ascended to the presidency in the same election cycle, Huckabee decided to run for the newly vacated ofﬁce of lieutenant governor. Once again, everyone expected Huckabee to lose. He won, becoming only the second Republican since Reconstruction to have ﬁlled the position. Re-elected in 1994, Huckabee launched another bid for a Senate seat two years later, but when Gov. Jim Tucker went down with a Whitewater felony conviction and promised to hand the reins over to his lieutenant, Huckabee dropped out of the race. Tucker, apparently unaware of just how loathed he was in Arkansas in July of 1996, changed his mind and announced that he was keeping his position the very day Huckabee had planned to ascend to the ofﬁce. So Pastor Huck, as an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist called him, went to where he was most comfortable—television. “My friends, let me tell you, this is one of the most painful decisions that I’ve ever had to make in my life,” he told the people of Arkansas, just before threatening to launch impeachment proceedings against his boss.Tucker resigned hours later, marking Huckabee’s ﬁrst day of 11 years as governor. As the holder of the most visible high-status position in the state, Huckabee never stopped casting himself as the underdog, the insurgent, the populist ﬁghting a hostile establishment. Nine, ten years in the mansion, he still conceived of himself as the opposition under siege. On a chapter on “cynicism,” in “From Hope to Higher Ground,” he reports receiving nasty letters for banishing alcohol and smoking from the governor’s mansion. No act of opposition is too trivial to recount. “One neighbor,” he writes, “actually put out not one, not two, but seven yard signs for my opponent in the front lawn of his home.” 32 Politics January 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008

Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008 Contents GOP Retirement Woes Getting Girls to Think Politics Movers & Shakers: Karen Hanretty If I Had It To Do Over: Mike McCurry Eve Fairbanks Column Cover Story: Mike Huckabee Hopping the Pond GOP: The Next Generation 5 “Truths” About Women Voters Reds & Blues: States in the Spotlight High Road/Campaign Doc Bookshelf Dick Morris Column John Zogby Column Techbytes Playbook Coming & Going: Who's Where Campaign Sign-ups Marketplace Quips & Slips

Campaigns and Elections' Politics - January 2008

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