Response to The American Spectator
Most of you know The American Spectator ran an article yesterday, October 24th, blasting Mike Huckabee for some old allegations of ethics charges. It also attacked him for some of his fiscal policies. Please take a moment to read the campaign’s response to this article. It tells the whole story, including:
A fair appraisal of Governor Huckabee’s record reveals that he is an authentic, consistent conservative whose goal is to reduce both taxes and spending when he is President. Here are the facts.
* Regarding his record, Arkansas voters overwhelmingly approved of Mike Huckabee’s performance in office. He was elected to a four-year term as governor in 1998, after succeeding to office in 1996, attracting the largest percentage of the vote ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas. In 2002, he was re-elected to another four-year term. When he left office earlier this year, his job approval rating was in the high 60s.
* Without doubt, Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative who cut taxes almost 100 times in the state of Arkansas and returned almost $400 million to Arkansas taxpayers, including the first broad-based tax cut in the history of the state.
* He also doubled the standard deduction and the child care tax credit and eliminated the marriage penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale of a home. He reduced the capital gains tax for businesses and individuals. He indexed the income tax to protect people from paying higher taxes because of “bracket creep.”
* Governor Huckabee left the state with almost $1 billion in surplus, setting the stage for further tax reductions. He cut welfare rolls by almost 50 percent, while balancing the state budget every year of his terms.
* With respect to the tax and spending that he had under his control, spending rose about six-tenths of one percent a year during his ten-and-a-half year tenure. In Arkansas, over 90% of the state general revenue budget is spent on three things: education, Medicaid, and prisons. If the state entirely eliminated everything else but those three, it would save less than 10% of the budget. Despite those limitations, Huckabee managed to enact budget cuts.
Regarding Wayne DuMond, here are the facts:
* Governor Jim Guy Tucker gave executive clemency to Wayne DuMond, and commuted his sentence to 39.5 years. This action made it possible for Wayne DuMond to receive parole.
* The parole board was made up entirely of Governor Bill Clinton and Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointees. Governor Huckabee didn’t have one member on the board that he had appointed.
* Governor Huckabee never took action in the DuMond case that made him parole eligible.
* Governor Huckabee either denied the commutation and pardon request, or took no action (which is the same as a denial) on 4 separate occasions.
* This wasn’t Governor Huckabee’s decision to parole Wayne Dumond. Governor Huckabee had no authority to do that, as governors don’t have that authority in the parole process.
* The fact remains that Governor Huckabee didn’t commutate, pardon, parole or grant any form of clemency to Wayne DuMond.
* Governor Huckabee denied 2/3 of all pardon requests while Governor of Arkansas from July 15, 1996-December 31, 2006.
* Governor Huckabee denied 86% of all commutation requests during the same period.
* Governor Huckabee signed off on, and carried out 16 executions while he was governor, which were more than 20 other states that currently had the death penalty in place.
It’s interesting that this wasn’t an issue for 6 years (1996-2002) until the election year of 2002, when Governor Huckabee’s Democratic opponent, in the midst of a heated general election, made a political issue out of the case.
Finally, one more note: Calling him “The Huckster” in a hatchet job like this shows disrespect, not only to the Governor himself, but to the office he held for 10 1/2 years.
Governor Mike Huckabee has shown leadership, compassion and strength in tough times. In this important presidential election cycle, the facts are what matter to the American people.
Those are the facts. Thanks to the Huckabee campaign for stepping up and setting the record straight. As I said in a previous post, you need to look at the truth of the situation. Dig a little deeper and see for yourself.
That’s my take!
Larry
Iowa media kinda-sorta acknowledges the emergence of Huckabee as a contender. They also drug out some old baggage. Was this an effort to keep Huckabee in his place? I have no clue as to what they were trying to do. Despite Ra Republican supporter saying he was the sleeper candidate,the article was similar to a why-haven’t-you-gone-away piece, the way I read it. But I could just be biased.
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/10/25/ap-state-ia/d8sg73oo0.txt