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Chapter Seven Governor Clinton’s Chief of Staff William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton, who had been Arkansas’s governor continuously since January 1983, either really did not know whether he would seek reelection or was just being coy in late 1989 and early 1990, because no amount of cajoling could get him to disclose his plans. This left journalists scrambling for “news,” such as the article the Arkansas Gazette published based on interviews with some of Clinton’s close friends. Each of them said Clinton could win reelection but some were not certain he should run. For example, then state Rep. David Matthews of Springdale was quoted as saying: I think Bill Clinton has a great chance to be president of the United States in the late 1990s because I think by that time the nation will have come around to his thinking on what we must do for education in this country. But by staying governor, he leaves himself open to mounting problems and potential failures in Arkansas—with the legislature , primarily.1 There was no lack of individuals who wanted Clinton’s job. Thomas C. McRae, president of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, already had announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, and Attorney General Steve Clark was ready to run and would have if he had not selfdestructed because of the lies he told to support use of his state credit card for personal business. Then there was Jim Guy Tucker, who had said in September 1989 that he was considering running either for governor or to 125 BOWENrevisedpages.qxd:Layout 1 2/6/08 4:00 PM Page 125 regain the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Second Congressional District that he held for one term in the mid-1970s. This was the “sure” seat Tucker had given up to wage an all-out battle for the U.S. Senate in 1978, only to be defeated in the Democratic primary runoff by Gov. David Pryor. On February 19, 1990, Tucker called an afternoon press conference at the Legacy Hotel. With wife Betty and their two daughters at his side and fifty supporters in the room, Tucker announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor. “I think he’s had a good 10 years as governor now, and I really think that’s long enough,” he said of Clinton.2 On the same day Tucker’s announcement appeared in the newspapers, the results of the season ’s first poll were published. Of 246 potential Democratic voters surveyed, 68 percent said they would vote for Clinton, 20 percent were for Tucker, 7 percent for McRae, and the remaining 5 percent were undecided.3 Of 160 potential Republican voters who were polled, 53 percent favored U.S. Rep. Tommy Robinson of the Second Congressional District, who had switched parties mid-term, and 40 percent were for Sheffield Nelson, the former president of Arkla, Incorporated. Clinton reportedly felt strongly that the state had to be “saved” from Robinson, and such poll results could only have strengthened this resolve. Tucker represented a formidable opponent for Clinton. Harvardeducated with dimpled good looks, Tucker began his political career at age twenty-seven with a victory as prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’s largest judicial district—the sixth, comprised of Pulaski and Perry counties. A mere two years later, he was elected state attorney general and served two twoyear terms in a position that he used to build a reputation as a consumer advocate. When U.S. Rep. Wilbur D. Mills retired in order to recover fully from the alcoholism that had disgraced him, Tucker campaigned indefatigably for the seat and defeated five other Democrats without a primary runoff. Tucker was always a man in a hurry, and he took on two other Democrats in 1978 for the seat that had been held until his death the year before by the powerful veteran of the Senate, John McClellan. The two Democrats were then Gov. David Pryor and then U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton of the Fourth Congressional District. Thornton was a nephew of W. R. “Witt” and Jackson T. Stephens. Most pundits were expecting a runoff between Pryor and Thornton. They were wrong; the runoff was between Pryor and Tucker, and Pryor won. Tucker was not from a wealthy family and fretted constantly about being in debt. He entered private law practice in Little Rock and did not surface 126 / GOVERNOR CLINTON’S CHIEF OF STAFF BOWENrevisedpages.qxd:Layout 1 2/6...

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