Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee

JIM GUY TUCKER: 1992-1996

JIM GUY TUCKER 1992–1996 I am an idealist without illusions. —JOHN F. KENNEDY The event that Jim Guy Tucker had lived and prepared for his entire life was minutes away. At : p.m. on Monday, December , , he was to be sworn in as the state’s forty-third governor by Chief Justice Jack Holt Jr. in the chamber of the House of Representatives. President-elect Bill Clinton had just officially resigned as the state’s chief executive. Under a recent Arkansas Supreme Court opinion,Tucker was eligible to be governor immediately after that resignation. With quiet resolve and supreme confidence, Tucker repeated the oath after the chief justice carefully spoke the words. He then turned and kissed his wife,Betty,and pivoted toward Bill Clinton. They embraced in a bear hug. It was hugely emotional for both men—Clinton because he was leaving a job he dearly loved to face horrendous challenges and Tucker because of a dream now realized .They whispered mutual congratulatory words and separated for Tucker to make his inaugural address.He spoke of “great feelings ” in Arkansas about the Clinton victory and the people’s  eagerness for Clinton’s leadership.1 Clinton was equally magnanimous in his remarks about Tucker and spoke of his competence and ability. The reality, as is often the case, lay somewhere beneath the surface .Tucker and Clinton for decades had been the acknowledged golden boys of Arkansas politics. They had collided once in a fierce political battle when Clinton sought to reclaim the governor ’s seat from Frank White in .Clinton had won the democratic primary, and Tucker had finished third. Tucker was now forty-nine, and Clinton, forty-six; and both showed signs of incipient grayness in their hair. Though contemporaries with a shared devotion to politics and public policy, the two men were not close friends. Each begrudgingly respected the other, but like two bulls pawing the ground and knowing that conflict was inevitable, each had been highly suspicious of the other. A case in point was Jimmy Carter’s campaign for president in . Tucker, who was congressman for the state’s second congressional district, was highly resentful of the fact that Clinton was selected by the Carter team to coordinate Arkansas for Carter. Tucker was given South Dakota. Tucker let the Carter people know he was displeased. Secretly, he knew Clinton would use the Carter campaign to build his ownArkansas organization which would present a future threat.Clinton did not appreciate Tucker’s challenge. Tucker eventually ran for lieutenant governor in  and won. As Clinton sought his final term as Arkansas’s governor, and because of Clinton’s race for the presidency in , Tucker, for much of that year,had been thrust into the role of acting governor . Not surprisingly, disputes arose between the peripatetic Clinton on the campaign trail and Tucker. Clinton’s staff, who wanted to avoid any political embarrassment to Clinton in his  JIM GUY TUCKER JIM GUY TUCKER  bid for the presidency, sometimes presented obstacles to Tucker, who was tussling with the state’s problems.At one point, Tucker fired Gloria Cabe, who was Clinton’s chief of staff in the governor ’s office, which led to a sharp and frank exchange between the two men.2 But that was history, and now as the two men embarked on new journeys to meet their respectful challenges, there was, at least superficially, a feeling of well-being and goodwill.Yet, even in the middle of the celebration, there was one matter of immense concern for Tucker.The state’s $ billion Medicaid program , which provided health services for the poor, disabled, and elderly, affecting about , Arkansans, was in dire trouble. Medicaid, which had been expanded during the Clinton years for indigent pregnant women and small children, now had a $ million shortfall and was hemorrhaging money at the rate of $ million a week.3 It needed an immediate and dramatic infusion of cash. Tax revenue would have to be generated in some form, and Clinton had given the problem to Tucker to resolve. The future of Medicaid was hanging in the balance. Ninety thousand Arkansans stood to lose their benefits in nineteen days. Jim Guy Tucker’s instincts have always been to fight.As he puts it, “it is part of my genes and training to attack.”4 Genetically, he came by it honestly. His paternal grandfather, Guy Tucker, had been marshal of Union...